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San Bruno (S.F. Bay Area), October 20, 11:00 to 16:00


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#1 Offline FormicForeman - Posted October 20 2017 - 7:12 PM

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Hello! Could you please help me ID these ants? I am not even sure I got queens, I may have gotten a bunch of males. To be honest I am not even sure these are ants :)

 

Please excuse the quality of the pictures. This is the best I could do with the gear I have, these are the best of over 100 pictures.

 

1. Location (on a map) of collection:

San Bruno, CA.

Zoomed Out:

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Zoomed In:
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2. Date of collection: 

October 19 2017

 

3. Habitat of collection:

Next to a paved walking path behind stores. There was a huge swarm between a small oak grove and a huge eucalyptus grove. Some I collected from the pavement, some from digging up their founding nests. This is a frame from a small movie of the ants leaving their nest.

nest
 
Link to movie of ants leaving nest.


4. Length (from head to gaster):

Approximately 4.5mm, which is somewhere between 1/8" and 3/16".


5. Color, hue, pattern and texture:

Either black or a very dark color that looks like black.


6. Distinguishing characteristics:

Please look at the pictures. I have trouble seeing any details, the ants are tiny and my eyes are old.


7. Distinguishing behavior:

Ant Trains: Saw many of them walking in pairs, one closely following the other like a train. Saw 3, 4 and 5 ant trains. I collected a 3 ant train from the sidewalk. I was not sure if these trains were males following a queen or just males or just queens.

 

Cooperative nest building: I dug up 6 or 7 founding nests, only 2 of them had a single ant, the rest had from 2 to 5 ants each. I collected these ants in the hope it would increase the chances of a fertilized queen.

 

Scorpion tail: Please look at pictures. Some of the collected ants keep the usual posture, some will raise their rear ends scorpion like and stay still for a long time.


8. Nest description:

Please see above for picture of original nest.

 

The founding nests I dug up where very shallow, dug in coarse sand/clay around some oak trees. It rained the night before, the ground was moist.

 

9. Nuptial flight time and date:

October 19 2017. First noticed at around 11:00 a.m. New batches of alates continued to leave the nest until at least 4:00 p.m., with decreasing numbers.

 

More pictures:

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#2 Offline WeatherAnt - Posted October 20 2017 - 7:18 PM

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Termites! :)


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#3 Offline gcsnelling - Posted October 20 2017 - 7:18 PM

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Subterranean  termites.


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#4 Offline FormicForeman - Posted October 20 2017 - 7:21 PM

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Thank you! That was quick!



#5 Offline Connectimyrmex - Posted October 21 2017 - 3:07 PM

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This is by far the most detailed id post that I've ever seen. good job, formic foreman!

Are you going to keep the termites? If so, they can be rewarding pets.


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