Body:
1. Parking lot at work and patch of dirt in same parking lot. Prescott, AZ.
2. Observation only
3. Scrub Oak. High Desert. I find Pogonomyrmex in the same type of habitat about ½ mile away.
4 No tools available for measure. Observed at work.
5. Black, Shiny gaster. Faint red Thorax. Head appeared slightly lighter lack with a red hue maybe to it. Coloration, hue, pattern and texture.
6. To me, nothing remarkable or that stood out.
7. Appear to be harvesting aphids or some other insect. I observed these same ants at the end of summer last year doing exactly the same thing but the plant, nearly in the same place as the one in the photo, was wilted and likely dying off.
8. Unknown. Final picture of ants on pavement is
9. None occurring
10 .
Please know the final ant is not the same. Info above except description, is not referring to them. It is actually at the nest entrance of another much smaller all black species and seemed determined to find a way in to said entrance, appearing to fail along with 1 or 2 of her sisters. That same colony they are trying to penetrate was about a foot away from a nest entrance they had the year before. Guess it got plugged or closed and the entrances were reopened where they are now. I don’t expect much of an ID off of the photo of the one aggressor given that the only size reference is the pen I put on the ground. I had fed some meat and sugar water to see what would happen on Saturday, 6-22-19. I remembered doing that tonight and thought I would check on them. Not one of them was out and both nest entrances, found in the parking lot, appeared to be sealed with debris, likely keeping the invading ants out. I don’t know if the ants thought they could find more meat in the nest or just wanted to attack the much smaller ants. I am only hoping a guess might steer me in the right direction at guessing ID.
Thanks to anyone taking the time to guess on the photos.
Edited by Dukagora, June 25 2019 - 9:41 PM.
