ANTSTORE World of Ants

[McK]

Original blog Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar. (Dutch)

Pogonomyrmex barbatus or the red harvest ant is a species that is mainly distributed in the South-West of the States, in terms of behavior they are a lot like their closest relative Pogonomyrmex rugosus. Barbatus prefers a more moist nest than rugosus, but that is not necessary, in some places these two families life very close to each other and during some nuptial flights, the males of barbatus will mate with the queens of rugosus and vice versa.
Like most other species, Pogonomyrmex will strip the close vicinity of the nest completely bald and the workers will also suppress all types of vegetation.
There are several theories why they do this, some say that it is easier to detect attackers, others say that it is to mark their territory, but so far no real answer has been found.
Like other American harvester ants, the bite of this species is very painful and it is best to avoid the ants, but sometimes this is difficult as they are often too keen to use it with every opportunity. They also close their nest every night with small stones to prevent intrusion from other ants.

Two pictures with my new camera, the colony has four workers at the moment and the queen just started laying eggs again.
(Click the pictures for more detail.)

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[JimmyVe]

Great ants McK.

[McK]

How are yours doing by the way?

[JimmyVe]

She has 2 workers but not a lot of brood.

[McK]

Yeah, the first year is extremely slowly with this species, just make sure they have a couple of seeds, a dry piece of mealworm and a water source.

[McK]

A picture of the queen feeding on a piece of mealworm.

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[Phasmid]

Nice shot

[JimmyVe]

Looks like she is still doing great, sadly mine died...

[McK]

Looks like she is still doing great, sadly mine died...

Ah that sucks, do you know why she died?

[JimmyVe]

No... She was doing great, but a few days ago i spotted here outside of the tube, and that isn't a good sign.

[McK]

No... She was doing great, but a few days ago i spotted here outside of the tube, and that isn't a good sign.

Did you gave her some seeds?

[JimmyVe]

At first not. But after a few weeks i put some small seeds into the out world, they didn't take them. They had everything they needed (i think). Hope your colony will do better.

[McK]

A small update. Original blog Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar. (Dutch)

The colony is doing fine and the first second-generation worker has already developed.
There is also a lot of brood and I'm hoping the colony manages to increase a lot in numbers this time.

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[Zagone]

This is a genus I'd love to keep along side my Messors. They are both very similar, but oh so different at the same time. How large are these compared to Messor Barbarus?

Also, I'm pretty sure these sting too, don't they?

But very nice pictures, and I'm glad the colony is doing good; will be looking forward to seeing them prosper.

[McK]

Well, this species doesn't have different castes so a normal worker is around 8mm.
And yes, the sting of this species is the third most painful insect sting in the world, I don't really want to know how it feels though lol