Jump to content

  • Chat
  •  
  •  

Welcome to Formiculture.com!

This is a website for anyone interested in Myrmecology and all aspects of finding, keeping, and studying ants. The site and forum are free to use. Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation points to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. If you already have an account, login here - otherwise create an account for free today!

Photo

Ant_Dude2908's Camponotus subbarbatus Journal (Discontinued)

camponotus subbarbatus

  • Please log in to reply
28 replies to this topic

#1 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 6 2019 - 2:51 PM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee
Found a queen and few workers in a twig in early February. They weren't doing as well as I'd hoped, so I gave them some workers from an unrelated colony. They got along great too. Now I've been doing Camponotus colony fusion for a while now, and I have never seen Camponotus accept other workers this readily before. Now today I found a mature colony that had no queen for some reason. I collected several dozen workers and two female alates. I am adding the workers to my colony as I'm writing this, and they are getting along great with the other workers and their new queen so far.

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, May 30 2019 - 4:34 AM.


#2 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 6 2019 - 3:07 PM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee
But the weird thing is, there were only about 60-75 workers and the two winged females. No males. And I emptied the entire twig, and the twigs around the twig, and found nothing. And the females can't open their wings and fly at all... Maybe those females are the queens? Any suggestions?

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, March 6 2019 - 3:10 PM.


#3 Offline Rstheant - Posted March 6 2019 - 6:04 PM

Rstheant

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 883 posts
  • LocationSan Jose, CA
Usually mated queens that have wings don’t use their wings, only alates and delates can fly. About the drones, some colonies produce drones when they are in the 400s or somewhere like that. Of course, in some cases, drones come earlier.

#4 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 6 2019 - 8:49 PM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee
Yeah I confirmed the queens are sterile. :(

#5 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 7 2019 - 2:56 PM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee
I found EVEN MORE satellite nests. Got around 500 workers and 50 drones plus 40 ish females. All getting introduced one by one... This is going to take a while.... This is the fastest growing of any Camponotus! Lol. Yesterday they had 10 workers. Now I have a "mature colony"!

#6 Offline Rstheant - Posted March 7 2019 - 3:34 PM

Rstheant

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 883 posts
  • LocationSan Jose, CA
Yeah well, but you introduced more workers to a current colony. But, who cares??? :lol:
  • TennesseeAnts likes this

#7 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 7 2019 - 3:51 PM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee
They grew up so quick! Now I have the problem of finding a good nest for my 500 worker colony...

#8 Offline Rstheant - Posted March 7 2019 - 5:01 PM

Rstheant

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 883 posts
  • LocationSan Jose, CA
So you went to drtrmiller’s thread to see if he had a old nest available? :lol: Just get a Casita or something from Tar Heel Ants.
  • TennesseeAnts likes this

#9 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 7 2019 - 5:57 PM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee
Whaaaat? I never went to an two year old thread... A Casita does sound good though...

#10 Offline Rstheant - Posted March 7 2019 - 6:05 PM

Rstheant

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 883 posts
  • LocationSan Jose, CA
This?

http://www.formicult...ts/#entry109532

:lol: I’m just joking.

#11 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 8 2019 - 5:24 AM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee
the nest he made looks like an Antkit nest.

#12 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 10 2019 - 12:53 PM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee

3-10-19

 

Well, the alates were NOT fond of this new queen, so they tried to kill her... She is safe now though. I will have to kill the female alates.



#13 Offline Leo - Posted March 11 2019 - 2:26 AM

Leo

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 1,508 posts
  • LocationHong Kong

Maybe the alates killed the old queen too...



#14 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 11 2019 - 6:28 AM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee
I say new queen because I only collected satellite nests. The queen is my queen from a few months ago.

#15 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 12 2019 - 11:37 AM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee
Ok.... So you know I used several different colony's satellite nests, right? Well it appears that the males from one colony bred with one or more of the female alates... So if she gets workers....

#16 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 15 2019 - 2:43 PM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee
Well that colony crashed HARD. Luckily for me, I found one to replace it. The experiment is over, so I changed the topic name. This colony has just about 100 workers and some small larvae. I am moving them from their collection container into a nest that I made specifically for smaller Camponotus. It is basically two halfs of a CD case glued together with cork in the middle. The cork absorbs the water and only needs hydrated once a month. The ants dig their own chambers.

#17 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 19 2019 - 10:30 AM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee

3-19-19

 

So the larger colony has dug some comfy little chambers! They have some small larvae as well. Here are some pics of the colony in the test-tube.

 

g5b2DQ7LgVoU2F1M3Y9w7rk337c-oqKTVAGh71TR

 

4LmRnASS9AYyUYu0b1CSxvq_6pNK8BynU8hTT9A0


Edited by Ant_Dude2908, March 19 2019 - 10:31 AM.

  • Mettcollsuss likes this

#18 Offline xTNxANTMANx - Posted March 20 2019 - 6:38 PM

xTNxANTMANx

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 87 posts
  • LocationWest TN

I started my colony with just a queen and some brood she had. She was my first and has been doing great. No boost or anything. She has at least 50 workers maybe more. And btw, yea ill trade my biggest Formica pallidefulva colony. I will say tho my subbarbatus colony has to be one of my favorites. Not small but not huge in size (size of workers that is not size as in numbers) and are polymorphic. 


  • TennesseeAnts likes this
Keeping:
Camponotus subbarbatus
Camponotus pennsylvanicusx3 (founding)
Dorymyrmex bureni
Formica pallidefulva x3
Formica subsericea x4
Tetramorium immigrans

Have kept many other ant species but now keep over 100 tarantulas and other inverts! Mantids, centipedes, and scorpions to name a few 😁

#19 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted March 21 2019 - 4:23 AM

TennesseeAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 4,920 posts
  • LocationNashville, Tennessee
Yeah I'm not sure if they are Myrmentoma or not. They are double the size of C. caryae or nearcticus.

Edit: Do you have a journal for any of your colonies?

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, March 21 2019 - 4:24 AM.


#20 Offline xTNxANTMANx - Posted March 21 2019 - 9:37 AM

xTNxANTMANx

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 87 posts
  • LocationWest TN

If ur talking to me I started a journal a few yrs ago but I don't think it was on this site. I have so many inverts to care for I don't really have time to do a journal for each or even my favs. All the colonies I have though have all been started from a nuptial flight queen. I have 2 Tetramorium immigrans (had 4 but a mouse...long story lol) colonies that I traded for but they only had around 8 nanitics when I received them. I plan to either let one of them go back into the wild or trade/sell it. They are like fire ants...reproduce like crazy! But are a lot smaller than I like. I'd say my Camponotus subbarbatus are about as small as I like. Also, anyone in this thread that is in middle-west TN, keep an eye out for (preferably) Solenopsis richteri but Solenopsis invicta will work. I hope to get lucky and find a couple down the road at my mother's residence but just in case, if anyone stumbles across any, I'd be willing to trade/sell for them. Oh, same with Camponotus castaneus.


  • TennesseeAnts likes this
Keeping:
Camponotus subbarbatus
Camponotus pennsylvanicusx3 (founding)
Dorymyrmex bureni
Formica pallidefulva x3
Formica subsericea x4
Tetramorium immigrans

Have kept many other ant species but now keep over 100 tarantulas and other inverts! Mantids, centipedes, and scorpions to name a few 😁




0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users