2450 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

That was what I meant. I knew you thought they were P. gilvescens, but I wanted to know why. I still don't know if you're talking about the workers or the males. Pheidole desertorum are very light colored and only come out at night.

[kellakk]

I was talking about the workers. I saw these Pheidole sp. at night, so I wasn't paying too much attention to them.  Some workers were attracted to a flashlight I had shining on a sheet of paper and then a couple males also landed on the sheet.  The males were very dark while the workers were very light with a dark tip to the gaster. 

[Gregory2455]

P.desertorum and P.gilvescens are in two totally different groups.

[kellakk]

P.desertorum and P.gilvescens are in two totally different groups.

 

Like I said, it was dark and I wasn't paying too close of attention.  I made a guess at the species but was very likely wrong.

[Gregory2455]

Oh, I missed that it was dark, I was just adding to the conversation before.

[dspdrew]

How big were the males?

[kellakk]

They were roughly the same size as the workers I saw. So I would say 5-10 mm? I'm bad with estimating size.

[dspdrew]

Chromerust and I are planning to go to Mt. Baldy this Sunday Saturday evening. We will probably be there around late afternoon and into the night. At the time of this post, the forecast says it should get up to 75 degrees there during the day, and only down to 55 at the coldest. It should be about 60 F when it gets dark, so there is a good chance some Camponotus could fly. They flew there April 8th last year, and it was even 52 degrees at the time. April 8th last year was the first day of the year that it reached these temperatures, and Sunday will be the first day this year, even slightly hotter according to the forecast. So yeah, it's looking good. If anyone wants to meet us there you're more than welcome to.

[Gregory2455]

Maybe...

[dspdrew]

This will be Saturday instead of Sunday now.

[BugFinder]

I can be in SoCal on Sunday April 19.  Do you think they'll still be flying in April?

[dspdrew]

Most likely something will if the weather is right. Last year the large, common Camponotus species were flying for over a month off and on in different places.

[jimbodw07]

Man. That's strange...I haven't seen any veromessor's flying out lately. Especially after the good storm we had a few weeks ago. I wish I could post something in the mating chart thread, but nothing flew.

 

On a somewhat good note, it looks like El Nino is strengthening and it could make this year's monsoon season very interesting.

[dspdrew]

I've been watching the weather where you are, and even though there has been rain, it's been really cold as far as I could see, so I never really even expected anything to fly around there.

 

From what I have read El Nino might actually make the desert monsoon season weaker. I hope that isn't true.

[dspdrew]

I'm going to run the black light in the canyon early tomorrow morning and see what I get.

[Gregory2455]

I got my black-light yesterday and went black-lighting tonight. Saw nothing but a bunch of moths, and a mole cricket.

[dspdrew]

Sounds like Bryan's story.

[kellakk]

Mole cricket! I want one!

[Gregory2455]

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

[Foogoo]

How did the trip go? Did my trap work well or not very useful (no offense taken if the latter, I want to know how to improve it)?

 

I went back to where I saw the D. bicolor flight last week and found tons of founding chambers... all empty. A few of them a small black fly zoomed out. There were also this red queen-size fly lingering around the area. I tried to catch one but couldn't. Do these sound like queen predators?