9 replies to this topic

[kellakk]

I saw what I think is Dorymyrmex bicolor fly today at noon, then came back at 5 PM to see if I could dig up any.  I forgot to take pictures, but these are the observations I made.

 

1. The dealates often land near the original nest and then run around on the ground looking for a good spot.

 

2. The dealates are very tolerant of each other compared to Dorymyrmex insanus dealates.

This is what happened when I put D. bicolor together, compared to (next pic) what happened when I put D. insanus together.

 

3. Founding chambers for D. bicolor that I dug up didn't have the characteristic Dorymyrmex dirt mound on top of it.  Instead, the dirt was scattered in every direction. Sorry I don't have photo evidence of this, I didn't think to take photos of founding chambers before I dug them up.

 

4. D. insanus likes to eat D. bicolor dealates.  This is pretty obvious, but I wanted to include it so I could show the dealates I rescued from D. insanus. They still have D. insanus workers stuck to them

 

Yup, that's it! Just wanted to post this in case it helps people in the future.

[Gregory2455]

Yeah, these look like the same Dorymyrmex cf. bicolor I caught.

[dspdrew]

Very nice. This helps a lot.

[Foogoo]

Thanks! I plan to stop by the huge nest that flew on Friday tomorrow on my way home (thank you daylight saving time!) to see if I can dig up some founding chambers.

 

A few observations of my own: During the hubub of seeing their alates off with workers and males scurrying everywhere, I found at least two wingless queens amidst the party, both being attacked by their own workers. One I managed to rescue, the other I assumed was a queen based on what was left of her... What's up with that?

 

On two occasions I saw what looked like possible founding chambers, one in the process of something digging it. When I took a scoop with my shovel, something zoomed out of it and into the air. Could that have been the alate? Or probably some other flying creature?

[Vendayn]

Well, ground nesting bees make mounds sort of similar to ant mounds (I think the bees have bigger grains though and a different look to the mound).

[Foogoo]

I believe this is the spot kellakk was at. These were all D. bicolor. The extent of their nests is insane.

 

 

[Gregory2455]

Woah!!! That is crazy! They are so close together, you didn't see aggression???

[Foogoo]

Woah!!! That is crazy! They are so close together, you didn't see aggression???

 

Nope. My guess is it was one huge network of nests. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Dorymyrmex one of the species that make super-nests like Linepithema?

[dspdrew]

That's how dense they are at the park down the street from my apartment.

[kellakk]

That's where I was.  The wind blew all the alates south of that area though.