24 replies to this topic

[Foogoo]

Habitat: Dirt trail, chapperal
Length: ~11mm
Color, hue, pattern and texture: Red thorax, black/blue head, dark gaster
Distinguishing characteristics: Shy
Anything else distinctive: ---
Nest description: Large (~20mm) nest entrance

 

I saw these guys guarding the entrance but refused to come out until some nearby Pogonomyrmex wandered in. Even then they kept running back into the nest. You can see a Pogonomyrmex in the picture for size comparison. I've never seen any ant this huge or like this.

 

 

[Alza]

Camponotus ._.

[Foogoo]

Camponotus ._.

 

I see the "one bump" drew had mentioned...

 

Species? The workers are the size of my Camponotus queen.

[Gregory2455]

I wanna say C.vicinus...

[Alza]

I'd like to say ocreatus, because its my fav... but probably vicinus, like Grey is saying.

[Miles]

I don't think this is Camponotus vicinus. Definitely more closely resembles Camponotus ocreatus, in my experience.

[Alza]

o.o

[Gregory2455]

I don't think this is Camponotus vicinus. Definitely more closely resembles Camponotus ocreatus, in my experience.

I actually agree on a second glance.

 

Look at the Pogonomyrmex worker peeking into the nest in the second picture.

[Foogoo]

Thanks for the replies. Geez, these guys are huge...

[kellakk]

Hmm, where did you find these guys?

[dspdrew]

Yes these are the ants I have seen in the hills around Southern California that I have been calling C. ocreatus. That is what I have ID'd them as, so I would agree with everybody. These are by far the biggest ants I have ever seen, and I want a colony of them so bad. I can't believe you found these over there in Chino Hills too now haha. That place is awesome.

 

@ kellakk These are the ones I was telling you about. The majors (which are actually pictured here), get to about 3/4 of an inch.

 

[Jonathan21700]

Wow !

[Alza]

only camponotus species i will keep is ocreatus.

[dspdrew]

I'm not sure these are the ones I see sometimes that I have ID'd as C. ocreatus now. Foogoo 's seem to have a black head, dark orange thorax and a partially black gaster, while the ones I have seen have a black head; half black, half dark orange thorax, and a dark orange gaster. I'm sure the color can vary slightly, but I only say this because all of these HUGE Camponotus that I have seen have been the exact same color.

 

@ Foogoo Did they look like this ant to you.

 

[Foogoo]

I'm not sure these are the ones I see sometimes that I have ID'd as C. ocreatus now. Foogoo 's seem to have a black head, dark orange thorax and a partially black gaster, while the ones I have seen have a black head; half black, half dark orange thorax, and a dark orange gaster. I'm sure the color can vary slightly, but I only say this because all of these HUGE Camponotus that I have seen have been the exact same color.

 

@ Foogoo Did they look like this ant to you.

 

I'd say yes except the gaster was darker. I looked up C. vicinus last night and these look identical to the pictures of majors I found online.

 

@kellakk Almost the exact same place we found the Myrmecocystus. I did have geotagging on if you want to extract the EXIF data from the picture (assuming the gallery doesn't wipe it).

[dspdrew]

C. vicinus is kind of what I thought they were at first. I would bet these are C. vicinus. They could certainly be at that spot. I'll have to go with you guys out there again, and see for sure. We would have to be there right after it gets dark to really see a lot of them. They all come out after dark.

[Foogoo]

C. vicinus is kind of what I thought they were at first. I would bet these are C. vicinus. They could certainly be at that spot. I'll have to go with you guys out there again, and see for sure. We would have to be there right after it gets dark to really see a lot of them. They all come out after dark.

 

Hopefully they'll still be there. I couldn't find the Myrmecocystus and the area I like to call the Pogonomyrmex Fields seemed to have gotten bigger. A few Forelius networks and what I think are Dorymyrmex bicolor too.

[dean_k]

 

Look at the Pogonomyrmex worker peeking into the nest in the second picture.

 

 

Yep, sneaky... I suppose those two black heads are majors? They could chop the Pogonomyrmex's head off if the Pogonomyrmex's seen.

[kellakk]

If you went back to that same spot, what you saw are probably Solenopsis xyloni and not Dorymyrmex bicolor.  I haven't seen any D. bicolor there at all compared to at Chino Hills State Park, where they're everywhere along Carbon Canyon Road.  There's plenty of Forelius sp. and D. insanus activity in that spot though.  I checked it out on Wednesday and couldn't find the Myrmecocystus either, but I didn't search that hard.

[Gregory2455]

 

 

Look at the Pogonomyrmex worker peeking into the nest in the second picture.

 

 

Yep, sneaky... I suppose those two black heads are majors? They could chop the Pogonomyrmex's head off if the Pogonomyrmex's seen.

 

Yup, and yup.