49: Harvester Ants

I write to you from Arapahoe, Ute, and Cheyenne land. I am interested in learning about the different animals that live in the place where I was born. Before we start with today’s animal, I want to emphasize that biological classification as understood by western society has its roots in racism, sexism, and transphobia – here’s a good explainer about why.

Since switching over to substack, I now get statistics about how many people open and look at each of my posts, and as a result I know that those of you who do open the ones about the arthropods are the happy, brave few. Anyone can be interested in a large, charismatic mammal – but if you’re here for, say, the Harvester Ants (multiple species of the genus Pogonomyrmex), you’re here for everyone.

First off, that genus name – Greek in origin -is from the Greek word for beard (pogon) combined with the Greek word for ant (myrmex/murmex) and is because of a structure below the ant’s head called the psammophore. This is used for gathering small seeds as well as carrying fine sand and pebbles to build nests and carrying eggs.

They dig very deep nests which they fill with seeds (I wanted to say “seed with seeds”) in order to feed their larvae. These nests are visible when walking through grassland because they will be low mounds of granular soil denuded of vegetation, often with their entrances facing southwest. Harvester ants are most common in eastern Colorado but can also be seen in the San Luis Valley and the Western Slope. Sometimes they can be used to find archaeological remains – because the ants sort sediment to create their nests, if there are any small beads in the area, the ants may carry them onto the nest structure. I have seen this in both the western part of Colorado and in northwestern New Mexico. I don’t recommend disturbing them if you do see beads – first because you should leave archaeological remains where you found them and second because the ants have painful stingers and will not hesitate to defend their homes.

I will leave you with this discussion of their mating and colony establishing behavior from Colorado State University:

“Mating swarms of the winged reproductive stages (males, potential queens) occur in summer, usually a few days following a heavy rain. They usually orient to prominent features of the landscape (hilltopping) and masses of winged ants sometimes have been observed atop tall buildings, over farmhouses, and even farm equipment in an open field. Mating balls of ants have sometimes been reported falling down chimneys during these mating flights. The males die within 24 hours following their emergence from the colony to flight, but the newly mated female will subsequently begin to attempt establishment of a new colony, breaking off her wings and using the flight muscles to sustain her. If successful, she may live a decade or more during which time the size of the colony may continue to grow.”

A decade or more! I had no idea an insect could live that long!