While checking my mail, I kept an eye out for ant activity, looking specifically for colonies that appeared small enough to capture entire. I found this colony (unfortunately I didn't think to photograph it before capture), by following some foragers returning with food. There was only a small bit of debris scattered outside the hole — not even a proper "mound", more of a "layer" — in a radius of about an inch and a half.
I had a bucket prepared with olive oil from my attempt to capture the Aphenogaster colony in my back yard the other day (that had fled either me or the rain, and so wasn't even there), so I quickly cut the soil around the hole with a trowel, about eight inches diameter, and scooped it as quickly as possible into the bottom of the bucket. I haven't seen a queen or brood yet, but I haven't broken everything apart, to minimize disturbance. (It was sandy soil, so a lot of the structure didn't survive transfer anyway.)
I prepared a test tube with cotton and water, and buried it under some of the soil, so hopefully they'll recognise it as hospitable as the rest of the soil dries out. In front of the mouth of the test tube is a small feeding dish (bottlecap) with a large drop of honey, covered with a bit of moistened cotton pad.
I attached some phone pictures of one worker who was attempting to clean his legs after trying to cross the olive oil and so made a fairly still subject. To minimize disturbance, I don't want to actually remove a worker for micrographs (such as I can take) yet, but I'll try positively IDing them once I figure out if I got the queen and have convinced them to move into the tube.
