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Lots of anting threads popping up recently so I figured why not make one for this huge chunk of northish western North America.
I'm not sure if it will be of any use but just making it a thing.
Anyways on another note in the following month Camponotus modoc and C. novaeboracensis will be flying. Those are the only two ants on the top of my head I recall.
On another note I stumbled upon this specimen of supposedly Camponotus cf. laevigatus but it really doesn't look like C. laevigatus. I thnk this is the weird Camponotusnurbs found. (It was mentioned being present in the northwest by Miles)
Enumclaw, Forested Unincorporated King County, Washington, USA, April 19 & 22, 2010. After looking through some weather records I am pretty sure this species flew on April 19th, which had the highest temperature from April 13 - 22 of 62.6°F (17°C) at around 3:50PM. If this species does share a similar biology with C. modoc (Or is indeed C. modoc) then the queen would have flown during the middle of the day, coinciding with the high temperature. I am not sure what the range of this species is but it does seem quite rare. In B.C, Canada might be at Manning Park or Chilliwak Lake Provincial Park and the surrounding areas but that's just a guess.
I dropped by he West dyke trail today, covered a 1 or 2 km north of Francis Rd. Lot's of interesting finds today, mostly not queens though.
List of finds:
Camponotus modoc
Formicoxenus cf. provencheri maybe
Leptothorax muscorum
Myrmecophilous cricket
Myrmica incompleta
Myrmica specioides
Tapinoma sessile
Tetramorium immigrans
Solenopsis molesta
Weird small jumping spider
So first of all I mostly went to the dyke today to collect some M. incompleta workers, for the 8 queens I caught which I stumbled across by accident last Saturday under a small rock. I've found 3 more queens (and a dead one) today. So far aside from a dozen workers all of the workers I collected and the queens across my trip are getting along. Most of the pieces of wood I flipped contained no queens, and mostly workers, and sometimes small larvae.
A surprising discovery were myrmecophilous crickets, quick google search leads me to believe this is Myrmecophilus oregonensis. I found 5 crickets in total. These got battered up from the ants after I caught them although I'm not sure why, either way I never intended to keep them and just needed them for an ID thread and to preserve as specimens if need be. This species appears to be rather widespread in Southern BC from what I can gather and its range extends from Vancouver/South west BC along the West coast and to Southern California.
I'm not really sure what to do with them at this point, they both appear to be juvenile females.
April 24, 2018
Also associated with M. incompleta I found what I think is Formicoxenus provencheri workers. I collected them on the trail, they are smaller then Leptothorax by a 1-1.5mm. I'm not very confident in my guess though, I think these are more likely to be a small Leptothorax species or just really small L. muscorum. Microscope is needed for sure.
I also witnessed fights between Camponotus modoc and M. incompleta, all of them seem to be initiated by C. modoc with M. incompleta workers aggregating at the site as a response. The C. modoc didn't bring any dead Myrmica back however, which possibly means these are territorial skirmishes. It's also possible that these were originally M. incompleta fights and the large aggregation of ants caught the attention of the Camponotus but I doubt so because of their supercolonyish nature. Also at the scene of one of the fights were small jumping spider with very similar patterns to a Formica mimicking assassin bug I found a while back, they were constantly vibrating their abdomens. I was thinking these spiders might also be a mimic.
Workers posed above congregation of M. incompleta
April 24, 2018
Among the other things I stumbled on the trail was a M. specioides queen foraging, some small Tetramorium immigrans colonies and some Solenopsis molesta digging a nest entrance. First time I've seen a colony of them here. I found a small Tapinoma sessile colony all bunched up under a pebble on some grass, so I brought the pebble and colony home. Colony looks like it has 4 or so queens.
I dropped by he West dyke trail today, covered a 1 or 2 km north of Francis Rd. Lot's of interesting finds today, mostly not queens though.
List of finds:
Camponotus modoc
Formicoxenus cf. provencheri maybe
Leptothorax muscorum
Myrmecophilous cricket
Myrmica incompleta
Myrmica specioides
Tapinoma sessile
Tetramorium immigrans
Solenopsis molesta
Weird small jumping spider
So first of all I mostly went to the dyke today to collect some M. incompleta workers, for the 8 queens I caught which I stumbled across by accident last Saturday under a small rock. I've found 3 more queens (and a dead one) today. So far aside from a dozen workers all of the workers I collected and the queens across my trip are getting along. Most of the pieces of wood I flipped contained no queens, and mostly workers, and sometimes small larvae.
A surprising discovery were myrmecophilous crickets, quick google search leads me to believe this is Myrmecophilus oregonensis. I found 5 crickets in total. These got battered up from the ants after I caught them although I'm not sure why, either way I never intended to keep them and just needed them for an ID thread and to preserve as specimens if need be. This species appears to be rather widespread in Southern BC from what I can gather and its range extends from Vancouver/South west BC along the West coast and to Southern California.
I'm not really sure what to do with them at this point, they both appear to be juvenile females.
