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Queen/Male Ants, Pennsylvania, 9/7/2019


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#1 Offline Yomegami - Posted July 13 2019 - 8:01 AM

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While sitting near my family's cabins in Raccoon Street Park after dark (around around 9-11 PM), I noticed there happened to be a nuptial flight going on, with a bunch of queens and drones being drawn to the nearby electric lantern. I caught some of the queens and put them in test tube setups, where they proceeded to shed their wings (although as of this typing I only have one queen remaining; the other two drowned from leakage in their test tube setups). 

 

The most notable thing about these ants was their size. They were extremely small; a couple of millimeters at most, maybe around the size of a large pavement ant worker. They were a dark red/brown color, with dark gasters with lighter bands. They also had prominent "waists" consisting of two segments with a point on top of each. The males were much paler in color, with smaller heads and gasters. 

 

Body-shape wise they most closely resemble a Tetramorium species, but I wasn't aware of any Tetramorium species beyond immigrans in Pennsylvania.

 

Images (Apologies about the quality; all I had to use was my cellphone camera):



#2 Offline NickAnter - Posted July 13 2019 - 3:18 PM

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They look to be Temnothorax curvispinosus.
  • Aaron567 likes this

Hi there! I went on a 6 month or so hiatus, in part due, and in part cause of the death of my colonies. 

However, I went back to the Sierras, and restarted my collection, which is now as follows:

Aphaenogaster uinta, Camponotus vicinus, Camponotus modoc, Formica cf. aserva, Formica cf. micropthalma, Formica cf. manni, Formica subpolita, Formica cf. subaenescens, Lasius americanus, Manica invidia, Pogonomyrmex salinus, Pogonomyrmex sp. 1, Solenopsis validiuscula, & Solenopsis sp. 3 (new Sierra variant). 





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