95 replies to this topic

[CoolColJ]

Dual queen Setup 1 doesn't have too many workers yet, but their brood pile is huge, lots of larvae, so when they all eclose the numbers should crack 100!

Hopefully they remain together, but I have no idea if this species accepts multiple queens past a certain stage...

Edited by CoolColJ, February 12 2019 - 2:36 AM.

[CoolColJ]

Pheidole antipodum 15mm queens to nanitic minor worker and mini major size difference

click to enlarge


queen 2 gets her head smothered

[CoolColJ]

One thing I have noticed, these ants like to cover up the food, and then a few days later dig back into and start eating it, despite it being dried out etc.
Since they are desert/arid area species, it kinda make sense

On that note, they do like to use substrate, more so than other ants I have in test tubes

None of my setups have access to an outworld yet, but according to a friend, that I sold my largest colony to, they seem to forage in pairs as well, they run out together then one follows the other around.

And according to some text they forage in a similar style to hypogacic foraging Dorylus laevigatus ants where they lay down more long term trails and forage in an area for a long period of time
Funny how they look rather similar as well

Edited by CoolColJ, February 26 2019 - 11:33 PM.

[Rstheant]

Teach them some table manners, jeez!!

No playing with your food, specially not burying it!!
Clean up after. Throw your trash in the trash so CCJ can cleanup quickly.

Ok, children?

Edited by Rstheant, February 27 2019 - 6:10 PM.

[drtrmiller]

When the colony is larger, try creating a large distance between the nest and the foraging area, around a meter or so at least, and observe whether they continue to cover wet/liquid foods.  It seems to me much of this dirt-covering behavior may be influenced by the wet/liquid food being in close proximity to the nest.

[Rstheant]

Could be. I’ve had some species do this, but this seems like a good answer.

[CoolColJ]

These Pheidole antipodum colonies sure like to build mini brood towers

Queen 5 with Setup 2 behind.

Her brood pile rivals dual queen Setup 1!

A few second gen 4-5mm mini majors have also arrived

click to enlarge

 

Dual queen Setup 1 has a nice brood tower going up

[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]

For some reason Queen 5's workers started to spread the brood out over a 1 inch 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 a hole 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

[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]

[CoolColJ]

All test tubes are pretty much bare now, now that the ants have moved all the substrate out to cover the food I feed them
and barricade their styrofoam chamber entrance.

 

I even see some substrate on the sides of the exit cotton between it and the glass.. too much air flow I guess 　

 

Dual queen Setup 1 has a few larger sized larvae now

 

Queen 5 has a few even larger larvae.
And yesterday I spotted a major pupa with a head the same length as the current minors.. twice the length and width of the current mini major head sizes!

[CoolColJ]

Setup 2 - finally getting going, their own brood is pupating. Their current workers are from donated brood.



Setup 1 - over 50 workers now I think, with a few mini majors. They have some larger sized larvae coming up



Queen 5 - has over 70 workers and quite a few mini majors, but there are some bigger girls coming up, and some bigger plump larvae 😎



That mini major with the dark head is the largest so far, but the pupa in the middle is by far the largest yet. Her head is about the same size as the small minor workers, and twice the size of the current mini majors. There are some other smaller major pupa as well, but bigger than the current mini majors. So when these eclose there will be 5 tiers of size



big headed girl pupa in the centre



The other bigger girls, one that is about to eclose, but smaller than the one above

[CoolColJ]

Ugh the two queens in my largest dual queen setup 1 appeared to be fighting!

Their jaws are locked together, although I don't know which is the dominant one...

I eventually removed one, put her into a new setup and gave her a third of the brood and around 20 workers and a few mini majors
They settled fairly quickly, and things seem to be OK.

I suspect most of the workers I pulled from there were young ones around the brood, so they are all timid and huddled together around the queen.

A few are on the queen cleaning her.

 

Meanwhile the other setup is busy piling dirt back onto the styrofoam chamber entrance I pulled out to do the rescue operation

Lucky I was up late and noticed them, if I had waited till morning it would have been too late!
 

 

Now I'm worried about my other dual queen setup which I have high hopes for!

[CoolColJ]

I found the largest colony straight up swarmed the honey the last time I fed them, instead of covering it up and the later uncovering it to take in.

Perhaps it's a colony size thing.

 

They are also frugal ants, cleaning up the last piece of meat from the roach shells, even a week old.

 

Also very active ants, the workers never stop moving

Edited by CoolColJ, March 19 2019 - 10:43 PM.

[CoolColJ]

head size comparison between minor worker, mini major and one of these new larger major pupa.
This new pupa is either a new caste member, or just the regular size of the first gen nanitic mini majors

click

[CoolColJ]

Queen 5 got has a larger major eclose, she looks about 4-5mm.
1.5x the size of the minors, 25% longer than the mini majors but thicker.
Maybe just a non nanitic mini major

The largest major so far.
I managed to get a picture of a minor, larger minor and the new larger mini major all in a row.
This large minor is bigger than the nanitic mini majors

If you look closely in the last two pics to the left of the queen, there is an even larger headed major pupa!
On the far left is a big larvae as well, just about 5mm, one of 4 or so.
Plenty more larger castes to come!

click

[CoolColJ]

Queen 5, the largest colony, no longer gets alarmed when they encounter the food I give them.
They get stuck right into it straight away. I fed them a few days ago and they still went for it.
They stripped down 3 small crickets this week!
Got lucky today and snuck in the food with no ants around to see it, saved me a lot of effort

I saw one of the new larger mini majors wanting to go forage, and a minor worker dragged her back to the brood
They are at least 80 workers, but could be closer to 100 now, not sure.
Mine definitely have a far larger appetite than regular Pheidole at this colony size

My other colony still gets alarmed when they see the food
Sometimes the queen comes over and sticks here head out of the styrofoam chamber entrance to take a look

Note the big round larvae, it's gotta be one of the larger true majors

Edited by CoolColJ, March 31 2019 - 3:09 AM.

[CoolColJ]

Queen 5, with around 80-100 workers, got her largest major yet, about 6mm
Not fully darkened yet, but with big muscular Podomyrma legs

Quite a lot bigger than the mini majors, head is almost the same size as the nanitic minors
Being used as a replete judging by her gaster

click

[CoolColJ]

largest antipodum colony is absolutely swarming the food and honey now, just piling ontop each other!
Quite a change in behaviour now and quite different from my regular Pheidole

click