Assistant Professor
Department of Entomology
University of California, Riverside
jpurcell@ucr.edu
phone:951-827-7258
Blog
Ants of the Sierras
June, 2016Mari West & Jessica Purcell
We set out from Riverside, CA early in the morning of June 4, 2016 in order to get across town before the inevitable weekend traffic picked up. Driving up in two cars, we managed to stay close enough together to meet for lunch a couple of hours shy of Sacramento. It was a scorching 105° F in the central valley! Junxia and Jessica met Mari at the Sacramento airport (without a hitch, besides Mari waiting for a couple of hours) while Alan and Amaury proceeded to our first site at the Peninsula campground at Folsom Lake.
The campground is lovely, if a bit overpriced, and we quickly found what we were looking for: a Formica species that seems to build nests with many entrances in the grassy oak forest. This meant that we didn’t find many colonies, but the workers themselves were abundant enough for a quick survey. While searching, an overly diligent campground officer drove by 4 times to ask us about the ant-searching process, while kindly informing us of a campsite that some others had vacated due to “too many ants.” We had a nice evening despite chickening out on an evening swim to break the heat (the banks of the lake are MUDDY) and an aborted attempt to shower when there was not water in the showers. Alan showed us all how camp food is done with some tasty burritos. After dinner, we enjoyed a beautifully red sky due to perfect sunset conditions – a great way to end our first day in the field.
We started off the next morning with a second round of searching for ants before packing up and heading on to our next site, along a river near Magra, CA, about 600 m higher than Folsom lake. Here, we found a surprising amount of shotgun shells, glass, and trash, but the site, relatively devoid of people and overlooking the river, still managed to be quite lovely. We surveyed some rural roads and the floodplain along the river. The Formica species diversity was certainly higher here, but colonies were still difficult to find! The river water here was frigid, but a quick (3 sec) dip in the afternoon was refreshing and well worth it. The mosquitos at this site were quite bad, and we actually cooked dinner, ate, AND played a game in the middle of a bridge over the river in order to keep them at bay. Amaury was the favorite mosquito target, and joked that he looked really classy during his foray to Starbucks to work on his population genetic analyses.
From Magra, we headed up into the Sierras along interstate 80, and we camped at Hampshire Rock Forest Service campground next to a lovely, cold stream at ~1800 m above sea level. From here, we surveyed ants near the Royal Gorge cross country ski area at 2100 m, where Formica is diverse, abundant AND colonies are very easy to find – Formica heaven, according to Junxia. Finally, we started to gain momentum in our searches. We enjoyed “swimming” (= daring each other to fully immerse in the freezing water of the stream), to wash a few days of grime off of ourselves, and napping in the shade. The next morning, Alan and Mari split off to climb up to a Formica-rich area at about 2600 m, up above Donner Pass, while Junxia and Jessica went to resample Royal Gorge, and to start sampling our lower elevation site at 1450 m. We had a great time in both areas, because the ants were very active and abundant, and the forests were also very beautiful. Amaury, in the meantime, discovered the booming metropolis of Truckee, where he went each day to crank through his analyses and to keep his laptop charged. Alan and Mari had a tremendously successful time in the highlands, where they surveyed and survived two transects along a snowy ridgeline.
After one final night and a good “swim” at our Hampshire Rock campsite, we headed out across the pass to check out the dry side of the mountains. Our first stop was Boca Reservoir, where we managed to camp with stunning views of the lake and snow-capped mountains in the distance. This campground was absolutely full of Formica, and Junxia and Alan managed to do a 1 km transect in a record time of 35 minutes! We found a large number of ants and colonies along both transects, and settled down for a well-deserved night of mosquito-free hanging out and good sleep (we were further from I-80, although we could still hear it from several miles away!). From Boca, we headed down to the Nevada border, where Jessica and Alan were pretty convinced that we would not find Formica, based on past experience. Of course, we spotted one worker in the first 30 seconds that we spent out of the car! It turned out to be quite a good site (in a small park along the Truckee river), so that completes our elevation and precipitation gradient on the east side! Today, we’re back up at 2000 m, staying at the lovely Sagehen field station and UC Natural Reserve. Here, we got SHOWERS, washed some clothes, and got a break from the tents by sleeping in cabins. It’s strange when a field station located miles down a dirt road feels like civilization. Here, we found many different Formica species along the roads and trails. While we’ll be sad to say farewell to Amaury and Junxia, who will head back toward Riverside tomorrow, Alan, Mari and Jessica look forward to continuing our adventures as we head north toward Crater Lake tomorrow. That is, if we can fit 3 people, gear and food into one little Prius!