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[Ants_Dakota]

Ants_Dakota's Formica sp. Journal

Entry 0: Purpose, Background, and Goals

9/20/2024

Purpose

To both inform and learn about the genus Formica. Future updates will also include a purpose to create a more structured journal.

Background

Formica has been the most diverse ant genus I have kept throughout my years in South Dakota. This is no surprise, as Antmaps finds 37 native species of Formica live here, and I am certain many more have not been recorded. I have attempted to create a Formica journal here, but I just never got around to updating it. That year was the highlight of my Formica experience, with multiple rare species. Sadly, I was super busy with many other things then and did not care for my ants properly, something I truly regret. With a renewed collection, albeit a more common one, as well as a more organized and professional dedication to nurturing strong and large colonies, I begin again.

Notable Journals

It is only fair to include multiple journal in this section that are both relevant to this species as well as explore the topic of Formica in South Dakota. Put on your goggles, we are time traveling folks! RushmoreAnts, a very close friend of mine, as well as the person I started keeping ants with nearly 10 years ago, began a journal around 2020 documenting a species of Formica that I gave him. This was a Formica fusca group queen, likely in the Formica subsericea category (F. subsericea, F. argentia, F. podzolica). Ants4Fun, another South Dakotan ant keeper, and someone on the forum since nearly the beginning, began documenting another fusca group queen here. He has amazing macro shots, I would recommend you go check it out. My first journal documenting Formica also came out around this time, found here. Throughout these journals, multiple species of Formica are showcased (in some of them less well, like mine), highlighting the diversity and density of Formica here in South Dakota. Following this, RushmoreAnts began a fresh journal after an unknown airborne sickness struck his previous colonies, which highlighted a colony he bought from Ants4Fun. It is well done, and I would recommend taking the time to check it out. At this time in RushmoreAnts and I's ant keeping journey, we had found Formica queens pretty consistently, but had little luck raising them beyond 15 nanitics. Fast forward around 2 years, and both RushmoreAnts and I have gained a lot of knowledge from this forum. I began my aforementioned Formica journal linked in the background section, and RushmoreAnts started another general journal, found here. Although none of the colonies in either journal ended up surviving, Formica had become a genus I was fascinated with. I remarked numerous time to RushmoreAnts about how I wanted to research Formica more because of how understudied they were. So, this journal has been created. In present time, two important journals for Midwestern ant keepers exist, both from RushmoreAnts. Firstly, his claustral Formica journal documents a mix of both rare and colorful as well as common and "plain" species that can be found here in the midwest. Secondly, his Parasitic Formica journal documents his multiple parasitic Formica queens and their progress. This journal is especially exciting because this is one of the coolest draws of the Formica genus; every type of social parasite exists in it! 

Myrmecologist engagement requested!

Like my other more recent journals, discussing Lasius and Micro Ants, I want to take an in-depth approach to documenting my colonies. This is just as much of a learning experience for me as it is for you, and I greatly hope that more experienced ant keepers than myself, especially myrmecologists, will comment on this journal to reframe my understanding or give useful tips they have discovered with IDing or pinning. There is a lot that they have learned over the years, and although this forum can at times be full of young children posting five word responses, there are still those of us who wish to learn from them. My hope is that anything they post in this journal can be read by others and reach a broader audience who will appreciate it. If you are not a myrmecologist and want to post, feel free! Questions, comments, personal experiences, and recommendations are all wanted. I only ask that you take the time to use correct grammar and post thought-out responses. This is a great example, as well as the main reason why I make these journals.

Identification

A main pillar of this journal will be the identification of Formica, one of the more difficult genera to distinguish. Especially on Antwiki, Formica is incredibly poorly documented. While Lasius has a handy description of commonly confused species and how to distinguish them, Formica has next to nothing (I challenge you, count the amount of applicable information contained here vs here, it will astonish you). Beyond that, images of queens in the Formica genus are rare and the ones that do exist on the images of a google search are questionable at best. Many don't even exist (search Formica altipetens and click on the images tab). Beyond that, the images that do show up may be misidentified by a hasty ant keeper. A great example of this is Formica subsericea, the go to name for any black fat Formica (I made this mistake too, just read my journal). Therefore, I will be taking a detailed and methodical approach to identification. This will definitely require some learning on my part, as well as experienced IDers to step in and guide me through how to use a key. For me to start writing this journal, I need this ID post to be answered, whether with concrete evidence, a request for more information, or the likely species group (ie. likely F. subsericea, F. podzolica, or F. argentea). Each species I document here will have an ID thread posted so that I can outline what it takes to get a firm answer on an ant species.

