San Bruno (S.F. Bay Area), October 20, 11:00 to 16:00

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Hello! Could you please help me ID these ants? I am not even sure I got queens, I may have gotten a bunch of males. To be honest I am not even sure these are ants

Please excuse the quality of the pictures. This is the best I could do with the gear I have, these are the best of over 100 pictures.

1. Location (on a map) of collection:

San Bruno, CA.

Zoomed Out:

Zoomed In:

2. Date of collection:

October 19 2017

3. Habitat of collection:

Next to a paved walking path behind stores. There was a huge swarm between a small oak grove and a huge eucalyptus grove. Some I collected from the pavement, some from digging up their founding nests. This is a frame from a small movie of the ants leaving their nest.

Link to movie of ants leaving nest.

4. Length (from head to gaster):

Approximately 4.5mm, which is somewhere between 1/8" and 3/16".

5. Color, hue, pattern and texture:

Either black or a very dark color that looks like black.

6. Distinguishing characteristics:

Please look at the pictures. I have trouble seeing any details, the ants are tiny and my eyes are old.

7. Distinguishing behavior:

Ant Trains: Saw many of them walking in pairs, one closely following the other like a train. Saw 3, 4 and 5 ant trains. I collected a 3 ant train from the sidewalk. I was not sure if these trains were males following a queen or just males or just queens.

Cooperative nest building: I dug up 6 or 7 founding nests, only 2 of them had a single ant, the rest had from 2 to 5 ants each. I collected these ants in the hope it would increase the chances of a fertilized queen.

Scorpion tail: Please look at pictures. Some of the collected ants keep the usual posture, some will raise their rear ends scorpion like and stay still for a long time.

8. Nest description:

Please see above for picture of original nest.

The founding nests I dug up where very shallow, dug in coarse sand/clay around some oak trees. It rained the night before, the ground was moist.

9. Nuptial flight time and date:

October 19 2017. First noticed at around 11:00 a.m. New batches of alates continued to leave the nest until at least 4:00 p.m., with decreasing numbers.

More pictures: