I found another Checklist of the ants of California. This one seems more actively maintained than the antwiki list, and it's AntWeb.org. Rather than reproducing the whole list as I did with antwiki, here's the link to the list of 265 species recognized for the state by this group.
https://www.antweb.org/taxonomicPage.do?rank=species&adm1Name=California&countryName=United%20States
Hi!
I just created a Facebook page for this project where we an discuss and exchange information outside the direct scope of iNaturalist.
Please check it out and "like" it at fb.me/AntsOfCalifornia.
I've been looking at the lists of species here and at Antwiki.org. There are some species missing from one or the other list!
Antwiki.org records 277 species from California. We have 159 taxa (1/8/18) observed here from California, which is only 57% of the ant fauna recorded for the state.
First, there are 145 California species listed in Antwiki without an identified observation in iNaturalist. These are species worth looking for!
Acanthostichus davisi
Aphaenogaster boulderensis
Aphaenogaster megommata
Camponotus absquatulator
Camponotus caryae
Camponotus festinatus
Camponotus maccooki
Camponotus maritimus
Camponotus nearcticus
Cardiocondyla emeryi
Cardiocondyla minutior
Crematogaster depilis
Crematogaster larreae
Crematogaster lineolata
Crematogaster mormonum
Cyphomyrmex flavidus
Cyphomyrmex wheeleri
Dolopomyrmex pilatus
Forelius mccooki
Formica adamsi whymperi
Formica aerata
Formica altipetens
Formica canadensis
Formica dakotensis
Formica glacialis
Formica hewitti
Formica integra
Formica longipilosa
Formica manni
Formica neoclara
Formica nevadensis
Formica oreas
Formica oregonensis
Formica perpilosa
Formica planipilis
Formica podzolica
Formica puberula
Formica querquetulana
Formica ravida
Formica sibylla
Formica subnitens
Hypoponera opaciceps
Lasius americanus
Lasius crypticus
Lasius humilis
Lasius latipes
Lasius neoniger
Lasius pallitarsis
Lasius subumbratus
Lasius umbratus
Lasius vestitus
Leptothorax muscorum
Manica hunteri
Manica invidia
Manica parasitica
Monomorium viridum
Myrmecina americana
Myrmecocystus christineae
Myrmecocystus colei
Myrmecocystus creightoni
Myrmecocystus ewarti
Myrmecocystus kathjuli
Myrmecocystus koso
Myrmecocystus lugubris
Myrmecocystus melliger
Myrmecocystus navajo
Myrmecocystus pyramicus
Myrmecocystus romainei
Myrmecocystus semirufus
Myrmecocystus wheeleri
Myrmica brevispinosa
Myrmica crassirugis
Myrmica discontinua
Myrmica glacialis
Myrmica punctinops
Myrmica specioides
Neivamyrmex swainsonii
Neivamyrmex wilsoni
Novomessor albisetosus
Nylanderia hystrix
Nylanderia magnella
Nylanderia terricola
Pheidole bicarinata
Pheidole clementensis
Pheidole clydei
Pheidole creightoni
Pheidole desertorum
Pheidole fervens
Pheidole megacephala
Pheidole micula
Pheidole paiute
Pheidole pilifera
Pheidole teneriffana
Pheidole xerophila
Pheidole yaqui
Pogonomyrmex brevispinosus
Pogonomyrmex hoelldobleri
Pogonomyrmex imberbiculus
Pogonomyrmex maricopa
Pogonomyrmex mohavensis
Pogonomyrmex salinus
Proceratium californicum
Pseudomyrmex pallidus
Solenopsis krockowi
Solenopsis melina
Solenopsis salina
Solenopsis tennesseensis
Solenopsis validiuscula
Stenamma californicum
Stenamma dyscheres
Stenamma exasperatum
Stenamma heathi
Stenamma sequoiarum
Stenamma smithi
Stenamma snellingi
Stigmatomma oregonense
Stigmatomma pallipes
Strumigenys californica
Strumigenys membranifera
Strumigenys reliquia
Strumigenys silvestrii
Technomyrmex vitiensis
Temnothorax anaphalantus
Temnothorax arboreus
Temnothorax chandleri
Temnothorax morongo
Temnothorax myrmiciformis
Temnothorax neomexicanus
Temnothorax nevadensis
Temnothorax nitens
Temnothorax oxynodis
Temnothorax paiute
Temnothorax pseudandrei
Temnothorax quasimodo
Temnothorax rudis
Temnothorax rugatulus
Temnothorax wardi
Temnothorax whitfordi
Tetramorium insolens
Tetramorium pacificum
Tetramorium spinosum
Veromessor chamberlini
Veromessor chicoensis
Veromessor smithi
Veromessor stoddardi
Second, there are 29 taxa in iNaturalist with California identifications that do not appear in the California species list on Antwiki. Four of these are not species-level identifications. These could be misidentification, new introductions or new discoveries. These deserve special attention when identifying new observations, and may be worth revisiting to reevaluate the standing identifications.
Aphaenogaster fulva
Atta texana
Camponotus brookei
Camponotus castaneus
Camponotus herculeanus
Camponotus ligniperda
Camponotus novaeboracensis
Crematogaster coarctata
Formica exsectoides
Formica sanguinea
Formica subaenescens
Genus Messor
Genus Oecophylla
Genus Technomyrmex
Lasius alienus
Leptothorax faberi
Monomorium fieldi
Myrmecocystus placodops
Myrmecocystus semirufus
Myrmica rubra
Nylanderia bruesii
Polyergus breviceps
Subgenus Serviformica
Solenopsis fugax
Solenopsis geminata
Solenopsis saevissima
Temnothorax obliquicanthus
Tetramorium immigrans
Veromessor lariversi
I've just changed the Ants of California Project from a traditional project to a "Collection Project". This automatically adds all ant observations uploaded for California.
It's much nicer than wading through all 8000 or so observations and adding them one-by-one.
Otherwise, the project hasn't changed in goal - to gather all the ant observations in one place so we can help each other identify and learn about the very diverse ant fauna in the very diverse state of California.
Thank you for checking out and hopefully participating in the Ants of California Project.
To this time I (with some help from @glmory) have managed to add most of the observations that have been identified to genus or below, and I'm trying to add new ones that come in. I'm still working through the Argentine Ant observations (only about 150 to go!). That's about 1400 observations of 115 taxa so far.
[updated before midnight: Got those 150ish done! only about 1500 unidentified observations, "ants", to go]
The state north of Redding, and the central & southern Sierra are very poorly represented, so if you are taking a summer vacation to those spots, please consider doing some ant watching.
According to http://www.antweb.org there are 321 species in the state, which means we have identified observations for about 1/3 of them. We have a long way to go!
If you have some expertise in a species, or even some other taxon level, please take a wander through the observations and see what you can do about identifying them - this is especially important for the taxa not yet represented for California. Please don't neglect those observations that are a little older.
If you don't have expertise, why not take a look at the some taxon you fancy and see if you can get some expertise for yourself? I'm trying on some things, and it's fun. Antweb.org is also a good resource for learning more about ants, not just in California.
Thanks again for stopping by.
You may have found this project because I've added some of your observations. You may have found it because you searched for it. You may have found it by some other means.
Regardless, if you're at all interested in the ant fauna of California I hope you'll join, and contribute.
My goal is simple. To bring together the iNaturalist observations of ants in California in a convenient location for comparison, identification, and any other use we can put the information to.
That includes finding out places and taxa that are relatively unsampled (at least here), so we can make individual efforts to pick up some of those places and species for inclusion.
Thanks for playing along.
