95 replies to this topic

[CoolColJ]

Australians are so lucky when it comes to ants.... (maybe not when they're stung by Myrmecia, though.  )

 

Well grass is always greener on the other side as they say. I wish we had more Carebara ants

And the ones we have are not that easy to find...

 

 

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Pheidole Antipodum colony started covering the holes of the Byformica water feeder with sand... so scratch that.... will switch to a plugged up small test tube for water instead...

They already made a small graveyard on the foil

Also surprised how active they are, constant trail of ants on patrol.

They are supposed to be subterranean but they don't really act like it so far

[CoolColJ]

Well after a few days my largest Pheidole antipodum colony didn't move out of the test tube and into the nest I place them in, so I guess I'll wait till the test tube dries out
Since I put the lid back on their combo nest outworld, they treat the whole thing like a nest!
Makes sense as the humidity rises a lot with the lid on.
The fluon stops working with lid on as a result.

They have dug out the sand from the outworld part and put it everywhere, even in the unused nest, a lot on the foil for some reason...

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I casually ran a heat cable past the nest and I'm surprised they brought out some of the pupa and placed it near the heat cable well outside of the test tube!




Meanwhile in the test tube the brood is a lot more spread out now
Note the blu tack on the nest's water refill hole. Just wanna make sure they don't crawl in there and they can.. they also put sand on the blu tack...

[CoolColJ]

size comparison between Pheidole antipodum and the regular large black/red headed Pheidole species, 9mm queen that just laid an egg


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[CoolColJ]

The colony the nest, keeps putting sand on the outworld lid cracks...
They treat the whole thing as their nest!

Anytime I open the lid, and so the airflow and humidity drops, they start to crawl up to the top and try to stack sand, lucky the fluon start to work again when the humidity drops

[CoolColJ]

Queen 10 doing well.
Interesting brood formation they have
eggs and small larvae/pupa up top, and front. While large larvae down bottom and back

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[CoolColJ]

Queen 10 may have the first super major Larvae in the making!
It's a big round ball at the moment, but still bigger than all the other larvae and the current largest mini majors.
You can see a minor worker and a small mini major feeding it a bit of 1 week old dried out roach flesh
Out of all my ants these are the only ones that are quite frugal and quite content to feed on days old dried out roach bits. Since they come from the desert it makes sense.


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[CoolColJ]

Queen 5 Still haven't moved out of the test tube and into THA Inception chamber, but they may soon, once their main tets tube has run dry.
At first they covered the tets tube entrance with sand.
I then put in a smaller test tube for water. Some of the ants moved in, even a few brood, and then later some sand...
Then they cleared all the sand from the main test tube for some reason, and abandoned the small water test tube.
I see a few brood in the THA nest now.

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Queen 10 has had the largest major eclose this week, about 7+mm, way bigger than the others, but still not near the queen's size
She is still on nursing duties

[CoolColJ]

Pheidole antipodum colony 1 -

 

Pheiolde anitpodum really do not like the nest, they put their brood every where but in the nest!

I think there is some brood under the foil as well…..

 

 

[FSTP]

I'd love to see some video of the queen thumping her gaster like you described when being fed. These are such interesting ants.

[CoolColJ]

I'd love to see some video of the queen thumping her gaster like you described when being fed. These are such interesting ants.

I'll see what I can do, it's bit harder now as only one queen is in the test tube and her colony is quite developed.

 

Even the other smaller black species we have here do the same thing - queen thumping gaster when being fed.

Seems like a Pheidole trait for the species here

[CoolColJ]

I'd love to see some video of the queen thumping her gaster like you described when being fed. These are such interesting ants.

have a look at the queen on the far right doing it here - smaller black, red headed species we have here

 

at 1:32, and 2:05

 

Edited by CoolColJ, January 25 2020 - 12:52 AM.

[CoolColJ]

Queen 5 - THA Inception nest
500+? workers and some mini majors - massive brood pile
 
They finally moved into the THA Inception nest!
There is a test tube of water outside which some of the workers hang out inside with some brood, but most of them are in the nest now.
The tube that waters the nest doesn't seem to work anymore, blocked up
So I just wet the nest wall and hope for the best but they seem to like it dry anyway.
And with the lid shut on the outworld it stays fairly humid.
 
very active colony, constantly shifting large piles of substrate around! And they have a huge pile of substrate/bodyparts/roach parts under the test tube....
 
click - note the dead bodyparts used to seal the nest lid....

 

 
Queen 10, former member of dual queen - simple tub and tubes
400+? workers and some majors of all sizes - massive brood pile

I put them into a simple tube and tube setup
 
They dug into the water in the original test tube and a few dozen workers/mini majors drowned in there,
but it dried out, they turned it into a brood chamber and dumped the dead bodies outside on their special garbage dump
 
They blocked the test tube up with what looks like cotton, bits of styro foam and roach bits....
 

 

 

 

 

[CoolColJ]

Had some cooked mince on my plate. Decided to test out if they like cooked meat, as Pheidole and most ants do not usually take to cooked meat.

Well turns out they do! Video was taken within a minute of dropping it in!

So they are more like Carebara ants, than regular Pheidole in behaviour, plus the similar type of polymoprhism

 

[CoolColJ]

Pheidole antipodum nuptial flight photo from the web
 
Man, none of my colonies have even the medium sized majors, let alone the super major which is about 2/3 of the queen's size.
The super major is about double the length of my current largest mini major and 3 times thickness!
The best is yet to come...
 
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[CoolColJ]

Colony 2 feeding time - I'll repost on Youtube later

 

https://www.instagra.../p/B-37UDHgGu0/

[CoolColJ]

Remains of mite infested colony of 1000 down to <10

This is the largest major so far of the colonies I have, about 6-7mm

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