Bay Area Ants

    In the last week of June, the deserts of Southern California received some much needed moisture from the annual Southwestern Monsoon, which brings moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California (more on this weather phenomenon here ) to the Southwestern United States. Many ants of the Southern California desert use this rain as as signal to begin their mating flights, and when these first monsoon rains hit I was able to visit some areas that received rain from this first storm, and find some wonderful ant species One of the Myrmecocystus placodops  Queens found during the trip     The first location I visited was, unfortunately, deprived of much life at all. Although the washes were somewhat lush with vegetation, the surrounding landscaped was bone-dry, with most plants dead or dying, due to the lackluster winter rains earlier this year. I did however see a desert tortoise here, a welcome sign of life.     I  stayed here into the night and met a few other ant enthusias