The year is full of seasonal events. Some I like and some I don’t. As I was heading home yesterday evening, the
road through our nearest town was closed in preparation for the annual fall
street fair. That’s one of those events
I don’t like. When I finally pulled into
my driveway, I saw a large dragonfly swarm circling the Prairie Garden
Ants taking off on their mating flight remind me of chumming
the water for sharks. Dragonflies come
from all directions to feed on the ants.
This is usually an evening event and the lowering sun lights up both
ants and dragonflies. Unfortunately,
it’s almost impossible for me to capture a photo that comes close to
illustrating the beauty of the interaction between these two insects. Nobody would guess that this photo contained
a couple dozen flying ants and four dragonflies.
Occasionally I’ll capture an image that is recognizable as a
dragonfly. They all appeared to be
Common Green Darners.
Other photos seem more suited to proving the existence of
pixies or tiny x-winged fighters cruising above the fields of Blue Jay Barrens.
The dragonflies seemed to be targeting the large queen
ants. The queen’s flight was rather slow
and there was a good bet that a dragonfly would nab her before she topped an
altitude of 12 feet. I think I just
caught the tail end of the swarming event.
I probably would have been home in time to see the entire swarm if I hadn't had to detour around town. During the peek of the swarm there would have been far too many ants in
the air for the dragonflies to have caused much damage. Those last few ants would have been trying to
survive a sky full of predators.
The ants attempt to reach a high point
The workers and winged males were very small. I had to crawl with my face almost to the
ground in order to find them. During the
search, the neighbors drove past the house.
They just waved. I guess my
behavior no longer strikes them as being odd.
Amidst all of the workers was one that carried an ant cocoon
in its jaws. I guess being late hatching
doesn’t excuse you from swarming.
Every fall we have 15-20 Green Darners feeding in the back yard. I just like to get in the middle and watch the activity,almost like a pack of wolves.
ReplyDeleteI like this fall event, too. The menacing clacking of the dragonflies' wings as they dip down on the upward flying ants is somehow primally fearsome!
ReplyDeleteWhile it is true that the workers and males of the first ants you show in your first pictures are considerably smaller than the females, it looks to me from your later pictures that you might have photographed two different species of ants, the first being what E.O.Wilson dubbed the "Labor Day ant", Lasius neoniger, and the second the much smaller Brachymyrmex deplis. Of course, Of course, I'm going on Gestalt, not technical characters, so .....
Hi Rick. I enjoy doing the same thing.
ReplyDeleteHi James. You could be quite right about the species. I found the winged males by tracking the female's departure point, but although I found females in the grass in that area, I never saw any interaction between the queens and the workers I photographed.