71 replies to this topic

[Rstheant]

Nice, these are doing well. Just wait until you have majors the size of the queen.

Check my journal. It shows the majors.


http://www.formicult...notus-fragilis/

[Xanuri]

Nice, these are doing well. Just wait until you have majors the size of the queen.

Check my journal. It shows the majors.


http://www.formicult...notus-fragilis/

If these majors turn out like the wild nest ones they will be larger than the ones in your photo! 

 

Much more like the one shown here

[Rstheant]

Anttics has some that are 12mm!!

[anttics]

Some people tell me to show pics words mean nothing with out pics. Here is the queen and tigres. The largest ant in the colony. She might be a bit bigger than the queen


Tigres is easy to spot. The queen is on the right nest. Tigres on the left top nest. Just as a reminder. Tigres has no water or nectar in her gaster. When she fills it up the queen is smaller than her.

I also had a pic of.my giant novomessor. A bot shorter than the queen, but with the same size head. I can not find it. In imgur for some reason.

Edited by anttics, March 7 2019 - 7:56 PM.

[Rstheant]

Wow, that’s cool! Lots of brood. How are they SO red??

[Xanuri]

Wow, that’s cool! Lots of brood. How are they SO red??

Probably fed them Hummingbird Nectar!

Edited by Xanuri, March 8 2019 - 6:37 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

Anttics has some that are 12mm!!

I have majors 16 millimeters long.

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, March 8 2019 - 7:08 AM.

[Xanuri]

 

Anttics has some that are 12mm!!

I have majors 16 millimeters long.

 

               

[TennesseeAnts]

Third year colony. C. chromaiodes have majors bigger than the queen.

[anttics]

Third year colony. C. chromaiodes have majors bigger than the queen.

Really I expected that from wild colonies. I once found a salsabeans major who was bigger than all of my camponotus vicinus queens it was massive. And fast. Pet colonies I never expect to se majors larger than their queen. They have no competition. What did you feed them?. I believe camp fragilis even i the wild do not have majors bigger than the queen. I could be wrong drew, and nurbs must know they have seen wild colonies.

[Xanuri]

 

Third year colony. C. chromaiodes have majors bigger than the queen.

Really I expected that from wild colonies. I once found a salsabeans major who was bigger than all of my camponotus vicinus queens it was massive. And fast. Pet colonies I never expect to se majors larger than their queen. They have no competition. What did you feed them?. I believe camp fragilis even i the wild do not have majors bigger than the queen. I could be wrong drew, and nurbs must know they have seen wild colonies.

 

I have a wild colony in my neighbors yard, I will see what I can do about getting some pics/video of them when I move the rock their nest is under, they have some fairly large Majors. maybe I can catch one and measure/take a few close up pics!

[TennesseeAnts]

I feed them live insects. Mealworms, crickets and ants too. I was not expecting to see one that big to be honest!

[Rstheant]

You kidding right. I don’t think majors get larger than the queen,p; the queen might be HUGE then the majors could get that big. Largest Camponotus modoc major I saw, was 15mm or something.

[anttics]

You kidding right. I don’t think majors get larger than the queen,p; the queen might be HUGE then the majors could get that big. Largest Camponotus modoc major I saw, was 15mm or something.

I have seen a salsabeans major that was bigger than my camp vicinus. And bigger than my camp sasabean queen. Which was 1 mm. shorter than vicinus. It was so large and fast. It startled me. I thought it was a queen. Due to its size. I estimated 16 to 17mm. Wild colonies do have larger majors to compete with other ants.

[TennesseeAnts]

They also probably get more protein. I feed mine every day. That must be why.

[Rstheant]

Same.

[TennesseeAnts]

Also, mine were wild caught, like all my Camponotus, so that could also be a factor.

[anttics]

I also read when ants see other colonies that could compete with them. They grow larger workers. Ant dude said. you feed your ants other ants. Maybe you fool then to think there is a colony near by. Beefing up their majors for defenses. That could be one theory. Ants are crazy adaptable like that. My novomessor where raided by my veromessor pergandei escapes for a few weeks. I would find dead veromessor in theor trash. At the same tine they produce the largest worker i had seen. I like to think the concentrated protein in kefir was responsible, but it could be they were trigger by the raids. Just a theory.

Edited by anttics, March 10 2019 - 5:43 PM.

[Xanuri]

Summary (2019.03.12)

Brood Inventory:

• 5-10 eggs
• ~ 8 Larvae
• 3 Pupae
• 5 Worker

Last night before bed I transferred a Pupae from my side project in with the Queen and 4 workers. When I woke up this morning and checked on them one of the Pupae eclosed and now we are up to 5 workers, this latest worker is a bit larger than the previous 4, I have thought about testing compatibility with the side project which currently has 4 workers taking care of the brood they have. Thought it might be interesting to see if they are "compatible" since it was a neighboring colony after all.

 

I was thinking once I get to 5 workers I could capture one of the side project workers and introduce it to the 5+ queen and see if the 5 kill it or accept it. Anyone have any thought's on that? or perhaps the other way around, introduce one of the queens workers into the side project and see if they kill it or not. If the test is successful then I would be up to 9 workers instantly.

[Rstheant]

Huh, you got more ants. Which means more journals!!! Mwahahahahaha!!!!!!