Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was out this morning after my supply of P. rugosus. It's been raining a little each afternoon this week which has their activity up. While digging a little I was able to capture about 8 queens. My question (Gordon ) is, how can I get some drones? I watered the rugosus colony near my driveway this evening but none have come out yet.

Which is my segway into the next topic. While I was out looking at the rugosus just a little while ago I found a solare perched right above it eating. This is less than 30 feet from my house, which is pretty cool. I knew they were in the area, but the previous land lord said he'd never seen one here. The odd thing though, is that he was feeding about 40 minutes after sunset or so. It was still just barely light enough to see him.
I saw this same thing on a recent ant trip. I had collected my last bottles of ants with just enough light to find my way back to my truck. I thought I'd drive up the road, maybe see a rattler or something. Sure enough I find this huge male solare sitting on a colony eating.
It was interesting, at least to me.
Cheers!
-----
www.phrynosoma.com

In Texas it is not at all unusual to see horned lizards out in the very late evening. But the way I view this has to do with the tempratures. We know that most lizards even desert species cannot take long hours of heat, a case in point-my orcutti swifts which came from around Palm Springs, although they are out during the day when the temps are in the 80's to 90's even 95, but as soon as it gets too hot, they go in for the day. Usually around 4:00 in the evening they come out get very active and feed heavily. I have found them after dark running around the screen on the cage. So I believe this may have something with the time of year and the tempratures. If it was down in the 80's I think they would or might be active through the day more, but with high temps, I think they take a siesta during the hot part and come out at night. I also believe that HL's can smell as well as visiually find ant sights.
-----
Phrynosoma.com

______

signature file edited. [phw 11/14/04]

Hey Lou,
I'm sure you are correct about the temps. You don't see much reptile activity at all around noon here. It's been up above 105 almost every day now.
The thing about smelling ants would be interesting to try and prove. If this guy sticks around maybe I'll get some photos or video.
-----
www.phrynosoma.com

That solare was still out by the ant hole this morning so I snapped a quick photo.

-----
www.phrynosoma.com

Cable
Your absolute best bet is going to be to wait until they actually fly and the queens are actively looking for nest sites. Here in the Mojave they go when the monsoon hits, such as it is here, last summer they were everywhere. If you manage to capture males in the nest the odds of successful mating is about zero. Last week I found hundreds of Pogonomyrmex magnacanthus queens near Yucca Valley along with a few P. californicus.
Gordon

Thanks for saving me some time Gordon. I'm sure you are right about the rains and catching them at that time.
I remember seeing a load of subnititus queens on the dirt road up in the mountains of Cali last season. They had already shed their wings so must have been mated. Is this what I should look for here? or put out a black light and try and catch them in the act?
-----
www.phrynosoma.com

Cable, go for those that have shed their wings, as you surmise they have mated although in some cases not successfully. Always be sure to collect several dealates as there will be some mortality and it would suck to collect one or two and have them both expire.

Years ago I lived near Dallas, TX and observed some interesting behavior in Texas HL (cornutum). A cold front came through, with rain and temperature dipping into low 50's. I had a large, outdoor habitat and late one night (around midnight) I went out to check of my HLs during the storm. They were all out and active. I couldn't believe it, being so cold and wet. I always wondered why they would be out so late, in such bad weather...wonder now if they were displaying some opportunistic predation on "ants in the storm"?