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WestAnts' T. sessile Journal

westants t. sessile tapinoma sessile

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#1 Offline WestAnts - Posted August 4 2015 - 6:24 PM

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Hey all,

 

This is a journal for a mature colony of T. sessile that I recently captured from my porch. What I am fairly certain is the entire colony had situated themselves in a pot, on a table in the full light of the sun. I took this pot indoors during quieter foraging hours, scooped its contents into a vaseline lipped container, and then went through the painstaking process of encouraging them to move into the formicarium I crafted for them. Stragglers – from both my porch and the dirt – were sifted out and aspirated, then joined with their nestmates.

 

The formicarium is a miniature "Kritter Keeper", cast in sanded grout (and an inconsequential quantity of perlite), and lipped in fluon. For heat, I have adhered a heat pad – designed for hermit crabs, and thus tolerant towards enclosures made of acrylic/plastic – to the side of the tank, since from poking around journal's like Crystal's I'd heard of their fondness for heat. This pad is kept on around 19 hours per day, and warms that face of the tank significantly. Incidentally, it's also where most of the colony resides, since it's dark there, too.

 

I plan to add an outworld soon, since they like to wander big distances. I'm also thinking of culturing pea aphids, since these ants love to tend insects, from what I've seen; I've been wondering if a lack of nutrient sources like these might be part of why they have a poor history in captivity.

 

The colony is pretty large, to my understanding; I have no solid estimate of their size, but think it may approach 1000, or at least the high hundreds... maybe more? No clue. They are monogynous, too ... the queen is the largest I've ever seen with respect to others I've dug up in my area, and is consistently generously distended. To give a sense of their scale, here's a timelapse of their foraging response to a weevil (or armored insect of some description, at any rate) that I chopped up and offered to them. At a later peak, this response seemed to reach ~200 individuals – though I'm pretty poor at trying to count them.

 

Some shots of the 4-sided enclosure, and the rest of the colony...the last one is the heated side of the tank.

 

And a clip of the queen herself...

 

Observations/Details:

 

I feed them everyday/every other day with the juice of whatever fresh, organic fruit I buy; these juices are offered via soaked cotton balls. They are crazy for plum juice, enjoy cantaloupe, and have also enjoyed watermelon (to a more modest degree). They'll feed on these sources for many, many hours, until nearly the entire colony have distended gasters. I also give them 24 hour access to water via the test-tube seen in the above images.

 

Upon capture, they had quite a big number of brood. Many of those have eclosed in the past few weeks, but the queen's chamber is ripe with eggs and early-instar larvae, so I'm hoping for a fruitful next spring...

 

Mortality has been minimal for these first several weeks – more from my own error (occasionally rough-housing a worker or two) than from natural causes. I'd say no more than a dozen have visibly died, including those I injured myself. Crossing my fingers. If too many do at length perish, I will release them to their own devices (which, by all accounts, seems to rebound moribund colonies quite quickly). 

 

At the beginning, there seemed to be a few that would overcome the fluon barrier each day, but that's died down, it seems; I refreshed the coat as smoothly as possible, and don't often see any escapees. In any case, they're situated on my desk, so I'd notice if any substantial breakout began to occur.

 

That's all for now.. hoping for the best with this reportedly finicky species!

 

- WestAnts


Edited by WestAnts, August 4 2015 - 6:34 PM.

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#2 Offline LC3 - Posted August 4 2015 - 6:37 PM

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I thought T.sessile were polygynous. o.O 

Anyway Congrats :) that's a lot of ants.



#3 Offline Mdrogun - Posted August 4 2015 - 6:40 PM

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I thought T.sessile were polygynous. o.O 

Anyway Congrats :) that's a lot of ants.

 

The colonys of T. sessile around my house are polygynous. WestAnt you should try introducing more queens.


Currently Keeping:
Trachymyrmex septentrionalis

Pheidole pilifera

Forelius sp. (Monogynous, bicolored) "Midwestern Forelius"
Crematogaster cerasi

Pheidole bicarinata

Aphaenogaster rudis

Camponotus chromaiodes

Formica sp. (microgena species)

Nylanderia cf. arenivega


#4 Offline WestAnts - Posted August 4 2015 - 6:46 PM

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Perhaps a better way of putting it would be that this particular colony has just one queen. Nevertheless, I haven't observed that the T. sessile in my area (San Francisco) form supercolonies, or are polgynous. They're also hostile to workers from other nests (queens too, I would imagine); I think that perhaps I live in their monogynous range. 

 

If I'm wrong, though, I'd be pleased if future alates bred inside the nest!



#5 Offline LC3 - Posted August 4 2015 - 7:25 PM

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Are you sure they're T.sessile then? o.O



#6 Offline WestAnts - Posted August 4 2015 - 8:21 PM

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I'm pretty certain, yes; to my understanding this ant is in fact monogynous in its native range... and they certainly smell like T. sessile!



#7 Offline Foogoo - Posted August 4 2015 - 8:56 PM

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The time lapse is awesome, what software did you use to create it? And what cam are you using? It's focuses on those ants relatively well!


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


#8 Offline LC3 - Posted August 4 2015 - 9:11 PM

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I'm pretty certain, yes; to my understanding this ant is in fact monogynous in its native range... and they certainly smell like T. sessile!

Weird how most invasive species are polygynous even though they may be monogynous in their native range. 

