127 replies to this topic

[Leo]

2/12/17

 

first egg from the harpengnathos!

[Leo]

5/12/17

 

The Harpengnathos are like assassins! I placed in a small roach, while a single worker followed my movements with her large eyes. Then as soon as I placed the lid on again, the worker crept up behind it, wagging its abdomen like a happy puppy. Then it jumped 2cm or so, landing on the roach and stinging it into submission. I love watching them hunt!

 

the diacamma aren't progressing too much, yet neither are they dying sooooooo idk

[Hunter]

i don't know this type of ant are the eggs yellow, or just me

[Connectimyrmex]

Nice job with your Harpegnathos! 

 

@Hunter My Stigmatomma queen keeps on laying trophic eggs for her adopted Aphaenogaster larva, and the trophic eggs are yellow. Since ambyloponine and ponerine ants are similar, maybe Harpegnathos lays yellow eggs.

[Hunter]

Nice job with your Harpegnathos! 

 

@Hunter My Stigmatomma queen keeps on laying trophic eggs for her adopted Aphaenogaster larva, and the trophic eggs are yellow. Since ambyloponine and ponerine ants are similar, maybe Harpegnathos lays yellow eggs.

o cool then

[Leo]

9/12/17

 

these pics are a little bit outdated, they are in their little nest now, but why not post the pics =P?

queen surrounded by workers

zoomed out

diacamma going nom nom

Edited by Leo, December 8 2017 - 5:11 PM.

[Connectimyrmex]

nice

[MegaMyrmex]

So
So
So
So
So
Jealous
Nice ants though. I have a founding ponera colony!

[Leo]

23/1/2018

 

Hi guys,

 

The harpegnathos are now my only ponerines still here, for reasons i would not really like to state, I am only allowed to keep these guys. The are now in an ants australia size 2 acrylic formicarium and have a tiny terrarium/outworld thing and down to 7 workers, they are laying eggs, but for some reasons, the larvae are dying. I won't post much for a while because i am kinda busy. I hope I will be able to catch some queens in the spring. See ya!

() video

Edited by Leo, January 23 2018 - 5:21 AM.

[Leo]

13/2/18

This colony has doubled in size, then suddenly stopped, no idea why, they are now in a mini custom-made formicarium, I caught another colony and traded them for messor barbarus. I found some diacamma again, they have 4 eggs.

[Leo]

25/2/2018

 

The winter was very rough for the harpegnathos, and once i came back from a holiday in mainland china, they were all dead.   

 

BUT, I  caught a small bunch of ponera, which were huddled up under a rock, 7 workers and no queen, none of them have died so far, so i'll take that as a good sign.

 

AND I went on a hike today and caught, 2x pristomyrmex queens, 2 queen tetramorium sp with 1 worker, 5-6 queen 20-29 worker crematogaster colony and found several harpegnathos nests, though I did not disturb them. much.

(harps nest entrance)

(angry worker)

(tetramorium)

(pristomyrmex)

(crematogaster)

(catching the ants  )

[Jadeninja9]

Aw man that sucks they died. Hopefully you’re successful with these new colonies.

[VoidElecent]

Some of this photography is absolutely stunning. Well done!

[Kevin]

I love those pictures! Everything looks really sharp. Good luck with your colonies

[MegaMyrmex]

Nice ants! The pristomyrmex and tetramorium look amazing!

[Leo]

Apparently pristomyrmex are pretty hard to keep.... 

[Leo]

messor (1 queen, 3 majors, 1 pupae, 20 workers?)

Weird rolly millipede thing, it is in one of terrarium box thingys, probably a pill millipede of some sort.

BEETLE LARVAE BUTT

 

Also, I got some pics of the diacamma!

[Leo]

5/3/18

The tetramorium escaped..... 

 

The messor are now laying eggs after a , I moved them into a new test tube/boiling tube thing. due to a massive dust mite invasion.

Today I found a dealate odontomachus...THEN SOMEONE &#^@$! STEPPED ON IT. I almost pushed the dude off the stairs.

 

on the bright side:

I caught 20-30 Ectomomyrmex queens during a MASSIVE nuptial flight they are still buzzing around as I type this(gotta catch'em all!  )

[LC3]

Did the Tetramorium relocate their entire nest or was it just a sudden unscheduled expeditionary force?

[Leo]

Did the Tetramorium relocate their entire nest or was it just a sudden unscheduled expeditionary force?

I have no idea, one hour they were there, when I came back from tutoring, they were gone =P

 

P.S. I put the Ectomomyrmex into a bead organizer and  separated the Ectomomyrmex into different cubicles, dealates in one row, 3x alates in one cubicle for another row, sand as substrate for others and so on. The "default" substrate is wet tissues.