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Antmaniac's Melophorus Sp.


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#1 Offline antmaniac - Posted January 20 2016 - 2:56 AM

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I decided to create a journal for Melophorus Sp., although I am not 100% certain if I have caught the right queen. This species are very similar to the Camponotus Sp., 3 different size of castes and spins cocoons. Anyways, here is the journal.

 

19/12/2015

I found this queen on a hot summer afternoon. She is not that big, around 5mm.

20151219 182724
20151219 182803
20151219 182911

 

20/12/2015

20151220 084709
 

She is possibly this Melophorus Sp., have yet to be confirmed.

20151220 121708
20151220 121838
20151220 122654
20151220 122725
 
19/1/2016
Due to the condensation of the container, her first batch of brood all died while still at larvae stage. I have relocated her to a test tube setup for the time being. So on the day after rain, I managed to dig up some pupae from a wild Melophorus Sp. colony. I put them in with the queen and to my surprise, 3 of them have eclose the day after. I was very fortunate to witness a worker and the queen busily assisting a new worker to eclose that night. The last step actually requires the queen to fully free up the young worker. So, my conclusion is that even if this queen is not this species, at least she is a species knows how to undo the cocoons.
20160119 191758
20160119 191803
20160119 222253
20160119 222543

 

 


Edited by antmaniac, January 20 2016 - 3:05 AM.

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#2 Offline antmaniac - Posted January 22 2016 - 4:17 AM

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22/1/2016

More workers eclosed. The major workers are very chubby, so they may have store up the honey I provided. The minor workers are running around very fast and alert. On another hand, some eggs can be seen. Hopefully the new brood will be raised successfully.

20160122 221135

 



#3 Offline antmaniac - Posted February 7 2016 - 12:25 AM

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6/2/2016

The workers appear to be much darker than under the sun and look similar to the queen. The brood is developing well, look like a good start so far.

20160206 195705
20160206 195810
20160206 195955

 


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#4 Offline antmaniac - Posted February 12 2016 - 11:28 PM

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13/2/2016

This colony was very hungry and went crazy over the honey, just look at the size of the gaster!

20160213 113711
20160213 131008

 



#5 Offline antmaniac - Posted March 12 2016 - 2:16 AM

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6/3/2016
New cocoons, but no new eggs. Maybe they need some protein.
20160306 221914

 


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#6 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted March 29 2016 - 4:00 PM

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These are the Australian honeypot ants, right? Awesome colony. ;)



#7 Offline antmaniac - Posted March 31 2016 - 10:08 PM

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These are the Australian honeypot ants, right? Awesome colony. ;)

I think the red variety of this species in the desert are honeypot. This one I am not too sure, but they like hot weather and stock up.



#8 Offline antmaniac - Posted February 11 2017 - 2:26 AM

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8/12/2016
The test tube was flooded, so I had to relocate them to a new location. As the weather warmed up, this colony became very active.
IMG 20161208 192712
 
IMG 20161208 192719

 

28/1/2017

Very hot weather this summer, this queen alate was flying during the hot noon.

IMG 20170128 122610
 
5/2/2017
I still haven't create a proper formicarium for them yet.
20170205 134643

 

 



#9 Offline Leo - Posted February 11 2017 - 5:50 AM

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pretty little things  0v0



#10 Offline Del - Posted February 12 2017 - 10:41 PM

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Looks good! My Melophorus do not seem to produce cocoons though. Perhaps I've misdiagnosed them?

#11 Offline antmaniac - Posted February 13 2017 - 1:48 AM

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Neither did mine, I suspect we need to give them substrates to assist them.




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