2461 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

It must have missed the Weather Underground weather station.

 

http://www.wundergro...w:92397.1.99999

 

This would mean it was in one very specific spot, and that is what you would have to figure out. That's why radar screenshots are so useful.

 

Unfortunately it's only forecast to be 64 degrees Sunday, so I'm not sure if any mating flights would take place.

[dspdrew]

Doesn't get more perfect than this.

 

Mt. Baldy

 

[PTAntFan]

pretty easy drive for me. What day do you think is best out of those three? Monday?

[dspdrew]

Tuesday. Chromerust and I, and possibly a few more people are planning to be there Tuesday evening and into the night.

[PTAntFan]

Cool.  I'll try to get out there too, but not off this week and have to be in Redondo Beach at 7am Tuesday, makes for a long day. You're camping there right?  Do you just rough it or is there a base camp of operations for this mission?

[dspdrew]

We usually go home around 11:00 pm or so. This time I'll be staying overnight there or in Phelan... wherever I can sleep. I'll be heading to the desert again the next morning.

[PTAntFan]

Heck I may luck out tomorrow.  It's raining steadily right here in Burbank and supposed to be 78 tomorrow.

[Foogoo]

It just came down pretty good where I am for about 30 min. It's probably too early for P. californicus to fly but who knows, maybe there'll be some local flights. I'm still on the fence about Monday, but I may have to bite the bullet if I want to succeed with my wanted list (Veromessor, Myrmecocystus and Pogonomyrmex).

 

EDIT: Alright, Monday I'm going to head up to Adelanto and go from there west along the 18 and El Mirage areas. With the forecast nearing 80 F tomorrow, hopefully I get the spoils of many fresh flights. Crossing my fingers for some new ID threads on Monday afternoon . I'll let you guys know how it goes for those heading out Tuesday.

Edited by Foogoo, April 25 2015 - 8:53 PM.

[dspdrew]

Something about El Mirage Rd... the most intense storms are always along that road in Adelanto. Why don't you meet us out there Tuesday Foogoo?

[Foogoo]

Something about El Mirage Rd... the most intense storms are always along that road in Adelanto. Why don't you meet us out there Tuesday Foogoo?

 

I'd love to, but with work and my schedule it's a lot easier to just tack it on to the weekend.

 

Update: My trip was a bust. Headed up to Adelanto, arrived around 10am and scoured the area adjacent to the 395 and 18. Found lots of colonies, but no founding chambers. Same as I moved west down the 18. Made sure to hit the areas that received heavy rain according to Wundermap. Went halfway up Sheeps Creek meaning to go to Mirage but still found nothing so headed down instead to visit a friend in Wrightwood. Poked around her yard and barely found a worker or two. Meant to stop by Mormon Rocks but it was closed.

 

I don't think I missed the chambers as I've become quite good at seeing disturbed soil, maybe it's just bad luck or it didn't get hot enough yet? It was quite windy up there. Saw lots of huge, what I assume to be, Pogonomyrmex, Myrmecocystus and Veromessor colonies (which one is black and polymorphic?). They were mostly all foraging en masse. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

Edited by Foogoo, April 27 2015 - 2:01 PM.

[Foogoo]

Maybe I shouldn't have conserved space and edited my post because now the thread won't show as recently updated. Anyway, I updated my previous post with my trip today.

[dspdrew]

That's why I try to plan my desert trips a little later rather than earlier. If you show up after they fly, you can dig them up. If you show up before they fly, you go home with nothing. The Phelan area was definitely too cold according to wunderground.com. I'm not sure what their main malfunction is lately, but wunderground.com keeps getting the low temperatures wrong by 10 degrees. In most places its 5 to 10 degrees colder than what they keep forcasting.

[PTAntFan]

I approached from the ridge from the East yesterday afternoon and made my way up the Tujunga Cyn. to Angeles Crest and down into the Hahamonga wash in Pasadena.  The story was much the same, but I had to get out yesterday as I cannot get out this evening.  I ended up getting only about 4.5 hours sleep and was literally falling asleep at the wheel as I stopped at the last stoplight before my house.  It is entirely possible that I might have not been able to type this right now!

 

But as I was saying, activity, but no sexuals or signs of them.  It's one thing to not catch queens or founding chambers, but there aren't even sexuals poking their heads out, so I am eager to hear how the trip to the east side of the ridge goes tonight, the west side seems delayed.

