So ant season has really kicked off strong, with the better types of ants finally flying. First are the winter ants, but they have a high mortality rate so they're best left to nature instead of collecting them. Usually those fly march-april. Into may-june we start getting the carpenter ant flights here. Those are my big targets, as I love Carpenters most but also they tend to pay more per ant.
Just a handful of Carpenters from one night here:
And some macro views.
This is camponotus discolor, a medium sized carpenter ant with very stunning colours. It was just last year that I helped get this ant documented as occuring in Canada as previously it was not considered living here. Took some work, and sent in several specimens to be properly documented.
One of the key things to tell this one apart from similar species is the presence of facial hairs by the mandible, seen with macro or microscope view. Given its now documented, this lovely lady will not be a collected specimen but instead sold as someone's pet.
I found another, but there's some possibility that it could be camponotus caryae, given the darker black face. This one's identity is still being investigated, and I've personally kept this one for my own pet. She has workers due to hatch any time now.
This one I was pleasantly surprised to find. It is camponotus novaeboracensis. It's not rare to Canada by any means, but for my particular county it is not well documented or expected to be here. Very few records of it, if any at all, exist on the mainland here outside of protected preserves or the island, so to find this lovely in my neighborhood was a surprise. She's also a personal pet now as well, hoping she starts laying eggs soon. This is a large carpenter, larger than discolor or caryae, about the same size as camponotus pennsylvanicus.
This was a nice red legged morph of camponotus pennsylvanicus, the largest and most abundant carpenter species here
Up to 95% of my carpenter catches are these guys. She's got a bit of a dent on her gaster (abdomen) but otherwise she's a really pretty one. Usually they're full black.
The batches of ants collected from May have been sent in already, a couple hundred dollars worth. Next batch will have more ants as the more numerous species are next to fly. Typically I like to get the Carpenters sent in asap because they can gas themselves with their own formic acid when stressed, so the sooner after capture they're shipped the better as afterwards they're left to settle in calmly.
June brings the next ants, tetramorium immigrans, aka the pavement ant. Many may be familiar with these guys who swarm sidewalks in huge hordes as they fight one another. They're currently flying right now and I've been capturing them almost daily this week on my early morning walks (yuck, mornings). Can literally catch hundreds of them during their flights, and it's encouraged as they're a non-native ant from Europe but also one of the easiest beginner ants to keep as a pet as they're fairly forgiving of rookie mistakes and grow very fast. Not to mention they eat literally anything.
I made my own epoxy resin nest for my camponotus pennsylvanicus colony since they were outgrowing their test tube. Theyre a lazy colony, this individual colony likes to sleep a lot and tends to be very mellow and calm. Theyll grow into the full nest within the next 2 years and ill eventually do a 2nd one to connect to this one as an expansion.
One of my favourite places to find ants and observe other insect life. And birdwatching too. This little woodland is my home away from home. Can spend the day looking for fallen branches with holes in them which I break apart to look for ant queens or young colonies inside.
After tetramorium immigrans flights, I'll be expecting formica flights, or field ants. They typically are a late june-july-maybe august flyer on hot days, especially following rainfall. Hoping for a good find this year, formica aren't the most abundant for flights in my area, but there are some good ones around.