Never seen that before! Out with Sally, the dog, walking the short road through the prairie field west of the airport; there were scores of dragonflies zooming about 30 minutes before sunset, concentrated in a 100 foot section of road and adjacent field.
I sat and watched the display and tried to estimate the number, maybe around 80.. mostly all libellulid skimmers but I couldn't make out the species on the wing. They looked like they were feeding, flying rapidly, diving and abruptly turning. I could hear the rasp of their membranous wings on the asphalt as they dove too low. I could not make out what they were doing.
Then I felt a touch on my wrist and found a winged ant. That was it. The recent rain had driven a mass emergence of mating ants and the dragonflies were there to pick off as many as possible. But the ant looked odd. I pulled out my hand lens and discovered that the ant was missing its abdomen. Wings, head and thorax looked fine and petiole..but then the rest was broken away. I wondered if it was a survivor of attempted predation. Then I saw another winged ant scuttling along the grounds. I picked it up.. and.. no abdomen!
A third, a fourth.. 20 ants or more I collected and put them in my wallet with no where else to store them. All the same missing gaster. I wondered if they could be males that had bred explosively with females, had lost their abdomens and would die within minutes.
But Jon S. says they are females, queen Lasius.. and the very much smaller ants in the same area are Lasius workers. Puzzle.
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