115 replies to this topic

[Kaelwizard]

Nice. My Proceratium pergandei queen should lay soon. I found her running around in the woods.

I am really excited to hear about that one!

[Kaelwizard]

Lasius spp:

I caught two queens of one species that are nice bright golden brown, I also caught a slightly bigger dark brown one that still has its wings, and also a parasitic Lasius cf. aphidicola. I fed the parasite some sugar water (lime juice water and sugar). I gave the other queens the same thing but I don’t know if they have drank it yet.

[Kaelwizard]

I found a Camponotus nearcticus colony! Yay!

[Kaelwizard]

I have them set up in a big plastic jar with dirt, wood chips and a plant. The majority of the ants are under a couple wood chips on the drier side of the jar (the side opposite of where the plant is)

[AntsDakota]

Has your Pogonomyrmex occidentalis arrived yet?

[Kaelwizard]

They should ship on Monday or Tuesday.

Camponotus nearcticus:

They moved under the biggest piece of wood in the jar now. I think three workers somehow died when I dumped them in. The rest are fine. I think about 10-15 workers are alive.

Edited by Kaelwizard, September 7 2019 - 3:24 PM.

[Kaelwizard]

I believe that they live underground under the wood now.

[Kaelwizard]

They moved back to a nest that they were at before.

Also, for any of you who want to know what color morph these are, they are the red and black morph.

Edited by Kaelwizard, September 8 2019 - 5:19 AM.

[Kaelwizard]

I moved them into a tubs and tubes set up as the jar was a little big.

[Kaelwizard]

C. nearcticus:
Dead...

P. occidentalis:
They finally got here! Yay! I dumped them in to the mini hearth. 2 workers are in the nest with the queen, the other 2 are trying to nest in the foraging area.

[Kaelwizard]

I ended up manually moving the workers into the nest chamber. (Gently grabbed them with featherweight tongs)

[Kaelwizard]

P. occidentalis:

These guys are doing pretty well, no die offs over night or anything. They have 3 fat larvae.

Edited by Kaelwizard, September 12 2019 - 2:22 AM.

[AntsDakota]

P. occidentalis:

These guys are doing pretty well, no die offs over night or anything. They have 3 fat larvae.

Are the larvae the queen's offspring?

[Kaelwizard]

P. occidentalis:

These guys are doing pretty well, no die offs over night or anything. They have 3 fat larvae.

Are the larvae the queen's offspring?

Yes. The workers aren’t though.

[Kaelwizard]

I have named the queen Bellona (Roman war goddess) and she leads her mighty legionnaires!

 

Edited by Kaelwizard, September 12 2019 - 12:07 PM.

[Kaelwizard]

Last night I saw Bellona lay an egg. Today I found a pile of like 5 or 6.

[Kaelwizard]

The pile of eggs had grown and a worker is tending a single egg separate from the pile. Only have one larvae left for some reason. I wonder if they fed it the others or if the queen ate them. Otherwise Bellona and the legionnaires are healthy.

[Kaelwizard]

Make that like 20 eggs!

[AntsDakota]

Sounds like a very hardy species.

[Kaelwizard]

Cracked open a big seed for them and they loved it.