haplodiploid's Favorites

basically a Camponotus s.str. with an incised clypeus. I wonder if its just another enlarged Myrmentoma, but mitochondrial trees showed it to be unrelated to Camponotus(Myrmentoma) nipponensis, but again, nipponensis is another odd ball so...

Collected in a small patch of roadside meadow under a stone, in association with Solenopsis fugax (typical form).
The Solenopsis were nested near Lasius flavus, Plagiolepis sp. and Tetramorium impurum colonies.

colony with both long and short wings
As far as I know, no such cases are reported in wild, other than long winged individual alates(not from a colony) found in the states.
Such intraspecies diversities seem to be high in the south east of the peninsula where landbridge formed between Japan in lower sea levels. intriguing

and there's a gynandromorph, of course. Its not the usual half-and-half mosaic, but a patchy one. Possibly caused by the species' unique sex determination systems

An undescribed (this being the first documentation as far as I’m aware) social parasite of Solenopsis pergandei that strongly resembles its host but with several key differences: queens are half the size of S. pergandei queens, have a smaller gaster/eyes, longer hairs, and a larger head relative to thorax. Cooperates in colony foundation alongside freshly mated S. pergandei queens with no apparent aggression.

So... these ants. did not expect the first ants to see in the middle east to be Iridomyrmex*es.
Regarding the *"invasive" I. anceps records outside of Australia, specimens from Indomalayan regions turned out to be separate native lineages while New Zealand populations were later reidentified to be suchieri. Now only a handfull of localities are left with introduced anceps records, and the Iridomyrmex I've found in Dubai were keyed out to be suchieri and I personally think all other records could also actually be not anceps

They seemed to be enjoying the similar warm dry weather, with no other dolichoderin to compete. Picture qualities suck as I wasn't really patient enough to wait for good shots and cropped out from far focused pictures.

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis x maricopa hybrid imaged at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum at a during a recent visit. I forgot to collect more percise locality and date data, next time I visit I will image the specimen label.