Monday, June 19, 2017

This Week in Anting: Exploring the Mt. Cuba Center


This week I got to explore the ants at the Mt. Cuba Center, a former DuPont estate located in Delaware. Today it's a ~600 acre native plant preserve of which about 45 have been turned walkable gardens.
PLEASE NOTE: this is not a place you would ever bring a shovel to dig for ants. It is an actual garden, you need to stay on the paths, there's no flipping logs or rocks or ripping the bark off of trees as is typically done when looking for ants, and of course this survey was done with permission. 

Samples collected are going to be shipped off to AntWeb.org, run out of the California Academy of Science, and School of Ants, a citizen science project based in Florida.

Most Common Species Found: Formica subsericea, Aphaenogaster rudis, Lasius alienus, Temnothorax curvipinosus, Solenopsis molesta, Camponotus chromaiodes, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, Camponotus americanus, Nylanderia flavipes, Tetramorium caespiteum

Unidentified species: Monomorium sp., Formica cf. pallidefulva, Nylanderia sp., Lasius cf. neoniger, (Might have collected Tapinoma sessile and a Myrmica sp. but unsure as of now.)

Ants Seen From Past Trips but not Collected: Prenolepis imparis, Dorymyrmex sp.

Observations: (1) With hundreds of colonies of Formica subsericea in their meadow one slave making species or Polyergus colony could seriously change the power dynamic of their meadow garden. The invasive Tetramorium caespitum had surprisingly uncommon.

(2) Digging into the soil and flipping logs especially in the wild woodland areas would likely yield additional species such as Lasius clavigar, Lasius interjectus, and Lasius umbratus. All three are subterranean aphid farmers that rarely come to the surface for food. Further diligence would likely produce species of Strumigenys and Proceratium as well.

(3) It's odd no Crematogaster species were found. Likewise none of the smaller Camponotus species were observed. Tapinoma sessile should have been more common too given the amount of leaf litter and dead wood used in the gardens, I'm not even certain it was collected or that I even saw it there. All three are notorious nectar thieves of flowers so it's strange to have not seen any of these.