 

P.S what do you think T.sessile smell like? :P



#9 Offline WestAnts - Posted August 4 2015 - 10:03 PM

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The time lapse is awesome, what software did you use to create it? And what cam are you using? It's focuses on those ants relatively well!

 

I enjoy them too, and have been taking them frequently with this colony. It's actually just the time-lapse camera on my iPhone 6, so no post-processing involved... I imagine there are Android devices (or apps) that offer similar functionality.

 

LC3 -- I've heard it described as a fruity or rotten coconut odor, which seems fair to me. It's a very strong smell, and easily noticeable on any surface where they're crushed or physically agitated. 



#10 Offline dspdrew - Posted August 5 2015 - 6:32 AM

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Tapinoma sessile are polygyne and they are native to the US.



#11 Offline WestAnts - Posted August 5 2015 - 10:45 AM

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Tapinoma sessile are polygyne and they are native to the US.

 

Thanks for clarifying! I was thinking of literature like this, but maybe it's not too broadly representative of life history, since others seem to encounter polygynous colonies in undisturbed habitat and this seems to have been conducted only in IN.



#12 Offline dspdrew - Posted August 5 2015 - 11:09 AM

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Interesting. That's kind of like how some people say certain ants seem to behave invasively when kept in captivity.


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#13 Offline Crystals - Posted August 5 2015 - 1:58 PM

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I have had some entertaining conversations, and I have been informed that there are some strains of monogynous Tapinoma sessile who will fight any new queens or any others from a different nest.


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#14 Offline Myrmicinae - Posted August 9 2015 - 9:07 AM

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Yes, T. sessile is a highly variable species - in fact, it is likely to be made up of multiple quite distinct species when taxonomists do eventually address it.  

 

Some variants are polygynous in natural habitat, whereas others are strictly monogynous.  Also, in at least a few variants, environmental disturbance can apparently cause formerly monogynous populations to adopt polygyny and even supercoloniality.


Edited by Myrmicinae, August 9 2015 - 9:10 AM.

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#15 Offline William. T - Posted August 9 2015 - 10:47 AM

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I find that in some parts of MD, there is a fat queen in charge, and there are some smaller, less dominant queens that are covered up by the workers. T. Sessile queens are tiny and look like workers.


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Species I keep:

 

1 Lasius cf. Neoniger 30 workers

1 Camponotus sp. 15 workers

20 Tetramorium SpE 30 workers

1 T. Sessile 200 workers

 


#16 Offline LC3 - Posted August 9 2015 - 10:50 AM

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I find that in some parts of MD, there is a fat queen in charge, and there are some smaller, less dominant queens that are covered up by the workers. T. Sessile queens are tiny and look like workers.

I saw a pdf or something once on polygynous vs monogynous, turns out that polygynous queens sacrifice quality (aka less fat storages,lower lifespan and less dominance) for quantity and monogynous queens have lots of fat and longer lifespan.

 

Edit: 

http://libres.uncg.e...native_1999.pdf

(^It was written in 1999 so it may be more or less out dated)

 

https://graduaterevi...013/04/ward.pdf

(^Here's a more recent publication on the subject that I found in my folders)


Edited by LC3, August 9 2015 - 11:05 AM.

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#17 Offline WestAnts - Posted August 10 2015 - 12:11 AM

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Great stuff! It's interesting to hear everyone's different experiences. The queen in this colony – at least when she's well fed – seems a little under twice the length of her workers. So, pretty distinct in appearance, though I've also seen much smaller T. sessile queens in this vicinity.

 

Had a breakout with these guys today, woke up to them foraging on my desk and had a grand old time tracking them all down and aspirating some ~75 foragers back to safety... Scrubbed away and refreshed the barrier, but I'm thinking I need a smoother/more consistent way to apply the fluon – preferably in one long, continuous stroke – as they seem to inevitably learn to exploit rougher patches. Paint-brushes are too volatile for me, and cotton balls seem to get sudsy. I have vaseline, but am not too fond of it, as it is difficult to maintain and makes a nasty mess of anything it touches. I'd welcome to any tips in this regard!



#18 Offline drtrmiller - Posted August 10 2015 - 12:54 AM

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These ants are among the most difficult to contain.  Fluon will stop working in humid conditions, so a well-ventilated (open lid), climate-controlled setup is essential.

 

Also, it helps to apply Fluon to the outside of the container so they can not form a trail back to the nest to recruit more workers, should they happen to escape.

 

The byFormica Fluon with integrated applicator tips offer the smoothest, easiest application available.


Edited by drtrmiller, August 10 2015 - 3:34 AM.

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#19 Offline Crystals - Posted August 10 2015 - 6:36 AM

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I have found an upside down lip covered in fluon works best.  Use a Q-tip for application (You will need a couple).

For double measure, I put olive oil on the top side of the lip.

 

I have yet to find a way to use a barrier on this species that will work on just a vertical surface.


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#20 Offline William. T - Posted August 10 2015 - 7:57 AM

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The only way to really contain this species is some lid or mesh. Even BF Fluon does not work sometimes. Even with a lip, my cookies had managed to get some scouts out.


Edited by William. T, August 10 2015 - 7:58 AM.

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Species I keep:

 

1 Lasius cf. Neoniger 30 workers

1 Camponotus sp. 15 workers

20 Tetramorium SpE 30 workers

1 T. Sessile 200 workers

 






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