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While out gathering after an all day rain, I happened to suck up about a dozen alates ( barbatus ). I figured it was far too late in the season now and too cold today to find any reproductives. Is there any easy way to determine whether they are males or queens? Body size? Does this time of year make it more likely that multiple alates near the colony surface are just males?
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"A man that should call everything by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy." The Complete Works of George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax 1912,246

I can answer part of that. Males are smaller and don't have much in the way of mandibles for eating. My understanding is that males don't eat. The females will have large mandibles and just look like a much larger worker.

What time of year did you see the mated queens? After a rain? Morning or evening?
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Phrynosoma.Org
Phrynosoma.Com

Cable pretty much got. The males have a smaller less developed gaster, er abdomen. The females do indeed look just like much larger winged workers. I think what you are finding is those few sexuals which did not fly during the flight season. I am still getting sporadic alates of P. rugosus showing up at my house, but the odds of the queens being fertile is about zero. Yesterday I looked at one of the colonies in my yard and noticed about a dozen dead alate queens at the colony entrance. I suspect they are ebing turned out to die so as not to drain colony resources over the winter.

Saw these just yesterday. Vacuumed up 11 of them. It had been raining all day and was rather chilly. Not all survived.
The last ones I caught were earlier in the summer, normally just after a rain, but sometimes not. First one I saw hanging out near the colony entrance I nearly dived on...only later to find that around some colonies there were several hanging out. And if I aggitated the workers sufficiently, they seemed to be moving the winged ones to different chambers/tunnels, or forcing them to the surface because so many workers were trying to come up and attack.

OK, so "queens" or males?

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"A man that should call everything by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy." The Complete Works of George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax 1912,246

Huge mandibles. Look like queens.
I have a theory that these carry more nutrients than regular workers. It seems they would be good food and I know the HL's are attracted to just about anything with wings.
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Phrynosoma.Org
Phrynosoma.Com

Yeah I thought so, but the mandibles look not all that "beefy" for eating. Very fragile looking in comparison to the workers.
I've used these before as treats, when I didn't need to cultivate them. I think it stands to reason they would be more nutritious than the workers. I'd like to use these over the winter to cultivate but it sounds like chances are they're useless this late in the year.
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"A man that should call everything by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy." The Complete Works of George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax 1912,246

Queens without question. Possibly P. maricopa. However they will not breed and not be useful for founding a colony. However as has been mentioned they are great treats for your lizards.

maricopa? Up here in Wichita Falls, Tx.? I realize range maps cannot be taken as a strict interpretation, but are they known in this area?
I just received the book by Cole yesterday. Still trying to work it out. It is difficult to work with, especially when you're not very familiar with entomology terms. But after sampling numerous workers from the colonies in which these queens were gathered:
1. the cephalic rugae are fine, close set, and produce luster, especially about the head.
2. epinotal spines pronounced and canted slightly rearward.
3. there is a pronounced notch or spine on the bottom of the petiole.
4. the body is usually concolorous, except for a few examples where the gaster is sometimes slightly bi-colored ( little darker at the posterior.) and had a very shiny "candy apple red" luster.
5. thorax, petiole, & postpetiole contours of workers and the queens gathered are more consistent with barbatus complex and inconsistent with profile of maricopa...according to this book.

Some colonies I find are pebbled mound type of various size, some in more open and less hard ground ( fields )are flat circular dirt or have pebbles. All these examples appear pretty much the same except for subtle coloration differences. One small colony I recently found which was obscure in rocky ground, with the entrance hidden at the base of a tuft of grass, contained workers that were an orange coloration and I thought they might be P. comanche.

But what do I know yet, I'm a herp guy. Determining species and subspecies on these things seems to be a chore. Telling HLs, turtles, and snakes apart is easy by comparison. I'm sure you would need examples or good close ups to tell for sure. I had to hold my jewelers lens up to the camera to get those shots.
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"A man that should call everything by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy." The Complete Works of George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax 1912,246

You are quite correct, it is definitely not anything related to P. maricopa, the spines alone rule that group out. I would have to say based on your information we are looking at P. barbatus. When I looked at your pics I did not see the spines. P. barbatus is quite wide spread and I think would certainly be in your neck of the woods. I am not sure about species from the californicus group.
You are quite correct the keys are kind of tough I would suggest you look for a copy of the "Ants of Deep Canyon" or "The Ants of Nevada" By George and Jeanette Wheeler, although not for your area, they have good figures which will be helpful and a good glossary as well.

Thanks Gordon. I'll check out those other books too. I didn't think to take a good profile that would show the spines until I got the book. I find on pg. 125 though that there are P. maricopa "variants" in Texas. Just not this far up apparently.

So P. comanche would be californicus group, but also maricopa complex? On the P. comanche, distribution shows it to be pretty close though it is a "maricopa complex" and the ones collected south of here by Wheeler had very short unpronounced spines. It was stated that some in far west Texas were mistaken at first by Wheeler to be occidentalis because they had long spines. I'll just have to get you some good pics on these questionable one's I have with the funny lighter color and spines. A maricopa/barbatus complex hybrid?

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"A man that should call everything by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy." The Complete Works of George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax 1912,246

Actually P. comanche was originally described as a subspecies of P. occidentalis so would still be a part of the occidentalis group. There are known hybrid locations of P. barbatus and P. occidentalis in Arizona so a hybrid is possible but I think not as likely in this case. The species group /complex thing can get very confusing at times. And I cant always keep up with it as it seems to change with the wind. However if you wish you can send me a few worker specimens and I will take a look at them for you.