page_title: Pogonomyrmex badius
section_title: Reproduction
hierarchical_section_title: Pogonomyrmex badius / Biology / Reproduction
caption_attribution_description: English: Nuptial flight of the florida harvester ant. Female alates and males are accompanied by workers.
context_page_description: Pogonomyrmex badius, or the Florida harvester ant, is a species of harvester ant in the genus Pogonomyrmex. It is the only Pogonomyrmex species found on the east coast of the United States and the only one in North America known to be polymorphic.
  The species is ubiquitous in the Florida scrub habitats.
context_section_description: Colonies become reproductively mature at a population size greater than 700 workers and begin producing winged individuals around spring. Nuptial flights were observed from May to June most frequently in days of calm, sunny and humid mornings between the hours of 9 AM - 2 PM following a day of heavy rain. Female and male alates do not mate in the air and instead can be found mating at leks or at the surface of their natal nest with hundreds of excited workers accompanying them. During the excitement workers start to become aggressive towards alates that attempt to re-enter the nest, with alates either being forcibly evicted or denied entrance to the nest by workers.  
  The newly mated queens will fly off or walk some distance away from their parent nest to establish a new colony. True polygyny in the wild has never been observed, as excavated colonies were found to contain no more than one queen. Queens are fully claustral and do not venture out to feed when founding, instead solely relying on their fat reserves and wing muscles for sustenance.
caption: Nupital flight of male and female Florida harvester ants
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