Ant Activity

Yesterday, the ants in my area where very active because there was a big storm the night before and it was very humid. So I witnessed a lot of interesting stuff. First off, all the colonies were really agressive. The carpenter ant colony (which I found a few days earlier in a tree trunk) seems to be the main target. The F. incerta and F. galacialis colonies all have dispatched workers over there, and can often be seen carrying back bodies of rival raiders, carpenter ant workers (even majors) and pupae. I saw one F. incerta worker carrying the body of her nestmate, with the body of an enemy worker attached by the mandibles! While she was carrying this heavy load back, she had to cross a colony of tiny pavement ants (Tetramorium sp. E) that had entrenched by her nest entrance. They seemed to come out of nowhere, and they started climbing on the load, and eventually the worker let it go and scrambled to her nest, probably to get help.

I have often noticed that Tetramorium nest by the colonies of larger ants. They rob the larger ants of their prey when they return to the nest. I'll have to look in to that some more. Anywhay, I also managed to catch a Lasius neoniger queen, and I am going to try and raise a colony.There was also a huge, black and yellow wasp flying around. Today I saw F. incerta hauling in the body. A little bit of a relief.

Posted on July 14, 2011 10:35 PM by eagle300