I came across what appeared to be a large group of winged garden ants and I've included a video of the aforementioned behavior. Is this lekking?
I, also, videotaped winged ants swarming in my garden -- around a gourd vine, today, in Maryland. According to my brief reading, some ant species when swarming do engage in leking.
Hello Ash; Mating swarms do occur in various ant genera. The genus Pogonomyrmex is particularly well studied in the western US. These swarms typically develop over a hilltop, large tree or conspicuous shrub. Several papers describe having observed the behavior over the same land feature several years in a row. A typical setting is a warm, calm afternoon when there might be some lift over the feature which presumably carries the mated female higher into the air where she might disperse farther.
The mating swarms of Pogonomymex occidentalis develop on hilltops and above tall trees. Cole and Wiernasz (2002) report dispersing queens travel up to 700 m from the hilltop swarm. Opportune combinations of hill elevation and sudden, strong winds can loft queens high in the air. As a result, mated queens might be delivered to remote locations.
REF. Cole, BJ and DC Wiernasz. 2002. Recruitment limitation and population density in the Harvester Ant, Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. Ecol. 83(5): 1433-1442
Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers
Per your question, Ash: To continue, it seems to me that I've read and/or heard of some ant swarms in which the males fly into the air to meet the females, or queens. This, it seems to me, would not be an example of a lek nor lek behavior.
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