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Messor pergandei Journal

messor pergandei high desert

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#1 Offline jimbodw07 - Posted April 4 2014 - 10:40 PM

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Species: Messor Pergandei (Harvester Ant)

 

Date of Collection: March 28th, 2013

 

Location: Pinon Hills, CA (Southern High Desert)

 

Time: ~9:30pm

 

Conditions: Ants may have mated due to a major storm that occurred during the last week of February. The storm came in from the pacific and had a sub tropical tap which produced tropical type (severe) rains with warmer temperatures than usual. As a major storm, the ground remained moist throughout March which may have influenced the Messor pergandei nuptial flight.

 

Observations: Newly mated queens were spotted at night actively working on their founding chambers. Most chambers were inactive during the day time. The majority of newly founded chambers were located in sandy clearings such as roadsides, dirt roads that were mostly inactive, and dry creek beds. Anywhere free of plant vegetation.

 

In the middle of March, I was watering the trees in my yard when I noticed founding chambers all over the place. As I inspected them, I noticed that most of them where either sealed or were inactive with a visible entrance. I then waited until nightfall to see if I can dig up some queens. Well, I did and failed quite often. The soil even when moist was like digging into concrete. I gave up that night and tried again a few nights later. Well, I went out again with my flashlight and I noticed that the queens were coming out of their entrances to clear the soil. I checked some more chambers and the queens were doing the same thing. From there on, it was very easy to capture the queens. I simply waited for the queen to come out and bam, I captured her.

 

All in all, I was able to capture 10 Messor queens. I couldn't catch anymore because I ran out of test tubes and it was freaking cold! 

As of right now, about 5 queens have eggs already. The only thing that worries me the most is that most of the queens are picking at the cotton and they are restless. I just have to remember that my honey pot ant queens acted the same way too before laying eggs.

 

I'll keep this journal updated.

DSC_0001-1.jpg 

 

 


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There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
Those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer 
from an overabundance of life.
-Waking Life

#2 Offline dspdrew - Posted April 4 2014 - 11:30 PM

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Strange, all the ones I got laid eggs just a few hours after putting them in test tubes. Are you going to keep any together in one tube? Also, is it actually Pinon Hills where you live, it does look like your area more than Phelan?



#3 Offline jimbodw07 - Posted April 5 2014 - 6:52 PM

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Yeah I know it's bit strange. I checked on the ants today and I've got some more laying eggs. So that's a good sign. As of now, all the queens are in their own test tubes.

 

Yeah the city that I live in is actually Pinon Hills, but nobody ever knows where Pinon Hills is located at haha. 


There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
Those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer 
from an overabundance of life.
-Waking Life

#4 Offline jimbodw07 - Posted April 5 2014 - 6:56 PM

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Oh by the way, what setup are you using to house these queens? Simple test tube setup? I've never kept this species before. Thanks!


There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
Those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer 
from an overabundance of life.
-Waking Life

#5 Offline dspdrew - Posted April 5 2014 - 7:25 PM

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Yeah the city that I live in is actually Pinon Hills, but nobody ever knows where Pinon Hills is located at haha. 

Haha, I had no idea where either was until I looked at Google Maps. :unknown:

 

 

Oh by the way, what setup are you using to house these queens? Simple test tube setup? I've never kept this species before. Thanks!

I just have them in test tubes. I think test tubes are really the best setup ever invented. Unless there truly is a problem keeping a certain species in them, that's what I use.



#6 Offline jimbodw07 - Posted May 5 2014 - 12:55 AM

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Update: May 5th, 2014

 

Species: Messor Pergandei

 

As of yesterday, I had a total of 12 queens instead of 10. About a week after collecting the 10 queens, I decided to add 2 more to the collection.

 

Today however, 2 out of 12 queens died. :( So now I have 10 queens left with 2 in dirt setups that were established at the time of capture. Sadly, most of the queens weren't doing so well in their test tubes and it seemed like more queens were on their way to ant heaven. I don't know why this is happening.They are in the standard test tube setup and I practically left them in my dark closet with minimal disturbance :thinking:. Now here is the interesting part, the 2 queens in the dirt setup have large clusters of eggs. They seem extremely healthy and they both have more eggs than all of the queens in the test tubes combined! This is exactly what happened to my honey pot ants. The honey pot ants in the test tubes didn't do so well compared to the active colonies I had in the dirt setup which I have now in their 10 gallon formicarium.

 

So without risking my pergandei queens in their test tubes, I decided to put all 8 of the queens in dirt setups just like I did with the honey pots. I have them in cut out plastic water bottles inside zip lock baggies to keep the environment humid. We'll see how this plays out. I suspect that some will die anyway and some may become successful. I'll just have to wait and see.

I'll keep you guys updated.

 

DSC_0002-3.jpg


There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
Those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer 
from an overabundance of life.
-Waking Life

#7 Offline dspdrew - Posted May 5 2014 - 5:47 AM

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That's so weird because all of mine seem to be doing pretty good in test tubes. One or two I suspect may have been eating their eggs, because it's taken a lot longer for larvae to start showing up, but that's about it. BTW, when I say it's weird, I mean that about mine doing well, because I hear things similar to what you're saying from a lot of people. The weirdest part is I check on and disturb all my queens almost twice a day.



