Southern Colorado, 4 Queen

[Diamione]

Hello and welcome fellow ant enthusiats!
Hope your surviving this summer well!
Thanks for your time and help! Hope you enjoy the ant photos!

I waited a while to do another post here, didn't want to seem spammy.

It finally rained after more than a month!
I may go for another walk tomorrow morning and see if there are any surprizes crawling about.
Sadly, though I came across 2, what I can only assume were black carpenter ant colonies, its too late to snage a queen from them this year....

Mostly need to know which if any are semi-claustral!
Of course the species name is welcome tooo. hahahah
None have stingers as far as I can tell.


I'm most excited about this first one!
ANT 1

Size: 2 cm
When: 8:30 PM July 21st
Where: Residential area, yard corner, near fence, dirt, coming out of hole
Appearance: Big, red. Square head. 2 round petioles. no spikes on thorax. Large dark mandibles.
Seems to have whiskers behind mandibles. Shiny light orange hairs on top of thorax and gaster
Behaviour: Calm, cleaning herself. She was very mad at first but it general calm now.
Picture(s):

Additionally: Not happy when I first collected her. X"D
I didn't see any nanitics or other ants near her or her hole, so hopefully I caught her early.


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ANT 2

I caught 9 of these beauties today!
I'm thinking they are Harvester Ants.

Size: 12-15mm
When: 7:30-8:00 pm July 21st
Where: Sidewalks, searching for holes; Residential areas
Appearance: Small narrow mandibles. Dark orange head/thorax. Big round Black Gaster which is orange underneath.
One sharp Petiole. No spikes on Thorax.
Behaviour: Light sensitive. calm. no good at clinging to sides (when taking pictures)
Picture(s):

Additionally:


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ANT 3

Size: 8-9mm, slim
When: 8:00 Pm, July 21st
Where: Sidewalk, residential area
Appearance: Narrow build. small head, average (to head) mandibles. Head and thorax is reddish-orange and gaster is black with orange underneath. has small hairs on end of gaster.
Behaviour: Occasionaly tries to chew the dry cotton end of the tube.
Picture(s):Pictues don't do it justice, its darker in the photos.

Additionally:


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Now looking at the imahes this oculd be the same as Ant 2.....


ANT 4

Size: 12-14mm
When: 6:30 pm, July 21st
Where: Sidewalk, residential area
Appearance: Blackish orange, thare is dark orange but there seems to be a lot of black splotches mixed in.
Narrow mandbiles. Can't make out the petioles, still has wings (obvs)
Behaviour: not disturbed by the light. Calm
Picture(s):

Additionally:

[antperson24]

As long as your asking for IDs, I don't think you need to worry about spamming.

Ant 1 is Pogonomyrmex. They do sting, and I hear it's quite powerful; however, I doubt the queen will. They are also semi-claustral, you will need to feed her seeds and also some insects. As this genus is not present in my state I don't know a whole lot more about them.

Ant 2 and 4 are Formica, likely pallidefulva. They are fully-claustral.

Ant 3 is Solenopsis xyloni. They are fully-claustral, and also sting.

Hope this helps you.

[Diamione]

Hehehehe
Working overnights I sometimes find quite a few queens during the summer.
It feels awkward posting every few days. X"D

So THIS is the harvester! hahahah
Well I still have some mini outworlds.

Oh wow, Formica, that wasn't even on my radar! With any luck I'll have some viable queens in this batch. ^^

Ahhhh a fire ant. I may have to take them to a nearby forest.
My housemates tolerate my hobby but not fire ants specifically.

Thanks again for your help!
Hope you have a great day!