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Cheeto's Lasius interjectus (Updated 5/8)


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#1 Offline CheetoLord02 - Posted January 31 2021 - 9:25 PM

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While I've considered making a journal on this species for a while, I decided to bite the bullet and do so today.

I received 2 Lasius interjectus queens from a friend all the way back in October. I quickly got them introduced together to around 100 Lasius americanus workers and put them into hibernation. I managed to only grab a single bad picture of them before hibernation, so here you go.
 

IMG 20201026 085758265

 

 

Unfortunately, my hopes for having a polygynous Lasius parasite colony were crushed shortly out of hibernation, when I noticed one of the two queens had died. Thankfully the other was still fine, and I elected to move them into a Mini Hearth.

Fastforward to now, and the queen finally decided to lay eggs. I'm not sure why it took so long, around 3 weeks, but at least it's finally happened. Normally they hide in one of the side connections on the mini hearth, and you can even see the queen poking her head out from there in the 2nd image. This sucks because while I could see eggs for sure, I had no idea how many! Well for some reason tonight they pulled the pile out onto the water tower, and to my surprise there's at least a few dozen, and I'm almost positive the queen is still laying more each day, since this pile seems far larger than what I could (barely) see in the last few days.
 

IMG 20210131 215537543
IMG 20210131 215555517
 

 

The single pupa in there is L. americanus, not interjectus. When getting the hosts out of my large L. americanus colony, I also sucked up a single larva, which they hibernated with. I'll probably end up adding more host brood from my L. americanus colony at some point, because while 100 is enough hosts, more is always better with Lasius parasites.


Edited by CheetoLord02, May 8 2021 - 11:07 AM.

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#2 Offline ArmansAnts - Posted January 31 2021 - 9:32 PM

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Sucks that one died.


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#3 Offline NickAnter - Posted February 1 2021 - 8:20 PM

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Good luck with these! In my opinion, more attempts at parasitic species should be made. How can we succeed without trying, after all?


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Hi there! I went on a 6 month or so hiatus, in part due, and in part cause of the death of my colonies. 

However, I went back to the Sierras, and restarted my collection, which is now as follows:

Aphaenogaster uinta, Camponotus vicinus, Camponotus modoc, Formica cf. aserva, Formica cf. micropthalma, Formica cf. manni, Formica subpolita, Formica cf. subaenescens, Lasius americanus, Manica invidia, Pogonomyrmex salinus, Pogonomyrmex sp. 1, Solenopsis validiuscula, & Solenopsis sp. 3 (new Sierra variant). 


#4 Offline Chickalo - Posted February 2 2021 - 6:34 AM

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uwu lasius, i love me some lasius

sorry to hear some of the queens died

imma try latipes (or literally any lasius parasite i find [but i mostly really want latipes]) this year and see how it goes


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シグナチャーです。예.

 


#5 Offline Bobby_Hill - Posted February 2 2021 - 6:43 AM

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You have so many sp.!



#6 Offline KitsAntVa - Posted February 2 2021 - 7:13 AM

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he did say he had around 60-70 I'm definitely trying interjectus next year then.


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We don’t talk about that

#7 Offline CheetoLord02 - Posted February 2 2021 - 9:12 AM

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he did say he had around 60-70 I'm definitely trying interjectus next year then.

That was a while ago. I've downsized my collection quite a bit for the winter, and currently only keep 30 different species. The smallest my collection has been in quite a while, actually.


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#8 Offline CheetoLord02 - Posted February 24 2021 - 7:19 PM

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Update 2/24

This colony's brood has been developing steadily, and now they've got well over 100 larvae, probably even close to 200 (most being kept in the side holes of the mini hearth). So far the development has been a lot faster than I expected, but still a snail's pace compared to most other species I've kept.
 

IMG 20210224 200347733

I absolutely love how the queen looks. I can't wait to see her swell up like a balloon eventually.
 

IMG 20210224 200325067

Edited by CheetoLord02, February 24 2021 - 7:21 PM.

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#9 Offline CheetoLord02 - Posted March 21 2021 - 2:59 PM

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This colony now has an absolute truckload of larvae, just unfortunately their monstrously slow egg to worker time is killing me. None of the larvae are even close to pupating yet.
 

IMG 20210321 150142554
IMG 20210321 150147006

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#10 Offline CheetoLord02 - Posted April 8 2021 - 11:18 AM

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Since the last update this colony got their first biological pupa, and in the week or so since then around a dozen more!