#8 Offline jimbodw07 - Posted May 10 2014 - 9:04 AM

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Update: 05/10/2014

 

Today I decided to check on the Messor queens and 3 out of the 10 queens still haven't dug their chambers. The rest have already dug their chambers and are doing fine.

Now here is the interesting part. When I was anting during thier mating flight, I found a lot of founding chambers with more than one queen occupying the same chamber. Well today, I found the same thing. I had two dirt setups inside one ziplock bag with one queen in each dirt setup. Today I found out that one of the queens jumped ship from her dirt setup and occupied the other queen's setup. Now I've got two queens working together in the same dirt setup. I know dspdrew has several test tube setups with more than one queen in each tube. I figured these queens will have colonies with multiple queens.


There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
Those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer 
from an overabundance of life.
-Waking Life

#9 Offline dspdrew - Posted May 10 2014 - 9:59 AM

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I had one with two queens, but one of the queens was dead the day the first worker eclosed.



#10 Offline jimbodw07 - Posted July 26 2014 - 9:46 PM

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Update: Messor pergandei

Date: July 26th, 2014

 

I am now down to 3 colonies. Sadly, the rest of the queens crawled out of their chambers and wrote their will and some decided to curl into a ball hoping to reincarnate into something more than a donut.

 

Colony #1 is still in their water bottle dirt setup and they have about 5 workers along with a nice pile of sh... eggs (what were you guys thinking?!). This colony is doing well. The first sign of workers occured about three weeks ago around July 5th. So I'm super excited.

 

Colony #2 is progressing very slowly (another water bottle setup). The queen still has eggs and 2 workers from the first week of July. This colony will be monitored very closely.

 

Colony #3. My favorite one. This colony has an interesting "birth". A while back, I housed a queen in a water bottle dirt setup and eventually she had eggs, larvae, and pupae. This was the only queen that progressed so quickly and vigorously out of all the other queens. When her first worker eclosed, the royal higness decided to crawl out of her chamber just like the others and curl into a ball. She left behind a ton of eggs, pupae, 2 workers, and larvae. I was dissapointed and then I remembered that when I was out collecting queens, I noticed that most of the founding chambers of this species contained more than one queen. So I found the poorest performaning queen and snatched her out her dirt setup and placed her with the non-existent queen dirt setup.

 

That colony today is my only thriving colony. I went ahead and prepared a 10 gallon formicarium for this colony and now they've dug a chamber and the queen is doing well. I will post a video either tonight or tomorrow.

DSC_0003-1.jpgDSC_0004-2.jpgDSC_0001-4.jpg


There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
Those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer 
from an overabundance of life.
-Waking Life

#11 Offline Mercutia - Posted July 26 2014 - 9:58 PM

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Wow, that is a huge natural setup! Are you not at all concerned that you won't be able to see the inner workings of the colony?



#12 Offline jimbodw07 - Posted July 26 2014 - 10:26 PM

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The bigger, the better! These ants produce massive nests in the wild and so I'm sort of planning ahead. I'm not too concerned about visibility, although I know as the colony gets bigger I might have a chance at viewing them.


There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
Those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer 
from an overabundance of life.
-Waking Life

#13 Offline jimbodw07 - Posted July 27 2014 - 12:34 AM

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http://vid344.photob...orPergandei.mp4


  • dean_k likes this
There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
Those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer 
from an overabundance of life.
-Waking Life

#14 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 27 2014 - 2:31 PM

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Nice video and pictures. Has this queen you talk about started laying more eggs of her own since adding her to the queenless colony?

#15 Offline jimbodw07 - Posted July 28 2014 - 12:50 AM

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Thanks man. Yea she laid more eggs. Just before I placed her into the formicarium, she had a nice clutch of eggs.


There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
Those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer 
from an overabundance of life.
-Waking Life

#16 Offline jimbodw07 - Posted January 21 2015 - 12:13 PM

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Update: January 21st, 2015

Messor Pergandei

 

This is going to be a really short update.

Unlike my myrmecocystus species, I haven't seen these ants at all! The last time I saw any of the messor workers was in October of last year. Other than that, these ants have practically disappeared. I'm sure they are hibernating just like the Honey Pots, but not one trace even after a warm spell is kind of suspicious! I hope these ants are still alive. This is my first time keeping these ants so I guess time will tell. :) 

I'll keep this journal updated as spring comes around. Hopefully it won't be bad news. ;)  


There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
Those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer 
from an overabundance of life.
-Waking Life

#17 Offline Jonathan21700 - Posted January 21 2015 - 12:53 PM

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Nice video!



#18 Offline jimbodw07 - Posted January 21 2015 - 6:41 PM

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Thanks man!


There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
Those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer 
from an overabundance of life.
-Waking Life

#19 Offline dean_k - Posted January 21 2015 - 7:00 PM

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Messor sp, one of my favorite species.

 

I hope it's just napping in there.



#20 Offline jimbodw07 - Posted January 21 2015 - 7:27 PM

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@Dean. i hope so too!


There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
Those who suffer from a lack of life...and those who suffer 
from an overabundance of life.
-Waking Life




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