25 replies to this topic

[BitT]

My new Ant Journal Directory for those who are interested! https://www.formicul...rnal-directory/

 

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We had a pretty big storm today and during lunch at work a co-worker, who knew my new hobby, pointed out a winged ant on the outside of the lunchroom window. It was between rain spells so I slipped outside to take a look. I found not only a lot of dead males littering the ground but what looked like 4 to 5 different species of queens! Now 2 out of "5" might just be male and female (are they even ants?) but the smaller ones don't ACT like males so I am not 100% sure. I also found a queen at home yesterday that might be a 5th or 6th species. Either way I really need help identifying them all! I appreciate all the help I've gotten so far. You guys have been great!

I never thought I'd be so lucky to find so many species (and a handful in one day too!), I figured I'd only find fire ants and maybe get lucky and find a sugar ant. The excitement is real!

 

 

A

1. Location (on a map): Central Florida

2. Date of collection: Collected May 26, 2020

3. Habitat of collection: At my house, on a canal leading to a lake.

 

Caught two, one in driveway and another on the back porch. Plus a third I believed to be a male of the same species? They got some jaws on them!

 

B - 1 and B - 2

1. Location (on a map): Central Florida

2. Date of collection: Collected May 27, 2020, Noon 12PM

3. Habitat of collection: Side of work's building. Surrounded by woods and a pond very near by.

 

At first I thought these two were the same species as ant A that I caught at home but now I'm not so sure.Their jaws look different than A and they don't have the gold stripes on their gasters like A. They also look very slightly different from each other too. Are they even the same species? If they're not they're just very slightly different in their color and gasters shape. Or they might be the same but just variant. But do their jaws look different to you too or is that just my imagination?

 

 

C

1. Location (on a map): Central Florida

2. Date of collection: Collected May 27, 2020, Noon 12PM

3. Habitat of collection: Side of work's building. Surrounded by woods and a pond very near by.

Very dark black and so tiny! At first I barely noticed them and thought they were workers. But they look like they are built like a queen?

 

 

D - 1 and D - 2

1. Location (on a map): Central Florida

2. Date of collection: Collected May 27, 2020, Noon 12PM

3. Habitat of collection: Side of work's building. Surrounded by woods and a pond very near by.

 

Ok, these next two are the two I am not sure are the same species (male and female?) or if they are separate species. I'm not even 100% sure they are ants! Help me with this puzzle?

 

D - 1

The out of focus ones can't be helped without glare but I mainly wanted them to show how big her wing area is compared to her gaster!

 

D - 2

 

And two of them together:

 

E

1. Location (on a map): Central Florida

2. Date of collection: Collected May 27, 2020, Noon 12PM

3. Habitat of collection: Side of work's building. Surrounded by woods and a pond very near by.

 

 

Pretty excited about this one! Trying not to get my hopes up too much. Could it possibly be a Colobopsis impressa??? My dream ant??? I can't get a good look at her face but it looks like it might be flat. She does have a golden stripe on her gaster. Maybe a related species?

 

F

1. Location (on a map): Central Florida

2. Date of collection: Collected May 27, 2020, Noon 12PM

3. Habitat of collection: Side of work's building. Surrounded by woods and a pond very near by.

 

At first I thought this was the same as the E ants but with a closer look she may be different! Her gaster is super long compared to the others of E and she has more than one gold stripe! Her face does look very much flat! Is she a Colobopsis impressa??? Or maybe a related species? Or maybe she is the same as E but just a variant of her sisters?

 

 

=========Update=============

 

Yup, I found some more. >>;

 

 

G

1. Location (on a map): Central Florida

2. Date of collection: Collected May 28, 2020, 6:50AM

3. Habitat of collection: Side of work's building. Surrounded by woods and a pond very near by.

 

Found this one early in the morning when I was going into work! She reminds me of a Honey Pot Ant but I'm pretty sure that can't be it as I don't think we have those around here. Is she a queen or a worker? Down pointed gaster, long legs, kinda long mandibles.

