6 replies to this topic

[Omni]

1. Location: Middle of Brevard County (Central Florida)
2. Today's date: 5/4/2018
 
Body:
1. Location of collection: Collected in backyard in pool at around 1pm, the queen had not been in the pool for long as it was still moving quite fast, not the sluggish struggle of an ant in a pool for awhile.

2. Date of collection: 5/4/2018
3. Habitat of collection: Backyard, there's some trees, but its pretty suburban, mostly just grass.
4. Length: 5-6mm
5. Coloration, hue, pattern and texture: Mostly black throughout, shiny thorax and gaster. Possible sculpturing on the head, couldn't get a good look. 
6. Distinguishing characteristics: The thorax is very flat, but other than its size and coloration not much.

 

The structure and shape of the queen is VERY similar to Pheidole floridana but with black coloration throughout. I was thinking possible P. metallescens, P. adrianoi, or P. dentata. Then again, this is on the assumption that this is a Pheidole queen. Thanks! 

 

The pictures are not the best, my apologies. The ant is very small and my camera isn't the best for this small of an insect. 

Edited by Omni, May 4 2018 - 12:40 PM.

[Canadian anter]

I only know these aren't Phedole dentata . Too early

[YsTheAnt]

In order to get a solid ID, we need better pics. Forget the camera, a 15 dollar macro lense for a smart phone off Amazon is good enough for this .

[Omni]

I had no idea those even existed! I'll grab me one! Thanks!

[Omni]

The pictures are bad, I get that, I'll have better ones later, but for now I'm marking this as "solved" so people don't look at it until those are up.

[Shifty189]

This looks like a fire ant to me. Best way to tell is check her Gaster, if it’s a fire ant you will see a red pattern on it.



This images kind of shows what I’m trying to describe. Since the fire ants are the most common in our area, and because I don’t know of anything else flying this is my guess.

[Omni]

Hey! I really appreciate this, but its probably not. I've got 5 fire ant queens at the moment and this is at least 2/3 the size and its gaster is completely black. Thanks though! 

 

The pictures are terrible, so I can see that it might appear like it. I'll be posting much better ones next week when my macro lens comes in thanks to the suggestion of YsTheAnt.