Recommended Reading

In this journal, I am going to be referencing multiple sources that contain a lot more information than what is going into this journal. If you decide to follow along with my progress and wish to gain the most information in the process, you may want to read these.
Firstly, you will want to become familiar with the Formica Species Groups, as documented on Antwiki. This is important because if you want to ID an ant, knowing which group in which to search saves a lot of time. If you live in North America like me, this slightly outdated list by Ferox_Formicae could be helpful.
You may also wish to glance over the Formica Queen Key, found here. Although it will be confusing, I am going to reference it when ID's come up. A simple ant anatomy guide can be found here.

I appreciate if you took the time to read this, and I hope that in the future I can add to the conversation surrounding Formica. You can follow this topic in the top right corner if you wish to get email updates about posts I make. 

Ants_Dakota

Edited by Ants_Dakota, September 30 2024 - 9:59 AM.

[ANTdrew]

I look forward to a great journal! Formica are the quintessential ant in my opinion. When I mentally picture a perfect ant, it is a Formica.

[Ants_Dakota]

I look forward to a great journal! Formica are the quintessential ant in my opinion. When I mentally picture a perfect ant, it is a Formica.

I concur. They were also the first ants that started RushmoreAnts and I in our anting journey. They definitely have a special place in my ant keeping memoir (if I had one).

[Ants_Dakota]

Ants_Dakota's Formica sp. Journal

Entry 1: Formica subsericea

9/30/2024

Purpose

To document important journals, background history, identification, and my colonies of this species of ant.

Background

As ANTdrew mentioned above, Formica is the stereotypical ant, as they live nearly everywhere. If you keep ants, chances are you have, are, or will keep Formica in the future (maybe you will even look harder for queens after you read this journal!). However, of all the places you can find Formica, South Dakota is one of the best. The Great Plains represents a desert for many ant genera, but a huge opportunity for Formica fusca species. As Pogonomyrmex is to the desert, so Formica fusca species are to the Plains. What makes here even more special is the Black Hills, Newton Hills, Union Grove, and other tree-covered hills dotted around the state that hosts many woodland species of Formica as well, so we don't just have the Fusca group. In my nearly 10 years as an ant keeper, I have kept over a dozen separate species, and this is not even half of the 37 native ones. Hopefully, access to such plentiful ants can allow me to expand the conversation surrounding this genus. The current ant-keeping meta is dominated by Camponotus, and I hope to change this. This has kind of become the theme of all of my journals, so hang on for an uphill battle!

Notable Journals

There are actually a lot of mature F. subsericea colonies out there, a quick YouTube search will demonstrate this, but a lot less documented here on Formiculture. One of the longer journals was created by ANTdrew documenting his colony in a dirt setup. A smaller colony of these ants can be seen documented in a Formica sp. journal similar to this one by AnthonyP163. Finally, there is a very well-documented journal by Dean I would recommend reading and especially looking at the responses. There is information to be gained there, especially about the picky nature of this species. Many more journals exist, so please post how your colony is doing and link the journal below. Any unique behaviors you have noticed are also appreciated.

Identification

This is a pretty long discussion, I highly recommend you check out my ID thread here. It also contains helpful information for IDing any Formica fusca group queen. The most important thing in these queens that will tip you off to the fact they are F. subsericea is the black bands on the abdomen, although this is not totally conclusive (see my next journal entry for more Formica ID chaos).

My colonies

I currently have two colonies of F. subsericea, but one has never founded and I am going to preserve her in ethanol when I put the rest of my colonies into diapause. This is the queen labeled "Formica cf. subsericea Colony 1" on my ID thread. I also have a more productive colony with three workers and several pupae, which this journal will document moving forward. Interestingly this colony refused to lay eggs for months of the summer even though I fed them regularly, choosing only to lay now.

