myrmecophil 的最愛

Few workers seen. Thought it was a Pheidole minor on field, but seems to have the Tetramorium-ridge. Following the afrotropical species group keys I end up in aculeatum group, but I don't really think so.
Closest I see is these two
-https://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?name=casent0249006&countryName=South%20Africa
-https://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?name=casent0813734&countryName=South%20Africa
both from the North east of the country, not part of the cape botanical region

Great, the only Cremastocheline I see the whole trip is not even a myrmecophile.
Found attracted to the laundromat lights after a long black out.
Seemed to be quite common around here, seen alot flying around

At 8 o'clock in the morning, I saw Nomamyrmex esenbeckii attack a large group of Atta laevigata, sting atta workers, kill them, rush into the nest to snatch the larva pupae, and the ground fight atta was no longer capable of recovery. The fighting continued underground, but it lasted until 10: 00, when Nommyrmex retreated after the pupa harvest was sufficient. The atta workers lost a lot, the Nomamyrmex workers very little

So... these ants. did not expect the first ants to see in the middle east to be Iridomyrmex*es.
Regarding the *"invasive" I. anceps records outside of Australia, specimens from Indomalayan regions turned out to be separate native lineages while New Zealand populations were later reidentified to be suchieri. Now only a handfull of localities are left with introduced anceps records, and the Iridomyrmex I've found in Dubai were keyed out to be suchieri and I personally think all other records could also actually be not anceps

They seemed to be enjoying the similar warm dry weather, with no other dolichoderin to compete. Picture qualities suck as I wasn't really patient enough to wait for good shots and cropped out from far focused pictures.

Was being carried around by a Formica fusca worker. I first thought it was prey, but when I scooped them up I noticed the beetle was alive. They stayed together for over 24 hours without any aggression. Apparently these are specialized myrmecophiles

Dead Nomamyrmex esenbeckii army-ant major engaged in battle with dead Atta texana worker. I found 6 dead esenbeckii army ants on top of a large Atta texana mound (the 6 dead workers in third photo), and one of these esenbeckii majors had died while battling an Atta texana worker (first 2 photos). I had written before that I started to look for dead Nomamyrmex on top of Atta texana mounds, and this is the second time I found Nomamyrmex army ants associated with Atta texana. I searched during two days about 40 Atta texana mounds carefully for the presence of dead Nomamyrmex, and this is the only Nomamyrmex I found among these 40 Atta texana mounds.

Interestingly, this Nomamyrmex observation today was only about 70 meter distant from where I had found dead Nomamyrmex a year earlier in March 2022, at that time on top of a near-abandoned Atta texana mound (see here https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108890321). It appears that a single Nomamyrex esenbeckii colony may have hounded the Atta texana at this site repeatedly (maybe continuously?) during the last year.

I used the Watkins 1977 & 1982 keys to ID this to esenbeckii (e.g., post-occipital sulcus present).

elevation 16 meter
observation UGM230209-16

First Proceratium I've ever seen in NY! Very exciting find for me to add to the Ithaca list. One worker, under large semi-embedded flat rock
Looks like crassicorne? Really having trouble keying this definitively.