36 replies to this topic

[CoolColJ]

Hi,

 

thanks for the info, I will go to a couple of locations, where according to old records, Pheidole antipodum was collected in the past during the weekend to see if I see any activity, that's why I was asking for the weather conditions and time of flight.

 

The only species (maybe two actually) of Pheidole I see flying regularly here are active between early to late April, and they are either Pheidole vigilans or something close to Pheidole variabilis, I do not have access to a microscope so I doubt I will be able to shed light on what actual species I am dealing with. I collected last year also a tiny species of Pheidole in my swimming pool in summer but I have not seen them fly this year.

 

Suburban Perth is largerly invaded by Pheidole megacephala and it is anyway very poor in Mymicines.

 

Cheers

Zyzzyx

 

 

Looking under stones and rocks in those areas should bear some fruit

 

I think your doing better than I am, in been able to name actual Pheidole species - I just know them as red headed/black body, or black or red Pheidole queens

I think that the ones I have, have not been studied and have no scientific names anyway

But they all range between 7-9mm in size

 

I found half of them under bricks in my backyard, and one on a windscreen of my car straight after a small flight at dawn.

 

Anyway these two queens have not arrived yet - after 3 days, frustrating when you pay for express post!

And the weekend is here, which means they could be stuck someone for another 2 days somewhere...

But since they are claustral founding queens in test tubes, and it's almost winter, it's not so bad

[Zyzzyx]

Yes,

 

being winter you should not be worried too much about them cooking under the (not so) balmy Australian sun.

 

The Pheidole flights here are of two types, in early April about two hours before sunset you start seeing some queens hovering between 1-3 meters from the ground later on approached about 1 hour before sunset by swarms of males, in that last hour before sunset they fill the sky over parks with lawns and by sunset they have all landed while mating. Mating success seems a bit low and it makes me think they might try to go back to their original nest as out of a very large number of queens only one ended up being successfull in founding a colony claustrally. Trying pleometrotic groups ended in tragedy with queens mutilating each other on occasions even after long periods of time of peaceful coexistence. The vast majority of the quens lays unfertilised eggs even though I collected them already dealated or still attached to males and stayed so for a few hours after capture.

 

The second type of flight is in late April and it is always just after dark at lights, the ants look superficially the same but the fact that these two type of flights are different in the timing and modality makes me think there must be two very similar species purposedly trying to avoid hybridisation, won't know for sure until I am able to raise a few more colonies.

[CoolColJ]

have them now and took some pics

 

They measured around 14mm in the test tube, but from experience, they could be 1mm larger outside of it.

One looks a little larger

 

They look like Pheidole queens, just a lot larger and bulkier

 

click to enlarge

 

 

 

Pheidole antipodum pics to compare

 

http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/images/5/5c/Pheidole_antipodum_queen_with_workers%2C_Wandering%2C_Western_Australia%2C_Farhan_Bokhari.jpg http://www.antwiki.o...han_Bokhari.jpg

Edited by CoolColJ, June 3 2018 - 6:35 PM.

[CoolColJ]

A Carebara queen that looks oddly similar from the side, but different

 

http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/images/0/0d/Carebara_queen%2C_Western_Ghats%2C_Manoj_Vembayam.jpg

 

Edited by CoolColJ, June 3 2018 - 7:22 PM.

[LC3]

These newer pics appear to show the queens having 3 antennal club segments therefor being Pheidole if I’m not mistaken.

Hi,

the pictures do not show that too well but if you count the number of articles of the antennal club should be three for Pheidole and 2 for Carebara IIRC. I would love to find one of those queens as Pheidole antipodum seems to be one of the most spectacular Pheidole we have in Australia. I have seen once a flight of what now is Pheidole dispar (what was called Machomyrma) and it was a specially spectacular sight with thousands of workers and alates pouring from underground tunnels forming almost a carpet, this was in Brisbane at the DPIF labs in Oxley, cannot remember if it was spring or autumn, definitely was not summer, but was in 2001 so a long time ago.

P.S.: Could you ask your friend fr the time of the day and the weather conditions? Cool overcast or Sunny and warm day, after rain that sort of stuff? Thank you

Edited by LC3, June 3 2018 - 10:39 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Yeah, I'm leaning on these being Pheidole antipodum, but I'll wait till workers arrive before confirmation.

 

If the experience of another keeper is anything to go by, these should explode in growth in a year's time.

 

also one of the queens has an extra ocelli on the head, or is it a mite...?

 

Edited by CoolColJ, June 3 2018 - 11:16 PM.

[LC3]

That’s a mite. There seems to be two on her gaster as well.

Edited by LC3, June 3 2018 - 11:51 PM.

[CoolColJ]

That’s a mite. There seems to be two on her gaster as well.

 

Time for an underwater soak for both queens I guess...

