Tim Vaughan wrote on 30 April (and included pictures) of an ant:

>This kind of red ant doesn't seem to bother the bees. A nest has set up
>shop next to a hive and they dismember and take away bees that have been
cleared from the hive.

    The first picture, though fuzzy, indicates that the ant has a
"beard" which keeps dust from blowing up into its mouthparts.  That
characteristic and others puts the ant in the genus Pogonomyrmex,
perhaps in the species subdentatus.  My book provides an origin for
the scientific name: The bearded bearded one.

    That ant belongs in the subfamily Myrmecinae, most species of
which forage on seeds and dead insects, not on sweets.

                                                Adrian
--
Adrian M. Wenner                (805) 963-8508 (home office phone)
967 Garcia Road                 [log in to unmask]
Santa Barbara, CA  93103        www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm

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