A colony of ants busy moving their pupae on the trunk of a camphor tree
Here's a take:
This species was the most common Zealleyella in the Table mountains and in Montagu. Similar to custodiens but smaller (similar to steingroeveri), legs shorter, less constricted mesosoma, all especially in the largest workers. Because of the silky silver pubescens this species was originally considered a subtaxon of custodiens (see Arnold, 1922). Pubescens are distinctly less than custodiens, however hard to separate in most pictures. Majority of custodiens, rufescens, and steingroeveri observations seem to be this species especially in the western cape area. Since Anoplolepis is not the best devised taxon, there still are taxa like Anoplolepis steingroeveri parsonsi which seems inseparable from fallax, but since fallax stands valid and was described before that subspecies I believe its enough to label this fallax for now
Set up two sheets for blacklighting, this one on a mangrove trail and the other in a more open, disturbed area. Both sheets were lit by UV blacklights powered by USB battery packs.
You can learn more about the lights I used and my typical, simple setups here: https://youtu.be/tavmTa7WoPk
Cami was competing in the Shell Hacks Hackathon at the FIU BBC campus while I bioblitzed for hours. I started by just walking around near where I parked, focused on insects and birds and then set up two sheets for blacklighting.
All my observations from this trip to the BBC campus:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2023-09-15&order_by=observed_on&place_id=any&user_id=joemdo
My blacklighting observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2023-09-15&order_by=observed_on&place_id=any&project_id=blacklighting-florida&user_id=joemdo
Blacklighting project for Florida on iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/blacklighting-florida
Workers and alates emerging after the previous night's rain.
Video: https://youtu.be/7--N4GuJos0
Every distal parts white: wing veins, mandibles, even the genitalia. and thats something
Alates flying to lights, workers baited on the edge of the grass 390 ft south, next to the terminal dropoff. Undefeated 3.5 hr layover snipe.
specimens uploaded to AntWeb: https://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=antweb1041747
found between stones
Big queen. Scutum and scutellum with well defined striation (see 13th slide).
https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Key_to_Tetramorium_semilaeve_complex_queens
Type specimens:
https://www.antweb.org/images.do?subfamily=myrmicinae&genus=tetramorium&species=galaticum&rank=species&countryName=Turkey
Found and collected by Eren Arslan, photographed by Hüseyin Ter. Published with permission.
Es una de las 41 especies de hormigas cortadoras de hojas. Esta especie pertenece a la tribu Attini (hormigas que cultivan hongos). Una colonia de hormigas puede estar compuesta por hasta 5 millones de individuos. Se alimentan de hongos cultivados por ellas mismas