CLOSED: Underground bug nest

I earlier posted this to the pest forum asking for ID with no reply. I suspect it is you folks who are most interested and are best likely to help me ID what's happening here. I've cropped the original image and think I've managed to picture the nymphs as compared to the size of the included ant. Note, if you will, that there is a small root nearby (pictured below) filled with ants, it appears. So, these are nymphs of a somewhat larger insect.

I was working on my new landscaping this afternoon and after 1/2 inch of rain Friday night decided it was an opportunity to level out the clay/hardpan soil my worker pulled out of the fencepost holes several months ago. So I just used the flat shovel to break it up and pick it up on preparation for move to "storage."

Not sure if this photo will be clearly illustrative, but there are a huge number of what appear to be white eggs or nymphs in a cluster, with a huge number of ants running about. There is a piece of root adjacent to the nest. I just cut through the center of the next and really scared the ants.

What is this? Do I need to do something with/about them? What?

TIA, Linda

And here's the "root" photo.

Excellent picture. First guess will be some kind of bees/wasps, but I really have no expertise on that, other than I think they look like bees, and some bees/ wasps do nest in the ground.

The white objects all appear to be ant pupae; many higher ants have 'naked pupae' like these - see http://tinyurl.com/cs9qhj for an example. Note that there are at least two distinct size classes of the white pupae; at least two genera of harvester (seed gathering) ants in California (Messor and Pheidole) have major (large) and minor (small) worker castes.

In my defense, as we all know, ants and bees and wasps are closely related. I never knew of or saw pupae like that!

But . . . but . . . Suunto, look at how BIG they are!!! They are HUGE when compared to the visible black ants.

Ummm, are pupae "babies" which grow larger, or do they stay this size (giving away my biology ignorance) and develop into dark ants walkin' around on the surface? or do they stay underground in this form, wandering about in underground caves and paths, staying white, soft, lacking any kind of harder shell?

Where are the "aged" ants? do they just reproduce and die off? What do they eat?

I'll take your references and Google them to see what I can find.

What a weird thing to see by this novice for the first time. All those babies. I wanna take care of them. Shall I? {chuckilng} Or are they going to eat up my trees or house?

Linda

OK, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messor_(ant_genus) and http://www.myrmecos.net/myrmicinae/PheSpX1.html

So, I guess I'll contact the local UC Ag Commissioner's office and see what they suggest I do. Maybe I can email them a copy of the photo to help.

Oh my . . . .

A few points: (1) I am not aware of any social bee or wasp species having naked/unprotected pupae in groups as shown in the images. (2) As a general rule, ants do not make good roommates with other hymenopterans; they would tend to view them either as intruders or as potential food. (3) Some ant colonies have multiple queens (see http://tinyurl.com/czh5hq); their pupae would be much larger than those of the worker castes.
As for the pupae, they gradually will darken (starting with the eyes and mandibles) , and when its tissues have sufficiently developed and the exoskeleton has hardened, will shed the pupal 'skin,' gradually start to move, and then finally walk away as a teneral adult.
You might be interested in exploring the antweb site on California ants
(http://tinyurl.com/d2tn4o) - although it likely will not answer all your questions, it may give you some ideas.
Finally, you also might contact the Fresno county office of the University of California's Cooperative Extension service for further advice - see http://cefresno.ucdavis.edu/ (this might be what you referred to as the 'UC Ag Commissioner's office.'

Hehehe, yes, suunto, those tiny ants were quite agitated with my opening up their world to the air. Quite agitated! I can imagine that they would attack any uninvited guest. But, as the nearby roots were decimated by "someone," these bugs appear to eat veggies, rather than livestock. LOL. Thanks, suunto, for the links. And, yes, you're right, I was actually referring to the UCDavis Cooperative Extension, which shares space with the county's Ag Commissioner's office. They have been very helpful to me in the past, both of them. I never hesitate to visit either of them.

SallyG: ack, you don't need to be defended, girl! We can't know it all. And besides, I learn best from my mistakes, which are frighteningly frequent!

You folks are awesome. I herewith mark the question "solved." Next? Go about solving any problem possibly present.

Thanks so much,
Linda

Suunto, thanks so much for the references and information. I met with the horticultural staff at the University of California, Cooperative Extension - Fresno County, locally, and after spending a couple of days freaking out over her suggestion that I had termites, received word from the local
University of California - Kearney Agricultural Center entomologist familiar with our local bug population. He, thankfully, validated your reference to ants as follows:

And, as you can see, there are ants crawling about in the root in the second photo. The involved root is one which has been separated from its origins and is, in fact, rotting. Interestingly, I can now see that there are a number of colonies covering the nearby ground in other similarly separated roots and you can spot them and their paths by just seeing the holes with the worker castes moving in and out. If I am not mistaken, the photo below shows the pile of sawdust or bug poop piling up (gotta love macro cameras). What may not be obvious in this photo is that the underlayment soil is grey, while the pile is a bright "sawdust-colored."

And the following photo shows, a bit ambiguously to this novice's eye, one of the worker bees . . . er, ants.

Linda

And here's the little "bugger."

So, again, thanks for your references and encouragement to follow-through on the research. It has been quite interesting. You are a gem.

Linda


[edited to add:] "higher ant"?!?! puleeease . . . the only thing I can think of that might be lower is the cockroach! ^_^

[edited again] for spelling

This message was edited May 12, 2009 1:08 AM

This message was edited May 12, 2009 1:09 AM

Ummm, I went back to the original photo and cropped a bit of just the ants. They look to me to be the same ant as in the above photo, but darker, as perhaps older or another caste, or . . . are they grey ants cannibalizing the carpenter ant pups?

Oh, there's just no stopping a curious mind from exploring ad nauseum.

OK, enuf, I'm not going any further with this . . . work beckons later this morning.

My best,
Linda