 

Colony A (Leaving the Journal Soon)

9/2/24

 

9/18/24

 

 

9/21/24

 

 

9/28/24

 

 

Colony B

9/18/24

 

 

9/30/24

 

 

Edited by Ants_Dakota, September 30 2024 - 2:37 PM.

[ANTdrew]

This makes me miss Yrse!

[Ants_Dakota]

This makes me miss Yrse!

I know I really enjoyed your journal. Its too bad she died mysteriously. It is also super unfortunate you can't get more of these queens. Maybe one day I will be able to ship Formica to you.

[Ants_Dakota]

Ants_Dakota's Formica sp. Journal

Entry 2: Formica montana

10/21/2024

Introduction

If you live in South Dakota, Formica montana is the go-to assumption for any medium-sized brown Formica queens. I cannot guess how many queens I have erroneously labeled as F. montana in my 10 years of ant keeping. That being said, there are a very large amount of colonies here, and they seem to be fairly successful in certain niche urban environments. Their thatch mound-building architecture is something that nearly all colonies do here, even though Antwiki lists this behavior as occasional. Beyond this piece of information, however, Antwiki has next to nothing about this ant species, which is unfortunate considering how common they can be. Although this journal entry is the only one planned until I find another queen (see why later), I think it is important considering the identification of this queen may help other ant-keepers in the future.

Notable Journals

As usual, I am starting here in South Dakota to highlight the journal of a good friend of mine, Thunder_Birds, and his Formica cf montana queen. Is this queen F. montana? Probably not. Likely it is just another erroneously labeled ant queen, but it is still an important journal to South Dakota's Formiculture history. Beyond this, FormiCanada has a fairly recent journal that is short but sweet and contains some good pictures. It is also the most likely of any of the journals I list to be updated. AnthonyP163 also has a Formica sp. journal similar to mine, inside of which he has several posts documenting Formica montana and other cool Formica species. Beyond this, very few other entries come up when searching for F. montana, which is unfortunate but also expected, as Formica, in general, are fairly sensitive.

Identification

I know I say this way too much, but Formica is a notoriously hard genus to identify, and I encourage everyone who owns a colony that they caught themselves to do a little research before choosing a species name. For this queen, the identification steps and results I got can be found here, on an ID thread I created. This is a great start for someone who wants to narrow down the species of their queen.

Future plans

I have alluded to it in other posts, but this queen and the dud Formica subsericea (colony 1) queen will both be preserved in ethanol later this year and pinned sometime after that. They will be the first specimens in my ant collection, and I hope to document the process from start to finish. Finally, I plan to get both of them under a stereo microscope and get some high-quality images to add to the identification threads to confirm what species they are, and hopefully submit some of them to Antweb for queen specimen images, as F. montana, for example, does not have a queen specimen for reference. A lot of the things I am doing in this journal are things that most people think you need a 4-year entomology degree for (and some of them you do, if you want to do it well), but I want to demonstrate that if you put your mind to it, you can learn how to do some pretty cool things related to ants. A future post will outline my plans for pinning insects, as well as the materials I used to do it. I hope you stick around for this journey!

My colony

At the time I caught this queen, I was not as organized with the locations and dates of the queens I caught, something I regret, but I believe I caught this queen in the Black Hills around the beginning of August. Formica flights are wrapping up around this time, so she was a late flyer, something that likely led to her unmated status. I considered for a while attempting to merge her with my other similar colony in hopes she was mated but just not very fertile (did not have very good genetics), but decided against it because I wanted to start my queen collection.

 

9/18

 

Album: Formica cf argentea Colony 1

7 images

0 comments

 

Images used in the ID thread

 

 

10/20

 

 

Queen eating her last meal

 

 

 

Fuzzy abdomen

 

 

 

A beautiful distance shot of the queen

[ANTdrew]

RIP Formica montana queen 2024-2024.
Thanks for another great post!

[Ants_Dakota]

RIP Formica montana queen 2024-2024.
Thanks for another great post!

I know, I am sad to have to preserve her, but through her pictures she will live on as long as the internet continues. I am excited to document the process of ant pinning, as it is something I have wanted to do for years, and hope that other people will pick up alongside me so we can learn together!
I am also pretty optimistic that I will be able to continue this update next summer as I am targeting Formica as a genus to capture, and they are really common around here. Thank you for the encouragement, I look forward to the next few that I am planning already!