Pogonomyrmex desertorum harvesting seeds from a grass stalk. Tucson, Arizona, USA - Alex Wild Photography - Insect Photography - Insect Pictures

Ants of the North American Deserts

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Pogonomyrmex occidentalis, the western harvester ant

Hallelujah Junction, California, USA

Pogonomyrmex barbatus red harvester ant worker, carrying a seed back to the nest.

Tucson, Arizona, USA

Pogonomyrmex desertorum harvesting seeds from a grass stalk.

Tucson, Arizona, USA

A Pogonomyrmex rugosus worker shows off her psammophore, the basket of long hairs on the underside of her head used for carrying sand grains. This structure enticed Austrian taxonomist Gustav Mayr to name this genus Pogonomyrmex, or "bearded ant".

Tucson, Arizona, USA

Pogonomyrmex pima worker carrying excavated soil out of the nest.

Tucson, Arizona, USA

Pogonomyrmex imberbiculus, one of North America's smallest Pogonomyrmex.

Portal, Arizona, USA

One of the strangest recorded ant phenomena is a hybrid zone between two species of harvester ants in the western United States. Pogonomyrmex rugosus and Pogonomyrmex barbatus apparently hybridized in the ancient past, leading to a pair of genetically complex daughter lineages that continually need to cross with each other in order to make worker ants. The queens and males remain genetically separate. Young queens need to mate with their own species to produce more queens and males, and with the other species to produce workers.

This image shows a hybrid worker leaving the nest.

Portal, Arizona, USA

A film crew for a National Geographic documentary sets up a robotic camera on a nest of red harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex barbatus.

Sycamore Canyon, Arizona, USA

Pogonomyrmex californicus, the California harvester ant, standing guard at the nest entrance.

Mojave National Preserve, California, USA

Pogonomyrmex desertorum harvesting seeds from a grass stalk.

Tucson, Arizona, USA

Pogonomyrmex desertorum harvesting seeds from a grass stalk.

Tucson, Arizona, USA

Pogonomyrmex desertorum harvesting seeds from a grass stalk.

Tucson, Arizona, USA

Canon EOS 20D |

More details: exif |

Original size: 3504x2336 |

Current: 800x534 |

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Keywords: desert grass seeds ants harvesting pogo insects ecology formicidae myrmicinae harvester ants granivore pogonomyrmex granivory red harvester ant pogonomyrmex desertorum

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all images and text © Alex Wild 2001-2013

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