 

H

1. Location (on a map): Central Florida

2. Date of collection: Collected May 28, 2020, Noon 12PM

3. Habitat of collection: Side of work's building. Surrounded by woods and a pond very near by.

 

Look at that shiny, fuzzy, gold booty! I think she's very pretty. I caught 3. Sadly one died but she was missing an antennae and then started acting like she was poisoned so I'm guessing fire ants got to her before I had, I seen them killing a Colobopsis earlier.

 

J

1. Location (on a map): Central Florida

2. Date of collection: Collected May 28, 2020, Noon 12PM

3. Habitat of collection: Side of work's building. Surrounded by woods and a pond very near by.

 

She's very slightly larger than C (Pheidole navigans?) but not by much! She's also reddish?

 

Panic

Yes, this she-devil has a name. She seemed so laid back, she didn't seem scared. Tried getting her into a test tube from her jar and she wanted to just stand at the edge to sip at a tiny droplet. I gently booped her with a Q-tip and she turned around and latched onto it aggressively. Ok, first time I seen any queens do that (they always ran first or just acted curious). She found the tip wet so she chilled and started drinking from it. So I had this BRIGHT idea to boop her with my finger tip and when she turned around I spooked! Then I panicked because I lost her! I had the bright idea to do this while at my computer so here I am shuffling around my computer and looking on the floor and I'm thinking "great, of all the queens to lose in the house I lose one I not only don't know the species of (and if it stings) but also the most aggressive one!" So luckily my dog is smart and doesn't just go after something he don't know what it is but is curious enough for me to notice that "what's this creature" behavior and there she is. She freaked a little until I got her into the test tube (can't really blame her, poor thing) and then she settled right at home and is happy as a clam. So she get's a name since she has personality. Though she's not the panicking one. XD

What is she? Are they normally aggressive? Are they normally this laid back when sitting in a jar/tube?

 

=========Update============= 05-31

 

G Size: By 100th ruler of an Inch.

For those that don't know 1 would be 10/100 of an inch. So it looks like she might be 40/100 of an inch? If she was moved down a bit to her mandibles and stretched out?

Edited by BitT, May 31 2020 - 6:50 AM.

[VoidElecent]

First of all, nice formatting. Here's what I got.

• A: Pheidole queen
• B-1: Solenopsis invicta or Solenopsis richteri queen
• B-2: Crematogaster sp. queen (nice)
• C: Pheidole obscurithorax queen
• D-1: Camponotus castaneus or Camponotus floridanus male
• D-2: Camponotus (maybe C. sexguttatus) male
• E: Colobopsis impressa or Colobopsis obliqua
• F: Colobopsis impressa or Colobopsis obliqua

Measurements would help with all of these. Add lengths in millimeters, if you can.

 

edit: Aaron567 is a reputable authority in this domain.

Edited by VoidElecent, May 28 2020 - 7:38 AM.

[Zeiss]

A

Top left is male.

Rest are queens. Maybe Pheidole or Tetramorium.

 

B

Both queens.  Maybe Solenopsis.

 

C

Queen.  Maybe Pheidole or Tetramorium.

 

D

Males.  Maybe Camponotus or Colobopsis.

 

E

Queen.  Colobopsis.

 

F

Queen.  Colobopsis.

[ANTdrew]

Wow. Best get a lottery ticket while you’re at it.

[Antkid12]

Yes, so lucky! Specially jealous of the Pheidole queens! 

Edited by Antkid12, May 27 2020 - 4:20 PM.

[NickAnter]

I agree with Zeiss. I am so jealous of the Colobopsis. I need to move to the SouthEast

[BitT]

lol Maybe I will get a lottery ticket later. XD Seriously though, thank you all for the help. It's getting late so I don't have time to do the research but I will surely look up your suggestions of what they could be later! I'm excited to look more into it!

 

I will also try and get a measurement of them later. If I remember to I'll bring my 100th ruler from work or at least something with millimeters to try and measure them.

 

I have them all set up in test tubes but I'll have to make sure they're all fully... what's the world... clustrial?

 

I'm a little worried about D because their pretty animate about chewing. Will I have issues with them with the cotton block? Though I'm a bit sad that they may both be males as you guys are saying. XD Still I should be grateful that I found so many other species!

