11 replies to this topic

[Kevin]

I never got an ID on these. I caught 2 or 3 of them in the late season, probably late flyers... one ripped off wings and is dead and falling apart, one is obviously infertile, and if I did catch 3 then I dunno what happened to the third.

 

5mm, South Jersey. Orangish red with pointy gaster, no visible hair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bracchymyrmex]

I may be wrong but they look like aphenogaster

[Canadian anter]

Wow. I've never seen anything like these. I'll go with either crematogaster or manica

[LC3]

Wow. I've never seen anything like these. I'll go with either crematogaster or manica

All four North American Manica species are limited to the western and central  parts of the continent. 

Edited by LC3, February 3 2017 - 7:06 PM.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

If she's got two big effing devil horns for spines that would be Aphaenogaster tennesseensis, a social parasite of other A. rudis, and A. fulva in our area... I've never encountered them in NJ before.

https://www.antweb.o...e=tennesseensis

[Canadian anter]

I don't remember Aphaenogaster tennessenis being 5 mm and they have two orange patches on their gaster

[MrILoveTheAnts]

I don't remember Aphaenogaster tennessenis being 5 mm and they have two orange patches on their gaster

 

6 or 7mm long is likely more accurate. They're roughly the same size as the workers to their host species though. As for the spots on the gaster, they're not so much spots as pale marks or reflections. The ant is so shiny these sorts of bright marks will likely turn up. Workers to this species have two pale marks along the side of their gaster as well. (This might also be the result of the plates of the exoskeleton over lapping. So how swollen her gaster is might change how it looks.)

 

While the severed gaster does come to a point as seen in a lot of Crematogaster queens, other images show the waste segments connecting to the gaster on the lower side not the upper. This is hard to see in Crematogaster queens but it's there. (Also I don't think any Crematogaster come in the color red oddly. At least one solid color.)

Edited by MrILoveTheAnts, February 3 2017 - 8:36 PM.

[Batspiderfish]

Agreed. The large propodeal spines, the size, coloration, and hairlessness. There's also no obvious way to tell if they are infertile unless they are taken directly from the nest.

Do you remember the exact day that you caught them? Not a lot of data for the nuptial flight of this social parasite.

Edited by Batspiderfish, February 3 2017 - 8:30 PM.

[antgenius123]

Oh snap, I also caught this species a while back but I forgot the name.

[Kevin]

I think I caught it late august, a bit after or before I found a ton a myrmica queens, which are also proving to turn out most likely infertile.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

I think I caught it late august, a bit after or before I found a ton a myrmica queens, which are also proving to turn out most likely infertile.

 

Myrmica queens like to forage for food a bit. They may start to lay later in spring, but will need a supply of dead insects to do so.

 

I tried starting one years ago by giving her a supply of live termites to hunt. Each time I couldn't get enough food for her she would eat all of her brood. Finally after a year she did manage to rear one worker with no other brood. But her next clutch produced two workers after that. I believe this process took as long as it did because the queen had to sting the termites to kill them, thus using energy to supply her poison gland with venom. My theory is had I simply given her dead insects things would have started much faster.

[Kevin]

I've had a few lay eggs and eat them too. A bit hard to found.