Favoritos de haplodiploid

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.

Several Solenopsis workers found inside a Pheidole tepicana colony. Worker morphology appears to suggest S. phoretica-group; when compared to known workers of Solenopsis enigmatica (A phoretica-group species from Dominica known from queens and workers), certain similarities are noticeable, such as the sparse pilosity and 10-segmented antennae. 4 Solenopsis workers and a full series of Pheidole tepicana were collected, and will be properly pinned and imaged by Arizona State University soon. I will update this observation with those pictures once I get them.

In the wild, these ants were observed inside the nest chambers of Pheidole tepicana. One worker was observed carrying a pupa. These ants seemed to follow the trails of P. tepicana inside the nest. After collection, Pheidole tepicana workers were observed carrying the Solenopsis workers, who curled into a pupal position (4th image). Thanks to @mason_s for the high quality live images.

S. phoretica-group is not yet known from Arizona, nor have they been associated with P. tepicana.

Short video from the encounter with these ants in the wild: https://youtu.be/dOIiEoAoesc

Vollenhovia nipponica found in its host V. emeryi colony. different from its host by the smaller size, about that of the workers. It also shows other typical features of workerless inquilines such as paler colors, smoother surfaces (note the post petiole) and etc, but the recent discoveries of these ants living with the long winged V. emeryi in Korea are showing some intermediate forms