A few minutes ago I noticed a lot of my BG crusing near the surface and feeding on something floating over most of my pond. I went down for a close look and also noticed what I think are water spiders also feeding on these small winged ant/fly looking insects.
I took a few pics and was hoping someone could identify them and or provide any other information about them. The item in the last two pictures is a common #2 pencil.
Thanks April. I wondered if they were ants when I first looked at them. The thing that surprises me is they seem to be hatching in the pond??
I took a closer look at one with a magnifying glass. It has a three part body - sort of a wide two bulb head with two antenna - mid section with either six or eight legs - and back section that is about twice as large a mid section with a point at the back that looks like a wasp stinger.
I believe you both are right - found the attached on the Colorado U Ext site. It also had excellent photos that looked just like my critters. Pond Bossers come through again - Thanks!
Flying Ants
By Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University Cooperative Extension specialist, entomology
Spectacular swarms of flying ants are a common summer phenomenon. Sometimes people will observe winged ants issuing in large numbers, pushed out by the wingless workers, from a colony established between a sidewalk crack or in a small mound. Other times only the winged forms will be seen, aggregating in large numbers around certain prominent points in the landscape.
Some background. Ants are social insects. The colony is established through the initial efforts of a mated "queen", a sexually mature female. Originally winged, after mating she sheds her wings and the no longer used wing muscles are an important source of nutrients for her during the early stages of colony development. Very, very few queens successfully survive this period and establish a functional colony.
However, if the colony makes it through this period it can begin to grow. Wingless, non-sexually mature workers are reared which subsequently help expand the colony. After several years, the colony may be well-established and then some resources are put into rearing reproductive forms. These are the winged ants, some females - the potential future queens - and the majority males.
Periodically, usually following by 3-5 days a heavy rain, the winged reproductive forms emerge from the colony in large swarms. Such swarming behavior is usually synchronized by other nearby colonies so large numbers of winged ants suddenly appear. All mating for the species takes place, often over the course of a single day. The males die and the mated females disperse to attempt establishing a new colony.
One behavior associated with some ants during mating swarms is "hilltopping". This refers to their aggregation around prominent points of a landscape where they search for mates. A large tree, the chimney of a roof or even a tractor moving across the plains might serve as such an "action site" for swarming winged ants. My favorite hilltopping site was the top of the US West tower in downtown Denver, which annually is the site for millions of harvester ants to aggregate.
