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AntsBC's Formica pacifica Journal (Updated, October 28, 2019)

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#1 Offline AntsBC - Posted August 3 2018 - 6:22 PM

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Hey everyone,

 

I've decided to finally make a journal on my Formica pacifica. I think to begin with I'm going to center around specifically one of my Formica pacifica queens and soon to be colony but I may add other colonies I have in here as they grow.

 

So this species dominates where I live and they are basically all I catch with exceptions from going to parks and other places. I have had some trouble raising them though. I didn't exactly know that ants need to hibernate before laying eggs, so basically every year I released all the ants that hadn't laid. I also didn't know that releasing (certain) ants was bad for the environment... (My bad). This species is native though so its not really a big deal. Anyways, this year I decided to keep a few of these queens over hibernation just because. In the spring I moved one of these guys into a naturalistic setup. I wondered if the reason they didn't lay eggs the first summer was because they didn't like test tube setups so this was a blockbuster attempt of mine. I waited for quite some time with her in the setup but she never dug a claustral chamber. I made sure that the dirt was moist and all that but despite my efforts she just didn't dig. Looking back I think that the reason she didn't was because there was a lid on the container and I think she felt secure just being at the surface of the container. Whenever I opened the lid up she freaked out so that is why I thought that. Anyways a few weeks went by and then the weirdest thing happened. I went to check on her and she had a batch of eggs that she was taking care of on the surface of the dirt! I was overjoyed in seeing this. She raised her brood there for quite some time, and I saw that she liked to move them around the container. One day she would be in the corner but then the next she would be in the center, that kind of deal. I must admit that I liked how I could check on her without disturbing her as I could just peek through the container lol. Eventually i decided to move her into a test tube as I didn't really see the point of her raising her brood on the surface. She kind of defeated the whole naturalistic setup idea lol. I have been keeping her in a test tube setup for a few weeks now and at the moment she has 4 pupae and 1 larva. I'm pretty hyped for her colony. I have other Formica pacifica queens and colonies now too but she is my favorite of this species. This species is quite cool as they have beautiful coloration and the queens are highly physogastric so its cool to see how far their gasters extend lol.

 

Anyways I will update this journal once she gets nanitics. Thanks for reading this very long post!

 

Here's some photos of her and her brood:

 

6snmG4Bz3hJiDI2AJLHpb4uCLo3FloOk6vR-rxrA2sV5g8aXhpnzlGYjP-E-YVdU8MMW6VWDe6YZ5nspdvoIxN_kDQSLwBZ24EnVs32E8vM6Dh03v3KH0CuUpi_vKmilHWK39YyGaUfVXsAwg5HNIsWJDnDSaDMwm9E9qiuv1du0RB-54jEgIOsTIOiNFmPooSnd1O3X


Edited by AntsBC, October 28 2019 - 11:35 AM.

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#2 Offline Major - Posted August 3 2018 - 6:38 PM

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I heard this species grows crazy fast! Theirs an ant keeper in Washington who got his colony to 2,000 workers in 2 years. Better start looking for bigger formicaria...
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#3 Offline AntsBC - Posted August 3 2018 - 6:59 PM

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I heard this species grows crazy fast! Theirs an ant keeper in Washington who got his colony to 2,000 workers in 2 years. Better start looking for bigger formicaria...

 

Yes they do! The first time I actually witnessed how big they can get is when I tried to capture a colony in a flowerpot... Needless to say I wasn't able to do it because they were WAY too large.


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#4 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted August 4 2018 - 6:38 AM

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I heard this species grows crazy fast! Theirs an ant keeper in Washington who got his colony to 2,000 workers in 2 years. Better start looking for bigger formicaria...


That was me! Yeah, they grew a bit fast... I'm in Tennessee now.

#5 Offline Major - Posted August 4 2018 - 7:07 AM

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I heard this species grows crazy fast! Theirs an ant keeper in Washington who got his colony to 2,000 workers in 2 years. Better start looking for bigger formicaria...


That was me! Yeah, they grew a bit fast... I'm in Tennessee now.

Do most Formica species grow this fast? I have a 4 queen Formica Subserica that I am looking forward to. All the Formica colony's in my area are very large.
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#6 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted August 4 2018 - 7:32 PM

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I heard this species grows crazy fast! Theirs an ant keeper in Washington who got his colony to 2,000 workers in 2 years. Better start looking for bigger formicaria...


That was me! Yeah, they grew a bit fast... I'm in Tennessee now.

Do most Formica species grow this fast? I have a 4 queen Formica Subserica that I am looking forward to. All the Formica colony's in my area are very large.


Most Formica do grow fast, I believe. Mine were a HUGE exception I guess, because all the other Formica pacifica queens I got in 2016 did not make it. It is either my queen was a very fertile queen, or Formica pacifica just have an incredible growth rate. But then in 2017, all Formica pacifica queens got maybe 50 workers this year....

