2460 replies to this topic

[spider_creations]

So what did I you find today anything good?

[Nevular Scorpion]

It's raining right now in near Joshua tree

[dspdrew]

Finally... Let's hope this doesn't vanish before the rain gets here. Hopefully it's not too late for any mating flights too.

 

[Kevin]

I went on a hike earlier and found colonies with tons of alates... at least in new jersey.

Where did you get that map?

[dspdrew]

And of course... our rain is pretty much gone now. It really does seem silly to think Southern California could possibly get any rain.

[dspdrew]

So what did I you find today anything good?

 

Sorry I never got around to posting about that last trip. It rained pretty good in that same area where I found the Acromyrmex during the last trip. It rained pretty good in Needles, CA too, which is only about 30 miles north of there. At first I didn't find a single queen or founding chamber. There were actually hardly any ants out at all. It was getting pretty depressing considering how far I drove. Goffs, CA was pretty much dry. While looking around I found a colony of Novomessor cockerelli in a little place called Klinefelter, right by the I-40 and 95 junction. I still can't figure out whether most of the ants have already flown out there, or if they just never got enough rain for flights.

 

I told myself I'm not going home without at least one queen, so I just kept heading north toward the 15 where I saw what looked like some pretty intense rain on the radar. I drove up through the Mojave National Preserve on some little road that I would have probably gotten stuck on in my old truck. I have to say, that place is really cool looking. Once I finally hit the 15, I was never able to get to where all that rain was. There were really no roads in that area.

 

I finally turned around in Primm, Nevada, and headed back down through Searchlight, Nevada. Once back in Needles, I stayed the night there. After thinking about it I guess the rain actually didn't stop until earlier that morning, so most likely nothing would fly until that night or the next morning anyway. That was probably why I hadn't found anything yet.

 

Sure enough, early the next morning, I started finding tons of Myrmecocystus yuma queens digging founding chambers. I collected a bunch of them, and headed back down to that wash where the Acromyrmex were. Around 9:00 AM or so, I started seeing them flying around. There were tons of them. I collected a bunch more Acromyrmex queens and then left for home. At least I now have something that should pay for that trip.

[dspdrew]

The desert finally saw some rain September 20th 2016. This was the first rain of the entire summer in most of the Mojave desert. There wasn't really any heavy rain, but it rained long enough to drop about .3 inches. Since it rained lightly for a long period of time, the rain was able to soak into the ground a bit deeper, triggering some mating flights.

 

I decided to stop in Palm Desert first to hopefully catch a nuptial flight of Pogonomyrmex tenuispinus. It continued raining into the morning of the next day there, and was cloudy for most of that day, so I headed out there the day after that in hopes that the sun would be shining in the morning. There's an area a little ways up the mountains, slightly south of Palm Desert that's one of the only places where P. tenuispinus are found. They fly pretty late in the year, so I was pretty sure that was going to be the day. In case you haven't read any of my past posts, this is the species that my friend Retroman actually breeds in captivity.

 

Sure enough, just as the sun was coming up, the alates started coming out. By around 10:00 AM they were taking off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never actually saw any of them mating, but a little further to the east of that location, I found tons of dealates running around later in the afternoon.

 

I saw a few of them digging founding chambers.

 

 

 

In addition to P. tenuispinus, I caught a few of what I think are Pheidole desertorum queens when they landed on my truck while mating.

 

After this I headed up to the Joshua Tree area. I noticed Acromyrmex versicolor had quite the mating flight up there. Pretty much every tree around there, and even bushes had tons of founding chambers under them. Many of the queens were still digging their nests at that time.

 

I got a few new pictures of some of the awesome mounds these ants make.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And under one of the Ironwood trees, the best find of the trip.

 

 

 

Later that night I drove down to Borrego Springs, but the wind was blowing so hard it was like a white-out of sand. Obviously that much blowing sand would have destroyed any founding chambers I might have found, so I turned around and headed back to Joshua Tree and went to sleep. Later that night the wind started blowing there, keeping me awake most of the night. The next day the wind was still blowing really hard, making it difficult to look for anything. I did find a couple queens of what are either Myrmecocustus placodops or M. mendax. I found a few Pogonomyrmex rugosus queens, and found more Acromyrmex queens almost all the way down to Frontage Rd.

 

Later that day I drove back to Palm Desert again and met up with NightsWebs and nurbs. At this spot we found queens of Myrmecocystus navajo, Pogonomyrmex rugosus, P. tenuispinus, Pheidole xerophila, Dorymyrmex bicolor, and Solenopsis xyloni. P. rugosus and P. tenuispinus were flying again most of the day there, and Solenopsis xyloni started flying later that evening.

 

Just before dark we drove further up the mountain to Pinyon Pines where we dug up a lot more Myrmecocystus navajo queens.

 

Not a bad ending to what was looking like the worst anting season ever.

[Kevin]

Lucky find under that tree That's a lot of queens you found... Keep em all or did you take a few of each?

[gcsnelling]

Good deal, I suspect that Pogonomyrmex tenuispina is likely to be found in similar habitat from there down in to Mexico. My dad and I always felt that Palm Desert was at the extreme northern end of their range, provided of course this is not an undescribed species pretending to be P. tenuispina.

Edited by gcsnelling, October 9 2016 - 2:57 AM.

[dspdrew]

Yeah, I found them a lot further south than that spot where Ken originally found them. They were pretty much everywhere we went along that highway that day.

[PTAntFan]

Great trip report, Drew! Did you take those shots with just your phone? Some great ones. I'm heading to Cathedral City tomorrow and Saturday. Not sure if I'll have any time for anting, but if I do any recommendations of good spots to check out? Not expecting to find any queens this late.

Edited by PTAntFan, October 20 2016 - 7:25 AM.

[Foogoo]

Great trip report, Drew! Did you take those shots with just your phone? Some great ones. I'm heading to Cathedral City tomorrow and Saturday. Not sure if I'll have any time for anting, but if I do any recommendations of good spots to check out? Not expecting to find any queens this late.

I enjoyed the unedited version better! 

[dspdrew]

Great trip report, Drew! Did you take those shots with just your phone? Some great ones. I'm heading to Cathedral City tomorrow and Saturday. Not sure if I'll have any time for anting, but if I do any recommendations of good spots to check out? Not expecting to find any queens this late.

 

Thanks. Yeah I took them with my phone and a little homemade macro lens.

[Teafoot]

 

 

In some of your pictures on this trip, there are some red alates and black alates. Are these different species or are they male and female? This was a while ago, but I try to expand my knowledge whenever possible.

[dspdrew]

In some of your pictures on this trip, there are some red alates and black alates. Are these different species or are they male and female? This was a while ago, but I try to expand my knowledge whenever possible.

 

The black ones are males.

[cj526]

There was some good rain last night in San Diego.  Anything that would fly in So Cal right now?

[dspdrew]

Maybe Dorymyrmex insanus. Can't imagine much else. It's too cold now.

[NightsWebs]

yeah I am bummed out, need a good myrmecocystus trip

[FSTP]

This thread is amazing! Such skill in ant catching. Quite the fun read

[SirAnticus]

Drew what would you say is the best Novomessor spot and what time to go next year

Edit: Or M. mexicanus cause I wanted to test my hand at those

Edited by SirAnticus, November 28 2016 - 8:43 PM.