Bay Area Ants

     Here in the Bay Area, a lot of our native ants have their mating flights in the season of spring. While there are a lot of species that have this trait, I personally focus on a few to collect and raise. For me, they are ants in the Camponotus, Myrmecocystus  and Pogonomyrmex subgenera.     Each of these genera has a specific, somewhat unique trait that makes me want to observe and document their behaviors even more. For Camponotus , it is their large majors (soldiers) that they make as the colony progresses. It is exciting to see what triggers their production, and how they serve different roles in the colonies in comparison to normal workers. For the genus Myrmecocystus , their production of large sweet-filled storage ants called repletes make them a joy to keep and observe. In the case of Pogonomyrmex , I really enjoy watching them harvest seeds. They are a type of harvester ant, which makes them one of the handful of genera that will actively search out and store seeds.     One