7 replies to this topic

[VoidElecent]

Hello,

 

The more time I spend anting and documenting species native to my geographic location, the more I have taken an interest in small, cryptic ants. The term "cryptic" is used in the same context as it would with any other entity: hard to find and tucked away. Consequently, with regard to ants, the term almost always implies minute size, ambiguous coloration, and nondescript nesting. Strumigenys and Stenamma are wonderful examples of such genera; colonies tend to have low worker counts and are hidden in leaf litter, soil, and rotting organic material.

 

There seems to be a good deal of information regarding some of these ants, especially Strumigenys, whose taxonomy has recently experienced major revisions, which means some myrmecologist, somewhere, somehow, managed to find him/herself a colony or two.

 

Given their size and apparent rarity, how would one relatively proficient in the art of "anting" go about trying to locate a colony of cryptic ants? Of course, this would be mainly for photography purposes or perhaps the sheer pleasure associated with finding one; I'm not typically one to harvest wild colonies.

 

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you!

[AntsAreUs]

I think generally the fastest way to find said colonies (assuming a time limit) is not to dig around in soil or leaf litter. While this can find you foraging workers and foraging behavior, it won't find you a colony very easily. It is much easier to lift large stones embedded in leaf mold and larger logs. I have personally found colonies of Myrmecina americana, Ponera pennsylvanica, and foraging Stigmatomma pallipes doing so. Now I will normally spend a good several minutes examining what's beneath the things I lift because like you said they are either small in size or small in numbers.

Edited by AntsAreUs, April 26 2018 - 1:56 PM.

[gcsnelling]

Just remember to replace any log or rock you lift back into as close to its original position as possible.

[AnthonyP163]

Funny how you post this. I am super into cryptic ants and getting information about them. I recently caught a few Ponera pennsylvanica colonies and a few Ponera pennsylvanica founding queens, and I have them in test tubes setups with dirt covering the whole cotton. I had also noticed, while collecting them, they seem to tend to some sort of aphid or mite species on rocks. I couldn't find ANY info for this. the mites or aphids are a reddish-brown color, and I have found them with the ants only occasionally. I'm now trying to collect these, and give them to my  Ponera pennsylvanica colonies to see if the behavior will show, but it seems I only can find them in their nests.

[Shifty189]

i'm glad that you mentioned this, as i have found a few queens in the last few days that are very very small (maybe 2mm, haven't measured yet) and am interested in trying to raise them. i'll create an ID thread if i'm able to get a solid photo of one of them, but that will be very hard for me since i don't have any good camera equipment.

[MegaMyrmex]

I find lots of Strumigenys colonies nesting in rotten sticks or pieces of wood. I find these sticks buried in leaflitter, along with other colonies of nylanderia, aphaenogaster, lasius, and camponotus. I consider finsing these little hollowed out sticks to be like treasure chests, since you don't know what will be inside. You can tell if there might be an inhabitant if you find numerous holes where you see workers crawling from, or if the stick seems a bit soft on the outside or hollow on the inside. I would always break open these sticks over containers lined with talcum powder, just in case. I would also like to say that these leaf-litter ants are very moisture sensititive, even a few hours without much moisture can kill an entire colony of them. Instead of using traditional test-tube setups, I suggest getting small containers(preferably jewelry beed containers) and lining the bottoms with plaster of paris. Once it dries, I place debris from their nest and form a small clump with it, making a nest for them. For ponera, I use the same method but for now I am keeping them in a jewelry container with a crumpled up moist paper towel with some dirt in it. They seem to like this setup a lot. Good luck!

Edited by MegaMyrmex, April 27 2018 - 3:01 PM.

[AntsAreUs]

I provide an example:

 

After finding their entrance I broke it a bit and they came out investigating:

 

Breaking into the branch a bit:

 

The queen after about a half an hour of searching after collection was complete:

 

The log was soft enough to break into with my hands but not crumby. They nested in the hollow of the center of the branch.

Edited by AntsAreUs, June 18 2018 - 9:29 AM.

[ponerinecat]

I find the easiest way to find cryptic ants is under rocks surrounded by leaf leaf or by peeling apart rotten logs. I have found two hypoponera pupa chambers, one nest with up to 200 workers, several founding nests, and 1 unidentified red orange queen, possibly a new species.