#7 Offline AntsBC - Posted August 13 2018 - 9:53 AM

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Update #2: August 13, 2018
 

Nanitics have arrived! They are so much smaller than normal workers. Three more workers on the way and the queen laid a small egg batch. Here's some pics:

 

GM0slt6F3liAZT7Sukq9LmDW4PjpEcGOhXIS-gMWwBXw_v_w848yT3f5q33-HwuyYL37Eor19vnySconFsqwWOpG8oohjReN-7drsh42myN1mGesLIGxXfCk

yuqVFld22u7Zat03kaEbg9ujuE42xzZjK4mF2UTrLSy6OoDE3KJn7KaaCx5GSa0PK6zbjAfJCGgRmuuyS9x_jCmn1u4hXziU8vCDLXLVjK-65MJQYy8R5Oxi
 


Edited by AntsBC, August 13 2018 - 9:54 AM.

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#8 Offline Nare - Posted August 13 2018 - 12:50 PM

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Haha yes now I have commented.


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#9 Offline AntsBC - Posted August 27 2018 - 11:21 AM

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Update: August 27, 2018
 

The colony hasn't been doing too much lately. 2 more pupae have eclosed but one of the nanitics died for some reason. 1 more pupae still to go and she laid some more eggs. I've decided to add another one of my Formica pacifica colonies in this journal because I have a feeling the other colony isn't going to be that interesting as they aren't growing half as fast as my other Formica pacifica. Here's some photos of Colony #2:

UhYUGJDSy_ti6-E_Qsg-N0QH4VUpr-uUSlwf6Sxux4hBv8AoiSTvNFkgnOMcVv4rprawzKjKb-QKLcHTw8PiGzASpeMThKL0cAZml5UHYY-0djWITyr2Vgp1mPrkjk8z_jOWFcDF1f_pfbS81x0ZXaUS2Ebu81r7
 


Edited by AntsBC, August 27 2018 - 11:21 AM.

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#10 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted August 28 2018 - 5:31 PM

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Why are most of your workers so large? Mine started out way smaller. Did you brood boost?

#11 Offline AntsBC - Posted August 28 2018 - 9:24 PM

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Why are most of your workers so large? Mine started out way smaller. Did you brood boost?

 

Spot on. The queen hadn't been doing much so I gave her 10 or so pupae. As you can see now there is a lot of her own brood, and there are a few of her own nanitics present as well.


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#12 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted August 30 2018 - 11:51 AM

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Why are most of your workers so large? Mine started out way smaller. Did you brood boost?

 
Spot on. The queen hadn't been doing much so I gave her 10 or so pupae. As you can see now there is a lot of her own brood, and there are a few of her own nanitics present as well.

That's funny! I did that with one of mine!

#13 Offline AntsBC - Posted September 25 2018 - 7:13 PM

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Update: September 25, 2018

 

Colony #1 has been doing virtually nothing. They're at four workers now and they ate the remaining brood they had. A lot more workers have eclosed for Colony #2. They only have 5 or 6 pupae left and then they are done on the brood side of things for this season. Both colonies aren't as active as hibernation is coming pretty soon. Here's a video of Colony #2:

 

 

By the way, I got the Omni Nest as a gift so don't judge. I would never buy one of those with my own money. 


Edited by AntsBC, September 26 2018 - 7:21 AM.

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#14 Offline Nare - Posted September 25 2018 - 7:31 PM

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Didn't realize how pretty they are. Is the size difference because some are nanitics, or are they polymorphic?


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#15 Offline AntsBC - Posted September 26 2018 - 7:25 AM

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Didn't realize how pretty they are. Is the size difference because some are nanitics, or are they polymorphic?

 

Yes, they do have beautiful coloration. The size difference is mainly because some are nanitics while others are workers, but they are pretty polymorphic normally too. 


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#16 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 20 2019 - 1:03 PM

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Update?

#17 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted April 3 2019 - 6:40 AM

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Why no uuuuuuuuuuppppppppppdddddddaaaaaattttteeeeee??????

#18 Offline AntsBC - Posted May 24 2019 - 11:44 AM

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Update: May 24, 2019

 

I released colony #1. Some of my other Formica pacifica queens are starting to get their first workers so I had to make room for their colonies. Colony #2 is doing pretty good right now. Their test tube is getting pretty dirty as the workers decided to drag two uneaten flies into the nest, so I'm planning on introducing some dirt and springtails to help clean it up. The queen also laid around 15 eggs to start the season.

 

Here's some pics:

 

nx787AUeTsUY29yg6H81s9MY8Hf2daoM5ny41fCmE3PvKxCeoz3dEC9yH3M-C7972mviZDSWj15lUqMbyY2r6cT9uXSwjPwApQenrsINJQGszB2wu2W0p1of7rqprbxMwLcqnFnKVxYtgf-3J6vr9a_WogEVxXoRVc1EqGDNq7AfBZF6nMNUciqKGp_djYcQXevW-dUI


Edited by AntsBC, May 24 2019 - 11:52 AM.

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#19 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted May 24 2019 - 11:47 AM

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Thank you!
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#20 Offline AntsBC - Posted July 30 2019 - 6:45 PM

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Update: July 30, 2019

 

I moved these guys from their omni nest into a few test tubes; as they weren't moving their trash out of their nest.

 

I also attempted to merge this colony with a very small F. pacifica colony (Around five workers), around a month ago. Most of the workers and brood were accepted, but the queens fought to the death, and the queen of this journal won.

 

I'm expecting these guys to have a population boom rather soon too.

 

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Edited by AntsBC, July 30 2019 - 6:48 PM.

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