Desert Anting (7/1/2021)

    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 enthusiasts as well. Unfortunately, despite there being multiple inches of rain here, none of the ants in the area showed signs of nuptial flight. Later that night I visited another area that had received approximately an inch of rain, however nothing flew in this location as well.

    The following I went to the Northern side of the Mojave Desert in California. The one and only location I checked here at received upwards of two inches of rain. Upon arrival, I saw what was almost certainly the claustral cell (freshly-dug nest) of a queen ant.

   Mystery queen ant Chamber

    Unfortunately I was not able to find whoever dug this chamber, as the soil was too rocky for a thorough excavation. I looked around this area for over an hour, hoping to find another sign like the chamber, to no avail. Finally, just as the sun was starting to set, I stumbled across a definitive Myrmecocystus chamber, from which I caught the first queen of the trip, a Myrmecocystus mimicus. Nearby, I found another queen ant digging a claustral chamber. At first, I assumed she was just another Myrmecocystus mimicus, a common desert honeypot ant. However upon closer inspection, I realized I had found one of California's largest, and in my opinion, most beautiful honeypot ants, Myrmecocystus placodops.

Myrmecocystus placodops Chamber

    Later that evening and into the following morning, I found nine more of these queens in the surrounding area. These honeypots are the largest diurnal Myrmecocystus, boasting majors that reach sizes upwards of 8mm in length. They belong to the melliger of the Endiodioctes subgenus, a group which I have been wanting to keep in captivity for quite a while. They are very sparse in California, and are seldom collected in the state, despite being very common in other parts of the Desert Southwest. These queens were some of the largest Myrmecocystus I had ever seen, and finding them was a welcome surprise, a definite highlight of the trip. Here is some footage of the one and only nest I was able to find in the area.

    Overall, this was a great start to the Summer monsoon, and I look forward to seeing these queens found colonies and grow in captivity.