About Winter Ants?

[SpeciesK]

Somewhere, I forget where , it talked about Winter Ants, which are active when its cold out and go inactive in the Summer. I wonder if they could be native to Indiana? That would be interesting. I actually looked around on the ground to see if I saw ANY ants yesterday when it had been sort of warm for a few days, but didn't see any insects at all. Do you know anyone who has kept Winter Ants?

[Martialis]

Somewhere, I forget where , it talked about Winter Ants, which are active when its cold out and go inactive in the Summer. I wonder if they could be native to Indiana? That would be interesting. I actually looked around on the ground to see if I saw ANY ants yesterday when it had been sort of warm for a few days, but didn't see any insects at all. Do you know anyone who has kept Winter Ants?

Try looking at http://antmaps.org and http://antwiki.org. They've both got detailed info regarding many different species, including Prenolopis imaparis. They're actually more polygonous the further south in their range. As for nuptial flights, here's a bit from antwiki:

Mr. Burrill's observations show that the ants do very little excavating during the winter but that this sets in suddenly a few days before the nuptial flight. This, as I have frequently noticed, takes place as early as the latter fortnight of March or the first fortnight of April.

Fortnights are periods of two weeks.