Near the golf course (right next to my house) I caught about 4-5 queens yesterday. The majority of them have narrow gasters (polugynous feature). Near my relative’s house, I found one queen every day for three days. The ones I found near the relative's house has a less narrow gaster, but a much fatter gaster (like a balloon). Then I found one near my house that has a balloon gaster.
So here is what I think is interesting, the queens I find near my house are of the polygynous variety. When I found them near my house, it was all on one day (except for one infertile one I found two weeks ago). The ones I found near my relatives house (which is only like 2 miles away in a very similar suburban environment) are of the monogynous variety. The only exception is today where I found one monogynous queen near my house. Pretty interesting how invicta variations can differ by only a couple of miles !
My theory relates to the distribution of the ants. Near my house (poly), the majority of the ants have a clumped distribution in the golf course, since people are actively using ant killers near their homes. The relative's community (mono) is less active in ant killing and has a random distribution. I see huge ant beds (3 yards! ) near and in the golf course, and I see a bunch of smaller ant hills distributed randomly in the relative's neighborhood. I think the long-term (5 years) distribution of ant colonies leads to the variation of the queen.
Edited by cobratank, June 3 2017 - 7:02 PM.
