San Angelo Texas - Queen __?

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TexanAnts

San Angelo Texas - Queen __?

Post: # 31971Post TexanAnts
Sun Oct 01, 2017 11:24 pm

Yesterday (September 30, 2017) I went on a walk with a few friends to our college campus cafeteria. I was unsuccessful in finding queens for Pogonomyrmex Barabatus this year, and was still a bit bummed about it. I saw a large, black ant wandering around, but despite the rain of the day before I was not considering that it was a queen. One friend and I went back to the room ahead of the others, and it is thanks to his sight and interest when I talked about the ants that I found my queens at all! He spotted a dead elate being carried away by fire ants, and we were looking at the large, black ant. I was confused, as I knew there were nuptial flights but did not expect to see any elates.
Just past him, to the left, I saw a wandering black ant, a bit bigger.

She went onto my hand easily, didn't bite or run away from me at all. I am very excited to see her colony grow! However - I have only ever looked at Pogonomyrmex ants, as I was hoping to keep native ants. Being as I found this species in the wild, I am relieved that the ants are native.

I have some suspicions as to what she is - however, my research was exclusively over P. Barabatus, and thus I turn to you.

INFO:
Where
San Angelo, Texas within the United States.
I found them on the ASU campus in between twin rows of trees near a parking lot. They were on the sidewalk. (I found 3 queens here, all the same.)
When
Saturday, September 30, 2017. About 6 pm
Measurement - Body characteristics
I cannot accurately measure at this moment. Will edit with a measurement once I have borrowed my roommate's measuring tools
Appeared black on the sidewalk and outside, but the yellow light in the room made them appear more reddish
Photos:
I have 4 from when I first caught her-
Image
Image
Image
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She laid eggs between the time I caught her and October 1st. You can find those pics here:
Image
Image

Question to you:
I put her into a small tube originally after catching her, and transferred her over to a test tube setup later that night. Overnight she laid her eggs, and I became overjoyed with this. Now I find myself wondering how to set up an outworld. I won't need it for a while, but I will eventually. How do I go about making an outworld suited to this ant species? While I will not immediately need it, I would like to start working on it so that it is ready when the ants are ready.

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Phoenix
Posts: 642
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Location: Malaysia

Re: ID Request

Post: # 31982Post Phoenix
Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:17 am

Solenopsis Sp.
'Have Fun.' - Gabe Newell

PTasker15
Posts: 309
Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2017 9:41 am
Location: Houston,TX

Re: San Angelo Texas - Queen __?

Post: # 31983Post PTasker15
Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:36 am

Solenopsis Invicta-Go Look In May After Rain And It Will Be Hard To Walk And Not Step On One
Keeping ants for 6 years now.

Current Species: Camponotus pennsylvanicus, Camponotus decipiens,Camponotus snellingi Solenopsis invicta,Nylanderia sp,Brachmyrmex patagonicus,Pheidole obscurothorax,Pheidole moerens,Pachycondyla harpax

TexanAnts

Re: San Angelo Texas - Queen __?

Post: # 32042Post TexanAnts
Wed Oct 04, 2017 5:18 am

Thank you, I'm glad I have them ID'd now. It's a relief, as now I can set up an outworld ^^

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