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Greg's Myrmecocystus navajo Journal (Discontinued)

myrmecocystus myrmecocystus navajo

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#1 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted June 9 2015 - 9:08 PM

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FINALLY!!! I finally got a Myrmecocystus queen to raise a worker! Yes!!! I received this queen as a dud from dspdrew last year after he caught her... somewhere out in the desert. After constantly feeding her since she ran out of her original fat reserves, she finally decided to let some of her brood grow, and one actually made it to be a worker. There should be at least three more workers coming soon, and I believe she has a few eggs right now. I will move them into a setup that is proper for repletes to hand from the ceiling which should last a few months.


Edited by Gregory2455, February 20 2019 - 10:09 PM.


#2 Offline Alza - Posted June 9 2015 - 9:19 PM

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Are repletes born repletes, or are they workers that are fed a lot?



#3 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted June 9 2015 - 9:26 PM

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Are repletes born repletes, or are they workers that are fed a lot?

I think they are born as slightly larger workers, and some become repletes, some stay normal workers and become repletes if needed.



#4 Offline Miles - Posted June 9 2015 - 9:28 PM

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Nice! I have a small colony of this species.


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PhD Student & NSF Graduate Research Fellow | University of Florida Dept. of Entomology & Nematology - Lucky Ant Lab 

 

Founder & Director of The Ant Network. Ant keeper since 2009. Insect ecologist and science communicator. He/Him.


#5 Offline Ants4fun - Posted June 10 2015 - 5:48 AM

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Nice! I have a small colony of this species.


You should make a journal here! I know you have a couple journals on queenant.proboards.com, but you should make some here! By the way, you didn't find these ants in Idaho, did you?

#6 Offline dspdrew - Posted June 10 2015 - 4:07 PM

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That's amazing.


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#7 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted June 29 2015 - 6:00 PM

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Surprisingly the worker is still alive and well. These, along with a few other colonies will be getting proper formicaria this week.



#8 Offline LC3 - Posted June 29 2015 - 6:31 PM

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=D



#9 Offline Foogoo - Posted June 29 2015 - 8:08 PM

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Miles, maybe you can weigh in, does Ray Mendez do anything different or does he also get a few successful colonies out of many unsuccessful queens? I'm amazed by his colonies in your video clips. Yet reading journals, it seems like this is a difficult species to get past founding.


Camponotus vicinus, Crematogaster 1, Crematogaster 2, Formica francoeuri, *, *, Myrmecocystus testaceus, Novomessor cockerelli, Pheidole hyatti, Pogonomyrmex californicus, Pogonomyrmex rugosus, Solenopsis invicta


#10 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 28 2015 - 4:09 AM

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Update: 7/28/2015

I caught three more queens out in the desert, but one of them already died... :/

That means currently I have the queen with a single worker and two brand new queens.


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#11 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted August 16 2015 - 2:32 AM

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Update: 8/16/2015

One of the new queens has a fairly sizable pile of pupating larvae. :) The other one seems to be infertile, as her eggs have not yet even turned white from yellow.



#12 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted August 19 2015 - 12:52 AM

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The worker of the queen from last year died yesterday. :(



#13 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted September 3 2015 - 5:24 PM

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Update:9/3/2015

The fertile queen from my night trip in late July got workers a few days ago. :D



#14 Offline dspdrew - Posted September 4 2015 - 6:51 AM

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Mini-mexicanus.


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#15 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted September 4 2015 - 8:10 AM

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Mini-mexicanus.


rofl

#16 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted February 17 2016 - 12:35 PM

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Discontinued.

This colony just randomly died out. :/ Oh well.







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