1787 replies to this topic

[Rstheant]

Give the queen colony all the brood from the other colony.

[CoolColJ]

Give the queen colony all the brood from the other colony.

 

Different species and they don't have that much brood anymore. 1 cocoon and maybe a few larvae

[CoolColJ]

Autumn 2nd March 2019

Camponotus suffusus bendigensis 17-18mm queen 1
20mm Test tube - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
8 workers, 2 cocoons, 1 large, 1 medium, 4 small larvae, 4 eggs
 

Finally 8th worker has eclosed.

I thought for a moment they ate the cocoon when I saw 3-4 workers munching on the remains of a cocoon shell

Then I counted 8 workers 

This new worker is already dark so I'm not sure which one it is...

[CoolColJ]

Colony update - Autumn 3rd March 2019

Opisthopsis Rufithorax (strobe ant) 10mm queen
Atom C nest inside circular outworld - tip of heat cable pressed against side of nest
70 workers, 20+ cocoons, tons of brood

I estimate them closer to 70 workers now, with tons of cocoons.
They have also created this big sand and rubbish pile inside the nest on top of water tower mesh


Melophorus sp.- black orange 7-8mm queen
Acrylic founding nest - heatcable
6 workers - brood?


Polyrhachis rufifemur 9mm queen
16mm test tube - heat cable
1 worker - 8 small larvae

the larvae barely grow, week to week.

Camponotus suffusus bendigensis 17-18mm queen 1
20mm Test tube - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
8 workers - 2 cocoons, 1 large, 7 small larvae

brood growing quite fast, the recent eggs are now small larvae.
I can see the legs pressed against the side of one of the cocoons, so it is looking ready to eclose.


Camponotus aeneopilosus aka golden tail sugar ant - 12mm queen
16mm test tube - styrofoam double chamber setup - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
1 drone - 15 large larvae

still no cocoons yet...


Camponotus cf nigriceps 19mm queen, 20+mm when bloated
20mm test tube, in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
1 nanitic - 2 large, 2 medium, 8 small larvae, 2 eggs

Gave them a half of a small cricket head and honey
Worker carried it back after a short squirt of formic acid, and then queen munched on it
Queen's gaster is super bloated.
They are doing well brood wise for second batch.

Light no longer bothers them, I could move them out of the incubator and onto a heat cable outside.

I am enjoying watching them, and forming emotional attachment... maybe I won't sell them...
And the queen is a pretty one, and big, she has some difficulty turning inside the 20mmm test tube now when bloated!


Myrmecia fulvipes, bull ant, 17-18mm queen
20mm test tube - in small outworld
1 worker

Still no eggs...


Colobopsis macrocephala 9mm queen
16mm test tube - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
2 nanitics and 1 pupa, 4 eggs

Both nanitics have darkened further, but I don't see much orange on them like the queen.
Gave them the other half of a small cricket head as their first prtein meal.
Not sure if they will eat it, but since they are nocturnal, they will likely wait till it's dim before munching



Pheidole antipodum 14-15mm queens x 6
All setups 20mm test tube and a styrofoam double chamber entrance

Heat cable
1) Dual queen - red dirt - cleared all the red dirt and heaped up at the middle of the test tube
35+ workers - huge stack of brood
2) Dual queen
14 nanitics - medium stack of eggs, some donated brood from queen 5 and setup 1
4) Queen with red dirt
10+ nanitics, small clump of 15+ eggs, 5+ donated brood from queen 5
5) Queen - bare test tube
50 workers - big stack of brood

Still cannot tell if queen 4's own eggs have hatched, but Setup 2's eggs have hatched by what I can see.
Setup 2 has gained 7 new workers/mini majors

Haven't noticed any unusually large larvae of the bigger caste of majors.

Queen 5's workers keep munching on roach bits I gave them a week ago
Cleaning it down to the shell

Edited by CoolColJ, March 3 2019 - 12:40 AM.

[CoolColJ]

Yestrday I found a 8mm sized reddy brown Pheidole queen under a pot plant in my backyard. She had created a 1+cm sized chamber in the dirt between the pot plant and concrete.

She is also on the larger side for a non black species. So it apppears that Pheidole, at least some species have started flying around here.

Then she died today...

 

Today there was a Tetramorium bicarinatum queen in my yard. She was just sitting there in the sun out on flat ground. Missing her left rear leg.

Some ant trail was passing her by and they just ignored her - kinda looked like Melophorus ants, but with no polymorphic castes, so not sure on species

Anyway she might be an out caste from a colony

Put her in a test tube, and we shall see....

