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Antmaniac's Ochetellus glaber


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4 replies to this topic

#1 Offline antmaniac - Posted February 11 2017 - 12:15 AM

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I found an iPhone earphone case, then a thought come to my mind. This well made material could be useful as a formicarium, so here goes.

 

11/12/2016

I used a hot needle and melt a hole in the cover. Field tested and it was proven that the fattest worker can squeeze through the hole.

IMG 20161211 191848

 

The colony was already too large to transfer easily at this point, therefore I calmed them down a bit by freeze them. Relocated or dumped them seems be relatively easy and smooth, didn't have enough time for a good photo before they woke up though.

IMG 20161211 205224

 

Put the cover on, the colony woke up fine.

IMG 20161211 205654
 
Completed the whole set up by adding a water source and this is how it all started...
IMG 20161211 205922

Edited by antmaniac, February 11 2017 - 12:46 AM.

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#2 Offline antmaniac - Posted February 11 2017 - 12:42 AM

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26/12/2016

This species loves meat, so I fed them some mosquitoes.

IMG 20161226 154410
 
27/12/2016
At this point, the colony has already got used to this new formicarium.
IMG 20161227 181319

 

5/1/2017

Food is relatively easy to obtain during summer time. In this occasion, a mosquito tried to bite me, but ended as dinner.

IMG 20170105 205950

 

13/1/2017

The queen was hoarding her precious.

IMG 20170113 225058
 
21/1/2017

As some parts of fruit flies and mosquitos are too big to fit through the entrance hole, the ants dumped them in the water source to soften them up. During this time, the workers actually relocated all the brood to the water source. The queen actually purposely slimmed down and the workers were encouraging her to abandon the overly dry formicarium.

IMG 20170121 204254
 
5/2/2017
Clearly that didn't work out. They reverted back to delivering water from the water source and use queen as water storage. They also stored up on honey as food, perhaps this is like the condition in desert and these ants have adapted very well.
20170205 115431
 
Lots brood so far, I think soon I can create a passage outside for them to fetch foods from wildness.
20170205 115759

 


Edited by antmaniac, February 11 2017 - 12:43 AM.

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#3 Offline antmaniac - Posted February 17 2017 - 9:51 PM

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18/2/2017

The colony was well fed with honey and fruit flies.

20170218 002905
 
They are neat and tidy, made a small pile of rubbish dump in the corner. 
20170218 002922
 
A worker is fetching water from the water source.
20170218 003021

 

I made a video to show the overview of the setup.


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#4 Offline Nincadaguy - Posted February 18 2017 - 7:42 AM

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that's a pretty cool way of using an earbud case



#5 Offline antmaniac - Posted March 28 2017 - 4:56 AM

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2/3/2017

By using the freeze technique again, I tried to put 4 new queens into this colony. But all of them got killed soon after.

IMG 20170302 220037
IMG 20170302 220333

 






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