 

I'm pretty sure IF the B - 1 and B - 2 are Solenopsis that they are not invicta. I have a boat load of invicta and they're constantly in flight / wandering around, I'm pretty familiar with them at this point. The new queens are not the size nor the color shade I've seen them in. But if they are Solenopsis that means there is a chance they're a native one which I'm not sure I've ever actually seen them before because of the invicta invasion. I'll definitely have to dig more into it when I have a chance.

 

Sadly I noticed one of my A died when I was arranging the new queens into their resting place. It might be the one I found on the porch which if it is that one she might have got into a plant with pesticides. We try to avoid pesticides but sometimes it can't be helped if you don't want a plant to die. I hope my other A does better but for now she seems ok.

 

VoidElecent,

And thank you. I try to make it as simple and easy to follow as possible. I did think about doing measurements but I was running short on time and I had to get them all set up in their tubes.

[Ferox_Formicae]

A - Some sort of Pheidole. I'm thinking Pheidole megacephala on this one.

 

B1 - A dark form of Solenopsis geminata I believe, easily separated from queens of invicta by the larger, stockier head and the lack of a distinct median clypeal tooth, present in invicta.

B2 - I believe this is a Crematogaster queen, perhaps laeviuscula, though those don't really fly until the summer starts, though most of the time they don't begin to fly until August. She could also be pilosa or pinicola.

 

C - Pheidole navigans, a fairly small and common invasive tramp species from Northeastern Brazil.

 

D1 - Camponotus (Tanaemyrmex) males, with the lighter one in the third image being C. castaneus. The other two are perhaps C. inaequalis/tortuganus (taxonomic status unclear at the moment)?

D2 - More Camponotus males. The larger species appears to be inaequalis/tortuganus and the smaller male reminds me a bit of a lighter form planatus male.

 

E - A Colobopsis impressa queen with reduced gastral striping. Can be distinguished from the similar obliqua by the pale clypeus ("face") which obliqua lacks.

 

F - A more typical Colobopsis impressa queen with more pronounced gastral striping.

 

I hope this helps, and good luck with those queens! You Floridians are lucky in having your flights start up way earlier. Here, most of the species you found (assuming they live in SC) are only just starting to get alates, Colobopsis and Pheidole navigans, for example. Anyways, good luck in finding more cool ants like these, and let me know if you need anymore help. 

[ANTdrew]

You’ll need to start some journals on these queens!

[TheMicroPlanet]

I'm jealous of those colobopsis...

[Antkid12]

I'm jealous of those colobopsis...

The only time I saw anything that was Colobopsis was a dealate on a spider web.   

[AntsDakota]

I’d just rather have Pheidole. Pogonomyrmex too, both of which are native to my state, so I’m happy. The only ants I really covet are Trap-jaws and fungus growers.

Edited by AntsDakota, May 28 2020 - 5:43 AM.

[ponerinecat]

Colobopsis are wonderful, we just have pseudomyrmex and nuptials are hard to catch.

[VoidElecent]

B1 - A dark form of Solenopsis geminata I believe, easily separated from queens of invicta by the larger, stockier head and the lack of a distinct median clypeal tooth, present in invicta.

 

S. geminata! Was not expecting that...

[Aaron567]

My opinions on what everything is:

A - Pheidole megacephala. An invasive species that is common in the Florida peninsula.

 

B-1 -  Looks like the vast majority of other Solenopsis invicta queens I've seen (maybe a bit darker than the average), except for the fact that a median clypeal tooth cannot be seen at all in the pictures. According to Pitts et. al. (2018): "Median clypeal tooth well developed." It seems unclear what is defined as well-developed, because the median clypeal tooth in all S. invicta queen pictures I can find is pretty hard to spot right away or is even invisible. To me, it looks like the median clypeal tooth is situated further back slightly behind the main pair of teeth, so perhaps the median tooth can become obscured depending on what angle the head is seen from? I doubt that it is geminata because the head width would likely be much more exaggerated if it was, and geminata (especially the dark, native form) is very unlikely to be found in a place where invicta is already present. The native dark form of Solenopsis geminata was widespread and common over the southeastern US prior to the invasion of invicta... now, in recent years in Florida they have only ever been found in undisturbed areas that are lacking in invicta. Below is a picture of the clypeal teeth of Solenopsis invicta queens collected from my area. 

