During one of my recent queen hunts, my mom noticed a peculiar-looking ant walking around. However, when I checked the ant out, she had run into the grass. I pressed my hand down as hard as I could, trying to flush the ant out of the grass. A moment later, the ant ran out of the grass into my container, where I identified her as a Myrmica queen. Today, she has several eggs, which the queen is guarding in the photo.
One day I was looking out an office window and spotted movement in the gravel next to my dad’s boat. Intrigued, I grabbed several containers and headed outside to investigate. When I reached the gravel, it took a moment to spot the movement again, but I saw the movement. I quickly caught whatever it was, and it turned out to be a queen ant! I would later identify her as a Formica subsericea queen, which is a polygynous species in my area. I did not combine any of the queens I found though, because I did not know the species at the time of capture.
On my most recent queen expedition, I found a Formica sp. queen. I actually do not know what species she is, but she does have two hard-to-see eggs. One species she could be is Formica rufibarbis, but something appears different with this ant which may indicate that she isn’t an F. rufibarbis queen.
