Whether you plan on catching queens or not, this week is going to be action-packed. If you live in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic regions of the US, I think it'd be a good idea to record & publish specific and detailed information about any activity you observe in the coming week. Whether it pertains to the timings & conditions of nuptial flights, or simply just a certain species' foraging behaviour, it would be very helpful to keep a generally condensed list of data for future anting.
Being one of the first considerably warm weeks of 2017, this will (presumably) be the time when many colonies start to fly, and other begin to forage heavily. I, in particular am looking forward to (hopefully) experiencing Nylanderia spp., Camponotus spp., Tapinoma sessile, and maybe even Stenamma spp. nuptial flights. On top of these, I'll also be on the look-out for heavily foraging colonies in my backyard and neighborhood, so I can get a better feel of what species prefer what temperatures and conditions. Who knows, I may discover a species I had never knew existed in my yard!
Drew's Mating Chart is wonderful, but really only publishes a fraction of the information some people are capable of sharing; hopefully this thread will provide some incentive to share info about ant activity in your area. Maybe if we can get a solid database for at least a couple days, we'll get to the point where we can use others' information to strengthen out understanding of species in our own areas.
In case you haven't checked your local area weather recently, here's a little preview. These are just some locations I chose randomly, nowhere in particular 
). I know I, for one, am going to spend most of my energy anting on Thursday, which will supposedly reach 92° F in Philly!
Goof Luck all, I have faith in you!
Edited by VoidElecent, May 13 2017 - 6:31 PM.