 

B-2 - Crematogaster sp. Very likely C. pinicola, a species that is about the most frequently found Crematogaster in Florida, along with C. ashmeadi which is morphologically the same but all black. A couple other species are still possible, though.

 

C - Pheidole navigans. 

 

D-1 - Camponotus castaneus.

 

D-2 - Camponotus sp. From those pictures I would say either C. planatus or C. sexguttatus. They resemble the males of C. nearcticus in overall shape and size, but are not shiny like nearcticus. C. planatus is having lots of flights right around now, so several people have been finding these males.

 

E - Colobopsis impressa. With such a small amount of yellow on her gaster, she resembles Colobopsis obliqua, but like Ferox_Formicae said, she has impressa's characteristic pale face.

 

F - Colobopsis impressa. This queen has a smushed gaster, making it look abnormal. She may not survive, but I had one of these queens last year that was even more severely smushed and she ended up surviving long term.

[BitT]

Thank you all again for the help! I uh... may have gotten a few other species... I'll update the above post here shortly. I'll have to start slowing down capturing new queens. I never expected to see this many species and having a chance like this. So I have my hands full!

 

Sadly I forgot my rulers at work but I'll remember tomorrow then have the weekend to size and better chart the queens I have. I look forward to seeing if sizing them helps to better pinpoint their species. I'll set up a little booklet too and number each one and add what the suspected species is. I already have them dated and where I caught them with a little tape on their test tubes.

Things I need to learn about them:

- Are they fully claustral? Or am I going to have to feed some of these queens before workers?

- Do any of them have special needs?

- Besides the obvious Fire Ants, do any others of them sting?

 

I also let the Camponotus males go back where I found them. Though I may have stole their chance of finding a mate. Still with how many males I saw, with no queens in sight, I doubt many of them had any luck anyway.

 

A - Pheidole megacephala.

If A is megacephala I already have a nest of them. I never really looked too hard at them I don't think because they were wild caught and I caught workers too. If I remember right aren't they Polygyny-ist? Would it be safe to introduce a new queen to them without them killing her? I wouldn't mind a fresh queen with them since I don't know the age of the current queen. Or would that be too big of a risk to the current queen and the new one?

 

B-1 - You all have much more experience than me that's for sure! I really appreciate you looking at her! I'm still not too sure about this girl though. She looks very different to me from size, color, and mouth parts and I've caught a lot of Solenopsis invicta lately and in the past. I could be 100% wrong and she may very well be a Solenopsis invicta if a bit off looking but just in case I have something spacial I'll take a closer look at her and compare her to my other Solenopsis queens. Maybe when I measure her could I get your experienced eyes to take another look? I'll also try to get better angles of her mouth parts though my camera and phone camera aren't great.

 

B-2 - Yah, has to be Crematogaster pinicola or Crematogaster laeviuscula. I caught a few more too. They kind of have a kind of heart shaped gaster. I'll try to load up a picture from the top.

 

C - Is there a reason some Pheidole navigans look red in pictures while others pure black that I've been finding on the internet?

 

Aaron567,

F - Are you sure she is just smushed? She seemed more lively and healthy than a few of the others. One of the websites I've seen showed some Colobopsis having longer gasters than others. Or maybe it's just my wishful thinking and hoping that I have two different types. XD

 

ANTdrew,

I probably will do some journals at some point. Do you all do them all in one post or do you do separate posts per-species you have? I'll have to figure out how I want to do it since I have several species at this point.

[NickAnter]

I think that H is C. planatus, G is an Aphaenogaster sp., Panic looks like either Ph. dentata or obscurithorax, J could be floridana or dentigula.

[Aaron567]

G - Aphaenogaster queen. I can't tell what species she is but it is a nice find either way.
H - Camponotus planatus

J - Pheidole floridana

Panic - Pheidole dentata

[VoidElecent]

What a nice thread. Oh how so jealous I am of those Camponotus planatus; congratulations, I look forward to seeing what you make of these queens!   Might be worth doing some journaling... 

[ANTdrew]

You’ve found more diversity than many find in a lifetime. Your lottery numbers should be the dates and times you found these girls.