[CoolColJ]

Silly Pheidole antipodum ants - they moved all the substrate from the inner chamber and covered the roach bits I give them

 

click

 

Queen 5's setup which has no substrate, pulled bits of styrofoam off the double chamber entrance and covered the roach bit...

 

[CoolColJ]

Autumn 4th March 2019

Camponotus suffusus bendigensis 17-18mm (2cm when bloated) queen 1
20mm Test tube - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
9 workers, 1 cocoon, 1 large, 1 medium, 4 small larvae, 4 eggs
 
9th worker closed
Only that bigger cocoon left, which might be a medial

Edited by CoolColJ, March 3 2019 - 7:12 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Autumn 6th March 2019

Camponotus suffusus bendigensis 17-18mm (2cm when bloated) queen 1
20mm Test tube - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
9 workers, 1 cocoon, 1 large, 1 medium, 4 small larvae, 5 eggs

Saw the queen curl over yesterday, and so she laid a new egg.
And her gaster is super bloated these days!

Edited by CoolColJ, March 6 2019 - 4:10 AM.

[CoolColJ]

Pheidole antipodum 14-15mm queens x 6
All setups 20mm test tube and a styrofoam double chamber entrance

Heat cable
1) Dual queen - red dirt - cleared all the red dirt and heaped up at the middle of the test tube
35+ workers - huge stack of brood
2) Dual queen
14 nanitics - medium stack of eggs, some donated brood from queen 5 and setup 1
4) Queen with red dirt
10+ nanitics, small clump of 15+ eggs, 5+ donated brood from queen 5
5) Queen - bare test tube
50+ workers - big stack of brood

For some reason Queen 5's workers started to spread the brood out over a 1inch area instead of piled up into a brood tower like before.
Pupa put at front, along with some small larvae, and some large larvae out the back.
Some of these larger larvae look like new bigger caste size of majors
 
And speaking of bigger mini majors, there is one pupa at the front which has a head that is twice the size of the current mini majors.
So this could be the first real major caste, but still of the smaller type for this species.
 
 
queen 5 - note the ant on her gaster
Click to enlarge

 
Large headed pupa compared to some the largest mini majors now, 4mm, this pupa might be 5-6mm.
Head is definitely much bigger than the current mini majors
 

 
Some big larvae on the left
 

 
---
 
Setup 1 - next largest in brood. Their setup is a touch wet and there is ahole in the cotton at the bottom. Hope it doesn't leak ....
 

 
Setup 2 starting to finally getting going with 15 or so workers
These two are the largest queens of the lot, in length and gaster size, with pretty bands on the gaster.
 

 
Queen 4 - her eggs still haven't hatched, but she has some 10+ workers from donated brood that should help
Second largest of my queens and equal in attractiveness
 

Edited by CoolColJ, March 6 2019 - 4:28 AM.

[CoolColJ]

These crazy Antipodum ants...

That colony that moved all the dirt out of their chamber earlier in the week to cover a semi alive baby roach I gave them.
Well they moved all the dirt off the roach a couple of days later.
And squeezed it all under the 3D printed feeding dish, as well as cover the honey on the dish.
Then dragged what remains of the roach, half of it, over the styrofoam chamber entrance in their test tube...
while dumping the remains of their last roach bit onto the feeding dish.

There is definitely a method to their madness

[Rstheant]

I need pics of mrymecia!!! I can’t help it.! Aaahhhhhhhhh!!


That should be good. Deep breaths..... ok, were was I?

[CoolColJ]

I need pics of mrymecia!!! I can’t help it.! Aaahhhhhhhhh!!


That should be good. Deep breaths..... ok, were was I?

They haven't done jack since my last batch of pics
Everytime I feed them some insects they dump it back outside... well they have no brood...
The queen hasn't laid since her first worker

[CoolColJ]

Colony update - Autumn 10th March 2019

Opisthopsis Rufithorax (strobe ant) 10mm queen
Atom C nest inside circular outworld - tip of heat cable pressed against side of nest
70 workers, 20+ cocoons, tons of brood

Not much to report, humming along.
Growing to fast for my likeing.
And their rubbish pile ontop the water tower is bothering me...


Melophorus sp.- black orange 7-8mm queen
Acrylic founding nest - heatcable
6 workers - brood?


