Pogonomyrmex Rufosus - Expert Species 
 
Pogonomyrmex rugosus is a beautiful species from the US. 
 
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)
 
We would advice keeping these queens in a plaster pot will a small amount of substrate (as we will provide her this way).
 
 
Colony Size
Excess of 10,000 workers
Queen is fully claustral – we would advise bonus food until first workers is offered though
Temperature
Heated 28 to 30 degrees
Humidity
70-80% in nest
Hibernation
No
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 – 12-14mm
Worker - 7mm-10mm
Polymorphic - No