I did move them to a new mini hearth because of the presence of grain mites in their old one. I haven't seen any more in the new setup which is nice.


Hopefully we're only 2-3 weeks off from biological workers. I can't wait.
 

IMG 20210406 214602819


Here's a video I did a few days ago showcasing the colony:


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#11 Offline CheetoLord02 - Posted April 17 2021 - 3:09 PM

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Finally, after 76 grueling days, the colony eclosed their first biological worker.... and immediately killed it.
 

IMG 20210417 001251008

 

 

Now, this is pretty common in Lasius. For whatever reason the hosts never seem to get along with the first worker. I just hope that the next pupae, which should keep eclosing in the coming days, won't suffer the same fate as this one.

Here's a brood picture for the time being :)
 

IMG 20210414 172048661

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#12 Offline Lillyrose - Posted April 19 2021 - 4:31 AM

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Finally, after 76 grueling days, the colony eclosed their first biological worker.... and immediately killed it.


That escalated rather unexpectedly. Awww

Nice pics too!

#13 Offline Canadant - Posted April 19 2021 - 5:06 AM

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Wouldn't want to be born into that! Mother nature sometimes is as cold as ice. I hope she died for the sake of her coming comrades.
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"You don't get what you want. You get what you deserve".

#14 Offline Antkeeper01 - Posted May 8 2021 - 8:10 AM

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Update?


1X Pogonomyrmex occidentalis 40-50 Workers

1X Solenopsis molesta 10 Workers (mono)

Ants I Want: Crematogaster sp, Camponotus Sp., Ponera Pennsylvanica, Mymercocystus sp.

 

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#15 Offline CheetoLord02 - Posted May 8 2021 - 11:06 AM

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Well, we have finally gotten living bios, 5 in total. However that rate is actually pretty terrible considering they had at least 25 pupae in their first generation. For some reason they kept being dead-on-arrival, and I honestly think that's what happened to the first one, and not that she was killed by the hosts.

In better news, the biological workers tend to be much better at caring for the brood than the hosts, so hopefully next season they'll take off much better.

Speaking of next season, they have decided it's time to hibernate. In May. Yeah, I don't really know either. But no point in trying to keep them awake, that'll only kill them. So they'll be going in for their 3 month nap any day now, and you'll hear back from this journal then.

The bios are so cute <3
 

IMG 20210430 150518671

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#16 Offline Antkeeper01 - Posted May 8 2021 - 11:23 AM

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Congrats all you need to become a parasite and slavemaker expert is to raise polyergus to 100 bios lol 

EDIT: Also why are the queens legs so wacky?


Edited by Antkeeper01, May 8 2021 - 11:23 AM.

1X Pogonomyrmex occidentalis 40-50 Workers

1X Solenopsis molesta 10 Workers (mono)

Ants I Want: Crematogaster sp, Camponotus Sp., Ponera Pennsylvanica, Mymercocystus sp.

 

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#17 Offline Lillyrose - Posted May 8 2021 - 3:36 PM

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Will you take them out in August? What odd little ants lol... but then you can put them back in November or December and have them out again in March or April. That's kinda neat.

#18 Offline NickAnter - Posted August 21 2021 - 7:50 PM

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Well its been over 3 months now...

 

Update?


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Hi there! I went on a 6 month or so hiatus, in part due, and in part cause of the death of my colonies. 

However, I went back to the Sierras, and restarted my collection, which is now as follows:

Aphaenogaster uinta, Camponotus vicinus, Camponotus modoc, Formica cf. aserva, Formica cf. micropthalma, Formica cf. manni, Formica subpolita, Formica cf. subaenescens, Lasius americanus, Manica invidia, Pogonomyrmex salinus, Pogonomyrmex sp. 1, Solenopsis validiuscula, & Solenopsis sp. 3 (new Sierra variant). 


#19 Offline Antkeeper01 - Posted November 10 2021 - 12:27 PM

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UPDATE?


1X Pogonomyrmex occidentalis 40-50 Workers

1X Solenopsis molesta 10 Workers (mono)

Ants I Want: Crematogaster sp, Camponotus Sp., Ponera Pennsylvanica, Mymercocystus sp.

 

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#20 Offline NicholasP - Posted March 5 2022 - 3:21 PM

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Any news on them?






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