Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinksBooksData
Photo#261204
Pyramid Ant mound - Dorymyrmex bureni

Pyramid Ant mound - Dorymyrmex bureni
Pavilion Key, Ten Thousand Islands, Everglades National Park, Collier County, Florida, USA
January 12, 2006
Size: ~10 cm outside diameter
Not much to go on, but I just came across this photo from a kayak trip to Pavilion Key, so thought I would post it to see if anyone knows the species that makes this mound. These small, low-lying islands in the Gulf of Mexico are formed from sand and shell debris, are located several miles from the southwest Florida mainland, and are occasionally overwashed by saltwater storm surges during hurricanes. This mound was present less than 90 days following a storm surge from Hurricane Wilma (http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2006/02/).

A guess
I certainly cannot claim an authoritative knowledge of ant mounds, but this looks exactly like the crater where I found this pyramid ant, on the east coast of Florida:

Similar craters in Texas also proved to belong to Dorymyrmex.

 
ID confirmed
See the comment on the above thumbnail

Comment viewing options
Select your preferred way to display the comments and click 'Save settings' to activate your changes.