Polyrhachis rufifemur 9mm queen
16mm test tube - heat cable
1 worker - 8 small larvae

zzzzz

Camponotus suffusus bendigensis 17-18mm queen 1
20mm Test tube - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
9 workers, 1 cocoon, 1 large, 1 medium, 4 small larvae, 5 eggs

A little bit of a lull as the third gen of brood develop


Camponotus aeneopilosus aka golden tail sugar ant - 12mm queen
16mm test tube - styrofoam double chamber setup - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
1 drone - 15 large larvae

still no cocoons yet... crazy slow for a small species!


Camponotus cf nigriceps 19mm queen, 20+mm when bloated
20mm test tube, in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
1 nanitic - 3 cocoons, 1 large, 3 medium, 5 small larvae

3 new cocoons...damn those cocoons came up quickly from last week!
1 is just spinning now, so once it ecloses I'll have an exact time frame.
They completely finished all the food I gave them last week.

Moved them out of the incubator and onto the heatcable, now that the brood is safe from the queen eating them
They are calmly eating this week's food.. worker sucked up all the raw honeycomb and honey within 20mins!
Queen and worker taking turns on the half baby roach.

Queen is slightly bigger than my suffusus queen, so over 2cm now
Minor worker (nanitic!) is also larger than my suffusus ones.
A lot more bloated now than in the pics. Seems to store way more food in her gaster than the suffusus workers
About 1cm, and will likely be 12mm or so when regular. Majors are 15-16mm

click





Myrmecia fulvipes, bull ant, 17-18mm queen
20mm test tube - in small outworld
1 worker

Still no eggs...


Colobopsis macrocephala 9mm queen
16mm test tube - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
2 nanitics and 1 pupa, 7 eggs

Pupa still hasn't eclosed, but has dark eyes now, so maybe this week.
Queen laid 3 more eggs since last week.


Pheidole antipodum 14-15mm queens x 6
All setups 20mm test tube and a styro foam double chamber entrance

Heat cable
1) Dual queen - red dirt - cleared all the red dirt and heaped up at the middle of the test tube
40+ workers - huge stack of brood
2) Dual queen
20 workers - medium stack of eggs, some donated brood from queen 5 and setup 1
4) Queen with red dirt
12+ nanitics, small clump of 15+ eggs, 5+ donated brood from queen 5
5) Queen - bare test tube
60+ workers - big stack of brood

Queen 4's eggs still have not hatched...
If her donated workers all die before her eggs hatch then it's a good bet she has bad genes and low fertility...
Pity as she is one of the pretty ones.
Her gaster is also the largest and most bloated of the lot. Probably due to not needing to feed any larvae

Setup 2 finally taking off. Their own brood is pupating.
the pride and joy of the lot, largest queens and pretty ones at that

Queen 5 the largest brood pile
Setup 1, dual queen, is a close second.

Edited by CoolColJ, March 10 2019 - 2:00 AM.

[CoolColJ]

Been thinking about grabbing a Green weaver ant.....


Autumn 12th March 2019

Camponotus cf nigriceps 19mm queen, 20+mm when bloated
20mm test tube - heat cable
1 nanitic - 4 cocoons, 3 medium, 4 small larvae

4th cocoon is being spun as I type, by the large larvae.
Very cool to see, but I still don't understand how the larvae does it

[TennesseeAnts]

Been thinking about grabbing a Green weaver ant.....

You should! There aren't many people that keep them.

[CoolColJ]

Been thinking about grabbing a Green weaver ant.....

You should! There aren't many people that keep them.

lots of queen available here, but the workers tend to kill the queens from what I have heard so I'm a little hesitant...

[CoolColJ]

Camponotus suffusus bendigensis 17-18mm queen 1 (2cm when bloated)
20mm Test tube - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
9 workers, 2 cocoons, 1 medium, 4 small larvae, 5 eggs

Woo just spotted two cocoons, so another has spun

Edited by CoolColJ, March 11 2019 - 8:55 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

Workers only kill the queen of you are trying pleometrosis, I think.

[Leo]

 

Been thinking about grabbing a Green weaver ant.....

You should! There aren't many people that keep them.

 

Mine died XD, they are actually quite easy to keep

[CoolColJ]

Autumn 12th March 2019

 

Myrmecia fulvipes, bull ant, 17-18mm queen
20mm test tube, uncovered - in small outworld
1 worker

 

So i exposed their setup to light a few days ago and all seems well.

Now I can get to observe them.

 

I fed them a baby roach today, and finally I see the queen munching in it!

So Hopefully she will start to lay again...

 

 

.

Edited by CoolColJ, March 11 2019 - 6:33 PM.