[CoolColJ]

See how big they are vs my black Camponotus consobrinus, the second largest queen I have here at 16-17mm.
Largest I have is Camponotus suffusus at 18+mm.
Consobrinus on the left.
Definitely not your average Pheidole queens

click to enlarge


And the consobrinus vs my 9-10mm Camponotus humilior queen as reference

Edited by CoolColJ, June 8 2018 - 3:52 PM.

[AntsAreUs]

Those Carebara look a lot like huge Tetramorium queens to me. I love how they look.

[CoolColJ]

I was looking at the date of the photos from Antwiki of the antipodum, and they were taken on 30th May which was when they had mating flights at the time.

 

It so happens my queens was also caught around this time, just 2 days earlier, but 9 years later

And just like it was on that day, this year, many species of ants were also having nupital flights back then, on that day

 

So 28-30th May next year is a good time to look for more of these!

Edited by CoolColJ, June 10 2018 - 8:13 AM.

[CoolColJ]

This queen/colony belongs to someone I know. At first I thought it was a Carebara affinis, but being in Perth, Western Australia, I think it is Pheidole antipodum

The queen does look a little different in the gaster region, no hint of brown colouration




And smaller majors actually showed up in the first batch of brood, unlike most ants. I suppose having such a large queen vs the minor workers allows spare resources to be spent on raising nanitic majors

Edited by CoolColJ, July 3 2018 - 6:53 PM.

[DaveJay]

I'm a little confused over who lives where but I thought I'd point out that Berri is a town on the bank of the Murray River not too far from both the NSW and Vic borders. Apart from the actual town and river banks the area would be described as arid Murray Mallee. I'll be there in the next couple of weeks, last year at the end of July I found 2nd instar Urodacus yaschenkoi (Desert Scorpion) already active in their own burrows so spring seems to be early there, hopefully the weather might lead to some ant species flying. I'll be keeping my eyes open anyway!

Edited by DaveJay, July 7 2018 - 5:39 AM.

[CoolColJ]

I'm a little confused over who lives where but I thought I'd point out that Berri is a town on the bank of the Murray River not too far from both the NSW and Vic borders. Apart from the actual town and river banks the area would be described as arid Murray Mallee. I'll be there in the next couple of weeks, last year at the end of July I found 2nd instar Urodacus yaschenkoi (Desert Scorpion) already active in their own burrows so spring seems to be early there, hopefully the weather might lead to some ant species flying. I'll be keeping my eyes open anyway!

 

The person who I got these queens from lives in Berri SA.

[DaveJay]

 

I'm a little confused over who lives where but I thought I'd point out that Berri is a town on the bank of the Murray River not too far from both the NSW and Vic borders. Apart from the actual town and river banks the area would be described as arid Murray Mallee. I'll be there in the next couple of weeks, last year at the end of July I found 2nd instar Urodacus yaschenkoi (Desert Scorpion) already active in their own burrows so spring seems to be early there, hopefully the weather might lead to some ant species flying. I'll be keeping my eyes open anyway!

 

The person who I got these queens from lives in Berri SA.

 

Oh yeah, that I got. I just meant the people replying, and yourself.

Because I'm very familiar with Berri and the surrounding area I thought I'd add a little more information on the general area the queens were collected in, take away the sprinklers and the place would almost be desert!

Also there was some discussion about which states certain suggested species occur in so I thought I'd point out that it is not far from where the NSW, Victoria and South Australian borders meet so a species listed as found in NSW or Vic might well be found in Berri as well.

I live in South Australia and often holiday in Berri or towns near it so I know it well, it's one of my favourite places to spend a holiday in.

Edited by DaveJay, July 9 2018 - 2:25 AM.

[CoolColJ]

I'm a little confused over who lives where but I thought I'd point out that Berri is a town on the bank of the Murray River not too far from both the NSW and Vic borders. Apart from the actual town and river banks the area would be described as arid Murray Mallee. I'll be there in the next couple of weeks, last year at the end of July I found 2nd instar Urodacus yaschenkoi (Desert Scorpion) already active in their own burrows so spring seems to be early there, hopefully the weather might lead to some ant species flying. I'll be keeping my eyes open anyway!

 
The person who I got these queens from lives in Berri SA.

Oh yeah, that I got. I just meant the people replying, and yourself.
Because I'm very familiar with Berri and the surrounding area I thought I'd add a little more information on the general area the queens were collected in, take away the sprinklers and the place would almost be desert!
Also there was some discussion about which states certain suggested species occur in so I thought I'd point out that it is not far from where the NSW, Victoria and South Australian borders meet so a species listed as found in NSW or Vic might well be found in Berri as well.
I live in South Australia and often holiday in Berri or towns near it so I know it well, it's one of my favourite places to spend a holiday in.

Well I suppose sometimes a 100km could be quite a drastic change in terrain and habitats

[DaveJay]

Yep, and it's about 300km north,north east from Adelaide so quite a bit different from there.