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Mojave Desert Anting 7/09/2014

mojave desert phelan anting pogonomyrmex rugosus messor pergandei california

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#1 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 11 2014 - 12:49 PM

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On Wednesday, after being told multiple species were flying in the desert, I went out to see if I could catch some queens. I went to the location suggested by dspdrew, which is close to the intersection of Mountain View, and El Mirage Rd. Sure enough, there was a large puddle and founding chambers everywhere. There were also some mature nests of Pogonomyrmex rugosus, and Messor pergandei. I was at the location from around 5:30pm to 9:30pm, already being dark when I left. I caught only about one queen for every three founding chambers I dug up, but then again I was not digging so deep. I finished the day with:

 

         8 Pogonomyrmex rugosus                   queens,

         1 Forelius pruinosus                           queen,

         1 Solenopsis xyloni                             queen,

         1 Pogonomyrmex californicus (bicolor) queen.

 

 

 

    I also got some pictures of some of the mature colonies.

Pogonomyrmex rugosus.

gallery_114_224_51984.jpg

Nest entrance:

gallery_114_224_19630.jpg

 

Messor pergandei.

gallery_114_224_35744.jpg

 

Here is a P.rugosus colony being raided by an M.pergandei colony:

You can see three Messor on the bottom of this picture, and the P.rugosus guards are standing like a wall guarding their nest entrance.

gallery_114_224_106549.jpg

I came back to check on it later, and the first line of P.rugosus guards were overrun, and were being carried off by Messor raiders, but a second one beat back the messor.

By then my camera had run out of batteries.  :(

The P.rugosus ended up beating back the messor, the overall battle lasted around one and a half hour.


Edited by Gregory2455, August 26 2014 - 10:09 PM.


#2 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 11 2014 - 4:53 PM

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Nice pictures. I wanted to get some pictures of them, but couldn't get close enough to any nest to get decent pictures without having them crawling up my legs. I need to get to work on my ultimate ant photographing stool. :D



#3 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 11 2014 - 5:19 PM

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Show me how you make it I want to have an easy way to photograph them too.  :)


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#4 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 11 2014 - 5:24 PM

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By the way I had the chance to ID the small yellow ant that when i caught, I just glanced and threw it in a test tube thinking Solenopsis molesta,

I am pretty sure it is a Forelius sp.



#5 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 11 2014 - 8:14 PM

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That's very possible, because we found one Forelius queen there too. Does it have a striped gaster?



#6 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 11 2014 - 9:17 PM

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Indeed it does. 



#7 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 11 2014 - 11:40 PM

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Forelius then.



#8 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 12 2014 - 3:34 PM

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One of the P.rugosus queens are almost half the size of the others, but I am positive it is a queen. I caught a dwarf!!!



#9 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 12 2014 - 4:51 PM

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Yeah we saw a pretty big variation in the size of those queens.



#10 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 14 2014 - 12:27 AM

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The Solenopsis xyloni queen doesnt seem to be doing too well, any suggestions? Any particular thing this species needs during founding stage I may be missing?

I am particularly worried about her because I only have one. 

Also, one of the Pogonomyrmex rugosus are basically dead, still spread out, but contorted legs, and twitching.

I have no idea what is happening to the P.rugosus queen, she is like having mini ant convulsions.



#11 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 14 2014 - 12:36 AM

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The Pogonomyrmex rugosus queen that is dying is giving off some sort of liquid, and she has a large wound on her gaster which absolutely wasn't there before, while I was looking at them for mites. She was a healthy queen. Although, she was one of the more nervous ones, constantly biting and tearing cotton. There is cotton shreds everywhere inside her test tube. Is it possible she inflicted this on herself?


Edited by Gregory2455, July 14 2014 - 12:38 AM.


#12 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 14 2014 - 11:22 AM

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The P.rugosus queen is dead.  :( That leaves me with 7 more of them.



#13 Offline Mercutia - Posted July 14 2014 - 12:06 PM

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I've always been told that Pogonomyrmex usually have low success rates in captivity... which is probably why Drew catches 50 of them. He just can't stop. xD



#14 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 14 2014 - 12:27 PM

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Its not the fact she died, it that she seems to have bit her own gaster or something. She was a healthy queen, without a scratch on her. Then this huge cut randomly showed up on her.



#15 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 14 2014 - 12:43 PM

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The Solenopsis xyloni queen doesnt seem to be doing too well, any suggestions? Any particular thing this species needs during founding stage I may be missing?

I am particularly worried about her because I only have one.

I never did anything special with mine.

 

The P.rugosus queen is dead.  :( That leaves me with 7 more of them.

It's normal for them to just die seemingly at random. Unless you have a lot of them doing this, I wouldn't be too worried.



#16 Offline Anhzor - Posted July 27 2014 - 1:11 PM

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Keep them in a dark place rugosus don't do too well in expose area. No the other hand they readily eat liquid food when available so you can always restart

#17 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 27 2014 - 9:36 PM

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Looks like some rain going over Victorville, is Myrmecocystus gonna fly? Any flights?



#18 Offline LAnt - Posted July 31 2014 - 1:36 PM

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Storm moving through this weekend again. Do you think there will be any Pogonomyrmex left?

*Are we talking about the same storm?


Edited by LAnt, July 31 2014 - 1:37 PM.


#19 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 31 2014 - 4:13 PM

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There is gonna be storm activity all over the deserts and mountains on Sunday. I already have taken Monday and Tuesday off to make sure I will be able to go at the best time. Plus I have so much vacation saved up, I need to take some anyways. :)



#20 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 31 2014 - 6:12 PM

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How much days do you work in the average week?

I will be ready to go up on Monday or Wednesday.







Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: mojave desert, phelan, anting, pogonomyrmex rugosus, messor pergandei, california

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