 

A few highlights:

 

• I found some dimorphic species at the Hansen Dam Park.  I think I can find it again and if lucky will catch them flying this summer.
• Along the Big Tujunga Cyn road there is a small campground I think called Wildwood off Vogel Cyn Road that is crawling with a species of Pogonomyrmex and another species of what I believe is Formica.  It's just crawling, so in theory if we could figure out when they fly, it'd be a bonanza
• I did catch one wandering queen in Hahamonga at the very end of my outing, right at dusk.  She wandered across my path.  I think she may just be an Argie queen, though she seems a bit large.

[Foogoo]

Eagerly awaiting updates from anyone who's going out later in the week  . I've taken all next week off with no major plans other than hike around, so hopefully there'll be some updates on good spots!

[dspdrew]

 

I approached from the ridge from the East yesterday afternoon and made my way up the Tujunga Cyn. to Angeles Crest and down into the Hahamonga wash in Pasadena.  The story was much the same, but I had to get out yesterday as I cannot get out this evening.  I ended up getting only about 4.5 hours sleep and was literally falling asleep at the wheel as I stopped at the last stoplight before my house.  It is entirely possible that I might have not been able to type this right now!

 

But as I was saying, activity, but no sexuals or signs of them.  It's one thing to not catch queens or founding chambers, but there aren't even sexuals poking their heads out, so I am eager to hear how the trip to the east side of the ridge goes tonight, the west side seems delayed.

 

A few highlights:

 

• I found some dimorphic species at the Hansen Dam Park.  I think I can find it again and if lucky will catch them flying this summer.
• Along the Big Tujunga Cyn road there is a small campground I think called Wildwood off Vogel Cyn Road that is crawling with a species of Pogo and another species of what I believe is Formica.  It's just crawling, so in theory if we could figure out when they fly, it'd be a bonanza
• I did catch one wandering queen in Hahamonga at the very end of my outing, right at dusk.  She wandered across my path.  I think she may just be an Argie queen, though she seems a bit large.

 

 

I'll bet the queen was Dorymyrmex insanus.

 

Eagerly awaiting updates from anyone who's going out later in the week  . I've taken all next week off with no major plans other than hike around, so hopefully there'll be some updates on good spots!

 

Next week is going to be quite cool though.

[dspdrew]

The whole trip pretty much sucked, so I went home early.

 

As Foogoo mentioned, there was nothing in the desert. I went to a few places that received rain that I doubt he went to, and there was nothing there either.

 

After the desert, I went to Mormon Rocks Station, where nothing was going on either. I saw a few possible founding chambers, but they were very dry, and the queens were probably quite deep. There were a lot of Myrmecocystus out running around, including lots of M. wheeleri. While there, I lifted a rock and exposed a big colony of the Formica that Foogoo collected last week. These Formica are all over that place and pretty much dominate most of the areas around there. In some places it's hard to find any other species of ant. I collected a whole bunch of brood to keep in case I end up finding a parasitic Formica this season. I'm storing the larvae in my fridge so they should last for months. As for the pupae, I'm going to use them to boost my other Formica colonies. In addition to the brood, I collected an alate as well, so I'll be able to get some good microscope pictures of it.

 

Next I went to a spot I have been wanting to check out for a while--Lone Pine Canyon just over the ridge from Mormon Rocks Station. It's a really long canyon with a road that goes perfectly straight all the way up to Wrightwood. This again was one of those areas completely dominated by those Formica which I now think are F. aerata francoeuri. While there I got lucky and ended up finding two of those Formica cf. aerata francoeuri queens. I finally found two other species of ants there too--Pogonomyrmex, probably P. montanus, and Tapinoma sessile.

 

After this I went to Mt. Baldy where I met up with Chromerust. I got lucky there too, and found another Liometopum occidentale queen by the creek just before it got dark. I also found another small queen that I think is probably Tapinoma sessile. Once dark, there was hardly anything flying around. The only ants we saw flying were a couple Camponotus males. After this I just decided to go home.

[Foogoo]

Has anyone gone to Carbon Canyon where there was the huge mass of either D. bicolor or Solenopsis nests? Maybe I can take a quick trip on Friday...

[kellakk]

I went blacklighting there last night and just now.  There's no sign that diurnal fliers have flown at all.  I did find night fliers though, which I posted on the ant mating chart thread.

[Foogoo]

I went blacklighting there last night and just now.  There's no sign that diurnal fliers have flown at all.  I did find night fliers though, which I posted on the ant mating chart thread.

With my bucket trap or a traditional blacklight? Confirmation that my trap works will help me justify spending the time and effort .

[kellakk]

I used a tube blacklight on top of my car since I had forgotten to bring the bucket part of the bucket trap.  I brought it out tonight but I think it was both too bright and too windy for flying insects in Carbon Canyon tonight.  The only ants I saw were Argentine males.

Edited by kellakk, April 29 2015 - 9:05 PM.