We'll probably see less than 20 ant species. It should be easy to ID whatever we run across. But it isn't. So much depends on interpreting what a key tells you to look for. And then there are all of the features that are too damned small to see with a 40X microscope. E.g., if your ant is 3 mm long, and you need to decide if the mandible has one of 7 teeth offset from the others.
On the plus side (this for Lucia, who could feel overwhelmed by this effort):
We have a key specifically for the 132 ant species of our area. (Field guide to the ants of New England, Ellison et al.).
We will see the same common ants over and over, every time we sample. So we'll get a solid feel for the gestalt of these. Something that doesn't fit should jump out to us.
There are some awesome ant images in public databases, to which we can compare our samples. Here are the most useful:
We don't have to get ID's right away. We can hold the sample (Formica "red-butt") and figure out the ID later.
On the plus side (this for Lucia, who could feel overwhelmed by this effort):
We have a key specifically for the 132 ant species of our area. (Field guide to the ants of New England, Ellison et al.).
We will see the same common ants over and over, every time we sample. So we'll get a solid feel for the gestalt of these. Something that doesn't fit should jump out to us.
There are some awesome ant images in public databases, to which we can compare our samples. Here are the most useful:
We don't have to get ID's right away. We can hold the sample (Formica "red-butt") and figure out the ID later.