143 replies to this topic

[Martialis]

13 in all. I'm calling it a night.

 

Check tomorrow—if it doesn't rain, is humid,  and is around or greater than 75F at sunset, the anting tends to be great. I'm honestly a bit jealous of the somewhat greater diversity around your house. The NIMBYs and suburbs don't exactly lend themselves to the environment or anters here...

[CatsnAnts]

13 in all. I'm calling it a night.

Check tomorrow—if it doesn't rain, is humid, and is around or greater than 75F at sunset, the anting tends to be great. I'm honestly a bit jealous of the somewhat greater diversity around your house. The NIMBYs and suburbs don't exactly lend themselves to the environment or anters here...

Gotta agree when I comes to having a pretty nice place to go anting right in your backyard! What all queens did you catch of the 13 (I’m curious)?

[Martialis]

12 S. molesta and one Lasius interjectus. The latter was quite a surprise, actually.. I wasn't aware they were night-flying.

[CatsnAnts]

12 S. molesta and one Lasius interjectus. The latter was quite a surprise, actually.. I wasn't aware they were night-flying.

I wasn’t aware of that either, I’ve found them having nuptial flights usually during mid day to evening. As for the S. molesta queens, I’m still waiting to find some of those! The only time I’m ever seen a queen was whenever I was planting plants in our landscaping and accidentally dug into a nest, specifically a three queen nest. Ever since I’ve been looking for them. They grow pretty fast, don’t they?

[Martialis]

I think... I have nine colonies of them. I'll tell you in a month or so!

[TennesseeAnts]

Yes, S. molesta is very fast growing.

[CatsnAnts]

Well, I’m out again blacklighting, and so far Hyponera is having a decent sized flight. I’m not collecting any because I really don’t have any interest in them, but I’ve seen 6 so far. I’ve also caught a tetramorium immigrans queen, but will be releasing her as well.

[Martialis]

More.... molestsa.... They never stop.

 

Seriously: this is the third night in a row I've seen them. Obviously, I'm not collecting any more. 12 is enough.

[CatsnAnts]

More.... molestsa.... They never stop.

Seriously: this is the third night in a row I've seen them. Obviously, I'm not collecting any more. 12 is enough.

I’m STILL waiting to find some! Not exactly to keep, but to see. Any other species out tonight, or just S. molesta flying?

I’ve seen a few temnothorax curvispinosus as well as a Colobopsis male. I’m wondering, do you guys have Colobopsis in Central Indiana?

[CatsnAnts]

Alright, I’m heading in. I did manage to find a C. pennsylvanicus queen though, but I released her as well.

[Martialis]

I’m not sure if we have Colobipsis up here, but I’m leaning towards “no.” A bit too cold up here.

There were Camponotus flying. I captured a Myrmentoma subgenus queen and fed a male C. castaeneus to my mantis.

Edited by Martialis, June 28 2019 - 5:16 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Ya’ll are making me want to try this blacklighting.

[CatsnAnts]

Ya’ll are making me want to try this blacklighting.

You should, it’s a miracle when finding queen ants.

[CatsnAnts]

Well, I’m out again tonight, but this time with a different setup. I’m on our dock going out across our lake. On our dock is a flat shallow area that fills with water. I put the blacklight by this, and have a white sheet by it as well. So far, a LOT of bugs are falling into the water, and I have caught 1 ponera pennsylvanica queen as well as another pheidole !

[CatsnAnts]

Make that 2 pheidole queens!

Edit: make it 3

Double edit: make it 4

TRIPLE EDIT: and to top it all off, I think these are P. morrisii! My dream species! ... JK I'm PRETTY CONFUSED NOW ON WHAT THESE ARE...

Edited by CatsnAnts, July 1 2019 - 8:21 PM.

[CatsnAnts]

Went back out this morning, and found 2 solenopsis molesta in the water.

[TennesseeAnts]

Make that 2 pheidole queens!
Edit: make it 3
Double edit: make it 4
TRIPLE EDIT: and to top it all off, I think these are P. morrisii! My dream species! ... JK I'm PRETTY CONFUSED NOW ON WHAT THESE ARE...

Pheidole are very confusing .

[CatsnAnts]

Make that 2 pheidole queens!
Edit: make it 3
Double edit: make it 4
TRIPLE EDIT: and to top it all off, I think these are P. morrisii! My dream species! ... JK I'm PRETTY CONFUSED NOW ON WHAT THESE ARE...

Pheidole are very confusing .

I think I’m gonna post an ID thread. They don’t look the same as my Pheidole bicarinata queens, so I don’t know what to think. They are a lot darker in color, but similar in size.

[ANTdrew]

Man, I can’t even find Tetramorium this year. My crazy monkey children only leave me 15 minutes a day to look, though.

[CatsnAnts]

Man, I can’t even find Tetramorium this year. My crazy monkey children only leave me 15 minutes a day to look, though.

I’ve noticed that they haven’t flown as much this year as they did last year. As for the children, your on your own .

For the pheidole, I compared them to my previous 2 queens (who are for sure Pheidole bicarinata), and they are definitely different in structure and color. This makes me almost positive they are pheidole morrisii because it is the only other species of Pheidole in my area!