|
||||
 |
Do I have an ant queen? What does an ant queen look like? Because I frequently am asked these questions by beginning ant enthusiasts, let’s go over what you need to look for to tell if the ant you have seen or captured is a queen. (Note: this guide is for ants with a morphologically distinct queen. [...] Right on cue the Solenopsis xyloni have been swarming in Phoenix. At eight in the morning, the new queens are climbing up grass stalks and leaves. Any idea why the worker ants are standing on and huddled around the queens? I’ll give you a hint. You might be able to spot two of the reasons near the center line [...] Solenopsis xyloni reproductive prepares to fly. William Morton Wheeler had this to say about swarming in Ants: Their Structure Development and Behavior (1910) page 183: “When the hour for the nuptial flight grows near, a strange excitement pervades the ranks of the workers. At such times even the blind and etiolated workers of the hypogaeic species [...] On a recent trip to Colorado, I got to spend a few hours in the Rocky Mountains at about 7500 feet. It was an ant lovers paradise. Virtually ever stone I flipped had a colony of ants under it. I found six different species in no time flat. Although I tried to disturb them as little [...] |
|
||
|
Copyright © 2012 Wild About Ants - All Rights Reserved |
||||
