Pogonomyrmex Californicus 
 
Pogonomyrmex Californicus is a beautiful species from the US and a great stepping stone into the world of USA harvester ants.
 
While found in rather sparse desert like areas, rugosus can travel vast distances in their conquest for food. They are extremely active and frightfully aggressive too. 
 
Their nests are deep, this is needed in arid environments to find the water table and maintain high humidity within the nest. The nest tunnel (or shaft) is often used to store their seeds in the gradient and act as a way to slow invaders down while the defence is formed. (It can take a while to mount a defence as trails can be up to 65 meters from the nest in the wild)
 
They are a harvesting ant species but do not make ant bread, they will need chia seed avalible at all times and consume more than a messor colony would.
 
An added advantage is their Polygyny. We love redundency and having multiple queens means there are backups in case one does not make it.  If you wanted more queens than 3, simply purchase more than one colony and they can be merged as long as you do it before workers emerge.
 
 
Colony Size
Excess of 10,000 workers per queen
Polygyne - multiple queens per nest
Queen is fully claustral – we would advise bonus food until first workers is offered though
Temperature
Heated 28 to 31 degrees
Humidity
60-75% in nest
Hibernation
Diapause for 2 or 3 months at 15 degrees.
Polymorphic (Different size casts)
No
Sting
Yes - Venomous sting which is very painful
Bite
Yes
Diet
Seeds, Nuts, Grains, protein, Water.
Nest Type
Natural, Acrylic, Sand, Earth, Glass.
Size
Queen – 8.5mm
Worker - 4mm-6mm
Polymorphic - No