April 24, 2018
Also associated with M. incompleta I found what I think is Formicoxenus provencheri workers. I collected them on the trail, they are smaller then Leptothorax by a 1-1.5mm. I'm not very confident in my guess though, I think these are more likely to be a small Leptothorax species or just really small L. muscorum. Microscope is needed for sure.
I also witnessed fights between Camponotus modoc and M. incompleta, all of them seem to be initiated by C. modoc with M. incompleta workers aggregating at the site as a response. The C. modoc didn't bring any dead Myrmica back however, which possibly means these are territorial skirmishes. It's also possible that these were originally M. incompleta fights and the large aggregation of ants caught the attention of the Camponotus but I doubt so because of their supercolonyish nature. Also at the scene of one of the fights were small jumping spider with very similar patterns to a Formica mimicking assassin bug I found a while back, they were constantly vibrating their abdomens. I was thinking these spiders might also be a mimic.
Workers posed above congregation of M. incompleta
April 24, 2018
Among the other things I stumbled on the trail was a M. specioides queen foraging, some small Tetramorium immigrans colonies and some Solenopsis molesta digging a nest entrance. First time I've seen a colony of them here. I found a small Tapinoma sessile colony all bunched up under a pebble on some grass, so I brought the pebble and colony home. Colony looks like it has 4 or so queens.
April 24, 2018
Sorry for the lack of images
you seem to be able to find lots of queen, maybe you should mail/ship me some??
Reacker also caught two species of Camponotus today (April 27) at night (4 - 9 PM). C. modoc and a small species with an orangish thorax. According to him it was around 80° F (26.6°C) with high humidity, rained a bit after they flew but not a lot.
If C.modoc flew here already it would have been yesterday, I've never had them fly in April though. Hopefully they fly next week (assuming they didn't fly already), it seems promising. They sort of fly as they damn well please though.
I went back to the dyke today to look for the small Leptothorax workers and the Solenopsis molesta, really didn't find anything interesting except the usual Myrmica incompleta, the occasional Tapinoma sessile and a bunch of Tetramorium. It was really windy, enough that ants were getting blown off the ground.
I did find one or two colonies of M. specioides on the slope of the trail, judging by the small and light coloured workers though it seems the colony is fairly young. This is the first instance I know of M. specioides establishing itself at the dyke.
My neighbour might also have Tetramorium tsushimae in their yard. I don't know why they are there or where they came from or whether I'm right or wrong but I guess it's cool.
Picture with clearer colours.
Anyone have any good tips on IDing T. tsushimae besides queen count, size and colour? From the specimens on antweb all I can gather is that T. tsushimae is less hairier, especially on the gaster, has a more noticeable antennal scrobe, scapes a bit more broad, slightly longer and curved propodeal spines, head is wider near the mandibles, (vice versa for T. immigrans).
Conditions have been good for C. modoc here too, arguably for weeks. Haven’t found any yet. C. novaeboracensis should also be flying about now and they’re probably more common up north there.
Caught 4 C.Moduc yesterday and 2 Camponotus Laevigatus. All with no wings between 5pm and 7pm.
Today should another good day as they seem to trickle out near my home as a posed to large flights.
My first set of 10 that I caught, noted above have already settled and most have eggs.
Decent evening for C.Modoc tonight here in western WA. About 17 queens of them and 4 more I will need to look at better.
Do C. Modoc have more than one color varation?
I will post some pics tomorrow evening. The reason I ask is I have some queens that have an obvious dark red thorax and some that have black thorax. Then I have Camponotus Laevigatus.
The first black one is dull not shiny like my C. Laevigatus.
Any ways just go ahead and tell me to post an I'd thread, derp.
Puts me at about 43 Camponotus so far this seanson.
C. modoc don’t have any colour variations I know of, I think some of the ones in the far eastern portion of their range tend to resemble C. pennyslyvanicus. Are you sure those dark red Camponotus aren’t C. novaeboracensis?
I’m not sure about the dull black one. C. pennyslyvanicus maybe?
ID threads would probably garner more responses and (should) have the necessary info therefor making it easier to ID as well. Just saying.
Apparently Camponotusmodoc has been flying in abundance around Abbotsford throughout May, usually during the noon according to someone I spoke to. They also allegedly have found the shiny C. modoc which confirms my suspicions that they can be found around the Chiliwack area, although I don't have any pictures or any visual media for confirmation so it's anecdotal at best.
Camponotus season has passed its peak, though we should be able to find a few more through July. I will start black lighting as the weather warms up a bit. Some nights still below 50 degrees F.
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Russell
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Posted June 5 2018 - 10:26 PM
Russell
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LocationVictoria Canada
The Camponotus flight in parts of BC Canada I have found this year have been delayed due to the extremely dry weather making it dark for queens to dig after flight. At two good locations here In Victoria I have only found signs of a few small flights. I expect larger flights this week after some significant rain this coming weekend.
