So over the summer, my family and I went down to San Antonio, Texas. We plan on making it an annual thing. For the week I was there, I saw some pretty amazing ant species, and I wasn't even looking for them with my full potential! I know now I can do much better. Well, anyway, onto the ants I found. So the first ant species I found was Pseudomyrmex gracilis, a queen at that. Her size surprised me since I'm used to tiny Pseudomyrmex pallidus and ejectus back in Souh Carolina. Next I saw one of the most prevalent ant species that I saw there, Crematogaster laeviuscula, yet another massive ant compared to the members of the genus back here. Next I saw a rather familiar species, Pseudomyrmex ejectus, which I always saw running near Pseudomyrmex gracilis. The size difference was incredible! And then came the Solenopsis invicta of course. They weren't as common as I thought they would be. And then I saw my first Texas Camponotus species! Or so I thought. I picked one up, only to get a rude awakening when she gave me an extremely painful sting! I was looking over a video I took of her, and I realized that she was a Pachycondyla harpax! Yikes! And then I saw an actual nest of Camponotus, Camponotus decipiens to be exact. And this was all on day one! The next day I saw some Pheidole sp. eating a dead Suriname Cockroach. A few hours later I walked down to the Elementary School which was out for the summer, and I saw some cool looking termites whose majors had pointed heads. But asides from some Crematogaster laeviuscula, I didn't see any ants, until I flipped over a massive rock. I saw a massive colony of Camponotus ocreatus! They were huge, and their bites hurt! And then I caught a Striped Bark Scorpion, a huge one! I went for a walk in the neighborhood, and in a rotting tree stump I found a Camponotus sp. queen, she looked like Camponotus decipiens, but she was too big. She was probably Camponotus sayi. The next day I went to Six Flags and only saw Camponotus decipiens and Solenopsis invicta. But on the next day when I went to Sea World, I not only saw Camponotus decipiens, Pheidole sp., Solenopsis invicta and Crematogaster laeviuscula, but I also saw several Cyphomyrmex rimosus, a species that I have also seen here. Those were pretty neat. The next day, there was nothing new, except I think I saw some Camponotus americanus. The next day, I went to the middle school and I saw so many different species, Colobopsis etiolata, Pseudomyrmex apache, Dorymyrmex sp., and the biggest ant in North America, when I flipped over another rock, I saw another Camponotus ocreatus colony, but in this one, I saw the queen! She was massive and gorgeous! I couldn't believe it! And the colony sprayed formic acid all over my legs and my legs were in pain for several days after that. I was also introduced to yet another Camponotus species, this time, Camponotus festinatus. They were definitely pretty neat, they were very similar to Camponotus castaneus, but the majors had black faces. Also Camponotus texanus which were pretty neat. The next day I went downtown and I found a trail of Paratrechina longicornis on a tree and I made friends with a Pseudomyrmex gracilis. When I got home there were three species having their nuptial flights, Brachymyrmex sp. which were flying so much that the coated the ground and it was impossible to not step on them, Colobopsis etiolata, which I saw quite a few of, and a nice Camponotus festinatus queen. And besides some more Pheidole species, that was it. I would say that trip was rather successful. But next year, I am going to be looking for ants even harder, ant I aim to find some Cephalotes texanus, or Atta texana, and I will bring more dead ants home for my collection other than just a single Pseudomyrmex gracilis queen I found dead in a pool. Maybe I'll find another Camponotus ocreatus queen, although I doubt it. Here are some picture of the ants from Texas:
Camponotus sayi dealate queen
Edited by CloudtheDinosaurKing, November 9 2018 - 6:43 AM.
