Let me start by saying I was soaking drift wood I just collected earlier for an aquarium, and found this queen crawling along my bathtub, obviously flushed out of her newly established nesting site chamber. There were no other ants anywhere, so I'm assuming she did not have any adult workers yet. Now I collected wood from 2 different locations pretty close to each other, but slightly different terrain. One place I already know has Prenolepis imparis, and Liometopum occidentale, and nothing else I have seen so far. The other location has lots of Harvester Ants and a few colonies of Argentine Ants, and nothing else I have seen yet there.
Location: Trabuco Canyon, Cleveland National Forest, Orange County, California. (https://maps.google....001206&t=h&z=20)
Habitat: Either an Oak forest, next to a creek with green plants and vines everywhere (where the Prenolepis imparis, and Liometopum occidentale were spotted), or a dry riverbed with lots of sand, gravel, rocks, and dead plants (where the Harvester Ants were spotted).
Coloration, hue and pattern: Red head, dark red thorax, and black abdomen.
Distinguishing characteristics: Nothing in particular that I noticed.
Length in millimeters: 10 mm
Edit: Here's some new microscope images of this Crematogaster species.
Queen
Worker
Edited by dspdrew, May 26 2015 - 11:03 PM.
Added new microscope pictures.
