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Pogonomyrmex Californicus - Harvester

Pogonomyrmex Californicus 

 

Pogonomyrmex Californicus is a beautiful species from the US and a great stepping stone into the world of USA harvester ants.

 

While found in rather sparse desert like areas, rugosus can travel vast distances in their conquest for food. They are extremely active and frightfully aggressive too.

 

Their nests are deep, this is needed in arid environments to find the water table and maintain high humidity within the nest. The nest tunnel (or shaft) is often used to store their seeds in the gradient and act as a way to slow invaders down while the defence is formed. (It can take a while to mount a defence as trails can be up to 65 meters from the nest in the wild)

 

They are a harvesting ant species but do not make ant bread, they will need chia seed avalible at all times and consume more than a messor colony would.

 

An added advantage is their Polygyny. We love redundency and having multiple queens means there are backups in case one does not make it.  If you wanted more queens than 3, simply purchase more than one colony and they can be merged as long as you do it before workers emerge.

 

 

Colony Size

Excess of 10,000 workers per queen

Polygyne - multiple queens per nest

Queen is fully claustral – we would advise bonus food until first workers is offered though

Temperature

Heated 28 to 31 degrees

Humidity

60-75% in nest

Hibernation

Diapause for 2 or 3 months at 15 degrees.

Polymorphic (Different size casts)

No

Sting

Yes - Venomous sting which is very painful

Bite

Yes

Diet

Seeds, Nuts, Grains, protein, Water.

Nest Type

Natural, Acrylic, Sand, Earth, Glass.

Size

Queen – 8.5mm

Worker - 4mm-6mm

Polymorphic - No

Pogonomyrmex Californicus - Harvester

PriceFrom £34.99
  • It is illegal to release this colony into the wild in the UK, if you can no longer care for your colony please contact us immediately.

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