Bay Area Ants

     Just the other day, I was strolling around my backyard when something caught my eye. There was an abnormally fat ant sitting on one of the trees in my backyard. I knew that there were ants licking the nectar off of the tree, but I had never seen an ant of this size. It's gaster, or rear end, was inflated with a clear liquid. These are false honeypot ants, also known as winter ants. Their scientific name is Prenolepis Imparis . They are one of the species that have multiple queens! Anyways, in this post, I will explain how these bloated ants become the way they are, and the purpose they serve in their colony. This is the replete that was sitting on my tree:     As you can probably see, this ant has a very bloated gaster. In a winter ant colony, certain workers will be designated as repletes. These ants are tasked with the job of being moving food storage for the colony. They will eat a lot, and therefore become bloated. The repletes then regurgitate t...

    Ant colonies are often thought of as pests, but very few people have actually went deep into the fundamentals of the ant world. This post will be about how a colony functions during their reproductive and founding stages. The Start     A colony starts off with a single queen, which is born as a winged, unfertilized queen ant (alate). This queen will be born to another colony, and cared for and raised by the workers. Male alates are also cared for and raised by the workers. In fact, the only males in the most and colonies are male alates, all workers (and queens) are female.  So once the winged queen is born, does she just fly away and lay eggs? Well, not exactly. She does fly away, but in a much more organized way, called nuptial flights. These nuptial flights are triggered when certain weather patterns take place. These often include rain (especially in deserts), humidity, and warmth. During a nuptial flight, multiple colonies will send their al...

        Welcome to Bay Area Ants! On this blog, I will explore the fascinating and diverse world of ants, including, but not only, ants in the San Francisco Bay Area. These creatures are much more interesting than most people think. For example, did you know that ants started farming well before humans ever roamed the earth? Or that ants have wrestling matches to settle territory disputes? If you find this interesting, you have come to the right place. Enjoy!