15 replies to this topic

[Foogoo]

I caught seven of these queens, alates and dealates along the Cajon pass on 4/18/2015. It was a mild, breezy day and hadn't rained recently so there must have been a random flight. I put them in test tubes where they didn't seem very comfortable, yet at least one dealate already began to lay eggs that night. I moved them to THA mini-hearths and Talus's I had on hand. Some of them I put loose sand in and two of them sealed up their nest. Two of them also accepted honey water. By the second day, all alates have removed their wings and had eggs. I'm keeping one in a test tube. These seem like a relatively low maintenance species so far.

 

These have been hypothesized as F. francoueri, aerata or moki.

 

Edited by Foogoo, June 1 2015 - 7:03 PM.

[Wamdar]

Nice work!

[Ants4fun]

Jealous!! Totally wishing I had some Formica's!!!

Edited by Ants4fun, April 26 2015 - 7:19 PM.

[Foogoo]

Thanks! I've never knowingly seen Formica in the field before, and I came upon this flight by chance. So far these queens seem very low maintenance and can probably kept in tubes. Here's a closeup of a clutch of eggs tonight:

[dspdrew]

I just found two of these also. In addition to that, I took another specimen of a worker, and an alate I took from a nest at Mormon Rocks Station, so I will have some good microscope pictures of them and a positive ID soon. For now I can say for sure these are not F. francoeuri or F. moki. They are most likely F. aerata F. francoeuri.

 

Edit: So yeah, um I'm pretty sure these actually are F. francoeuri now.

Edited by dspdrew, May 3 2015 - 7:55 PM.

[Foogoo]

Noticed tonight that at least one of the queen's eggs have become larvae. It's hard to tell with the others especially since their eggs are elongate.

Edited by Foogoo, May 4 2015 - 7:28 PM.

[Foogoo]

The larvae have gotten significantly fatter. I'm not sure if just part of their normal progression or because of the heat lamp I turned on since yesterday.

 

Also interesting to note is that while these gals are claustral, they still accept food. Of the two I have in Taluses which I added a bit of sand, one of them used the larger grains to seal off the entrance. The other one hasn't, and occasionally comes out and wanders. It's already accepted honey water so tonight I gave it a single fruit fly, which is now gone. It will be interesting to see if this ones brood develops any quicker or stronger than the ones who haven't eaten.

[dean_k]

From what I've read on the forum, fully claustral queens do accept food if given. It appears fully claustral means they don't try to forage in wild.

 

I never gave my Lasius queen any food though and she got her first food from her nanitic after 6 or 7 months later.

[Miles]

Noticed tonight that at least one of the queen's eggs have become larvae. It's hard to tell with the others especially since their eggs are elongate.

There are 6-7 larvae in this image.

[Foogoo]

First coccoons! Not bad for 3 weeks. It's also obvious that the queens have been feeding the larvae the fruit fly and Blue 100 I offerred.

[dspdrew]

Yeah, my queen's larvae are developing pretty quickly too.

[Foogoo]

 

'Cause the waiting is the hardest part

[dspdrew]

Mine is right there too.

[Foogoo]

First nanitics! Didn't even notice them, I think I was too preoccupied with the Pogonomyrmex last few days.

[dspdrew]

Oh yeah that reminds me; mine just got their first workers too.

[PTAntFan]

Mine should be any day this weekend.  The cocoons are fully developed.  I've also been feverishly working on a formicarium based on Drew's Amac boxes.  I'll post on it later in a new thread.