4 replies to this topic

[Socalfireants]

Yesterday I dug up a shallow claustral chamber in the south orange county area. It was a smaller size queen, shiny black in color. That means some ants have started flying guys!

[dspdrew]

Sound like it may be Veromessor pergandei, although I wouldn't call them small. Do you have any pictures? Where exactly in South Orange County did you find it?

[Socalfireants]

Sorry, I meant to give a more accurate description. The queen escaped from me after I found her so pictures are not possible. I looked for more claustral chambers but found none in the area other than the one I found. She was around the size of a solenopsis xyloni queen, maybe a little bit larger, but not by much. She was on the smaller size, compared to what I'm used to. I found her in the hills near Foothill ranch, Trabuco canyon area, 

[Socalfireants]

 The veromessor species you mentioned. Is that the ants that I find when I'm looking for pogonomyrmex californicus in the trabuco area (I live here) They look alot like Pogonomyrmex c. but they are black with a slightly red tint sometimes. They are about the same size and shape as Pogonomyrmex. I think they have different size workers too. 

[Martialis]

Just a heads up Socalfireants.

 

 

When abbreviating species names, always abbreviate the genus and never the species. Additionally, never abbreviate unless the species' full name is mentioned elsewhere in the topic/article.   Here's an example. I'm using Veromessor pergandei, as it was mentioned by drew earlier:  This abbreviation would  be V. pergandei, not Veromessor p.