In late October I came across an industrious group of
Harvester Ants. These ants of the genus
Pheidole exhibit dimorphism, having two different sizes of workers; a smaller
size dedicated to food gathering and general nest chores along with a larger
version that uses its extremely large head in defense of the colony. They are
primarily seed gatherers and were busy moving spent flowers into their nest. I assume there were some edible seeds
included with the flowers.
The ants had located their nest in a shallow mound of bare
soil. The plants in the upper right of
the photo are Draba cuneifolia, a rare winter annual. I’ll be checking this plant population later
in the year, so I’ll take some time then to see if I can identify these ants to
species.
As usual, I was behind on the amount of work I had hoped to
accomplish for the day, so I only took the time to get a couple of still shots
and a short video. The huge headed
individuals seemed to be constantly on the move. My presence may have disturbed their normal
behavior, but I didn’t notice them until I was almost on top of the nest, so I
don’t know what they were up to a few seconds earlier.
