Ant Raid

Gordon C. Snelling · Post by **Gordon C. Snelling** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:11 am

Dorymyrmex bicolor
Apparently raiding a colony of Myrmecocystus mexicanus in my front yard, Apple Valley California. Massed ants were carting off larvae of the Myrmecocystus.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:37 am

Really a sharp photograph there Gordon.

A bit on the bright side but not bad I would say and the DOF is incredible, did you stack this image? I have tried shots like this in the past with very little luck or turnout.

jmlphoto · Post by **jmlphoto** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:07 am

ants are fast critters. we dont got those ants over in our mountains never seen them before. great swarm shot.

Planapo · Post by **Planapo** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 8:45 am

Very nice find, Gordon! I wish I could find something alike in our yard.

Cheers,
Betty

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 4:23 pm

Excellent work Gorden. That is a huge hole for an ant colony. I remember seeing a cooked bean (like a blackeyed pea) that had dropped on the dining room floor and I noticed some holes and bean dust on the floor like something was drilling into the bean and it turned out to be ants that were smaller than .5mm long.

Gordon C. Snelling · Post by **Gordon C. Snelling** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 8:29 pm

Thanks everyone.

Ken I got very lucky with this one aside from the image being a bit overly bright. Not stack, just luck of the draw.

jmlphoto Those ants are very common any place that does not have argentine ants and should be abundant in any of the Southern California low elevation mtn ranges.

beetleman, the species of ant they are raiding typically has very large holes the ants themselves are quite large. Interesting that the ants were digging into the bean, I would suspect they were a species of fire ant in the S. molesta group

Betty Im lucky my yard is kind of rural.