Nuptial flights are starting around victoria!
I was out looking in the park and caught a black ant queen, tubed her up and put her away in a dark warm spot, fingers crossed she gets a brood going soon!
On another note, the dominance of the black ants in my area (northern suburbs) is a worry, they are everywhere, I saw a large Mryemican queen that looked like she had just finished her flight and was looking for a spot on the ground, I thought I had hit the jackpot but when I got closer with my jar I could see she was being swarmed by black ant workers and was already pretty much finished. Imagine my dissapointment when I tried to help her and took my eyes away for a split second only to lose her, I hope she managed to find a safe spot to nest!
It could be that the larger red bull ant species would be finding it tough to establish nests in suburbia Melbourne due to the black ant dominance and aggression when encountered in numbers
Despite what a lot of the species maps say, I've seen heaps of the big red Myrmecan "inch ant and Jack jumper" nests in Victoria, but in more bushland areas. They would make such a good colony to observe and cultivate