Jump to content

  • Chat
  •  
  •  

Welcome to Formiculture.com!

This is a website for anyone interested in Myrmecology and all aspects of finding, keeping, and studying ants. The site and forum are free to use. Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation points to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. If you already have an account, login here - otherwise create an account for free today!

Photo

Theantguy's Lasius spp. Journal

lasius non-parasite california lasius

  • Please log in to reply
7 replies to this topic

#1 Offline TheAntGuy - Posted February 6 2021 - 7:39 PM

TheAntGuy

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 306 posts
  • LocationMoreno Valley California

06/02/2021 (dd/mm/yyyy)

 

I got 3 queens of some species of Lasius from StopSpazzing, way back in august or September, not sure. I didn't expect them to lay until after hibernation, and they still haven't but I only took them out of hibernation just yesterday. All 3 queens are still alive and made it through hibernation fine, I am going to give them a drop of sunburst and a fruit fly each once my new culture gets a bunch more flies. I am keeping them on an elevated shelf of my closet, in the dark, on a test tube rack. Vibrations should be essentially non-existent, and they are being kept at room temperature which is currently hovering around the low 70s Fahrenheit. Their test tubes are the standard 16x150mm glass ones, the queens are only around 10mm or so, so it should be fine. If all 3 queens get workers and make successful colonies, I will be keeping them all, as I plan to use them to attempt keeping our native Lasius social parasites. I found one queen of what I believe to be Lasius californicus in 2019 and after failing to find host brood and callows, she died. Since then I have wanted to go back and get more, as I don't believe I remember anyone who has kept them.

 

Queens:

ukirMl5.jpg

 

fAh0WQs.jpg


Edited by TheAntGuy, August 4 2021 - 1:33 AM.

  • ANTdrew and ReignofRage like this
Check out my journals, instagram, and youtube channel.

Insta: @theantguy17

Youtube: The Ant Guy

#2 Offline ANTdrew - Posted February 7 2021 - 3:27 AM

ANTdrew

    Advanced Member

  • Moderators
  • PipPipPip
  • 9,376 posts
  • LocationAlexandria, VA
Good luck! I’m starting a Lasius neoniger queen at the moment as well. I find it’s not that easy to get these ants to thrive in captivity, and founding them takes forever compared to most small ants.

Edited by ANTdrew, February 7 2021 - 3:28 AM.

  • TacticalHandleGaming likes this
"The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Prov. 30:25
Keep ordinary ants in extraordinary ways.

#3 Offline NickAnter - Posted February 7 2021 - 1:03 PM

NickAnter

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 3,307 posts
  • LocationOrange County, California

My polygynous colony has around 78 workers, and are in hibernation. They really don't kick off until their second or third year. Mine are currently overwintering around 150 small larvae.


  • ANTdrew and TacticalHandleGaming like this

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 ANTdrew - Posted February 7 2021 - 1:11 PM

ANTdrew

    Advanced Member

  • Moderators
  • PipPipPip
  • 9,376 posts
  • LocationAlexandria, VA
Patience is key, then. I’ll be doing my two week check on my girl tomorrow. 🙏🏻
"The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Prov. 30:25
Keep ordinary ants in extraordinary ways.

#5 Offline NickAnter - Posted April 9 2021 - 7:27 AM

NickAnter

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 3,307 posts
  • LocationOrange County, California
How are these doing?

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). 


#6 Offline TheAntGuy - Posted May 24 2021 - 3:00 PM

TheAntGuy

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 306 posts
  • LocationMoreno Valley California

24/05/2021 (dd/mm/yyyy)

 

The first of these finally got a nanitic, there is at least one other queen with a cocoon as well, I will be posting pictures shortly, I need to move them into fresh tubes first though. 


  • ReignofRage and TacticalHandleGaming like this
Check out my journals, instagram, and youtube channel.

Insta: @theantguy17

Youtube: The Ant Guy

#7 Offline yibsi - Posted May 25 2021 - 4:55 AM

yibsi

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 91 posts
  • LocationCentral Illinois

24/05/2021 (dd/mm/yyyy)

 

The first of these finally got a nanitic, there is at least one other queen with a cocoon as well, I will be posting pictures shortly, I need to move them into fresh tubes first though. 

Congrats on the first nanitic! Looking forward to the photos!  :D


    Nylanderia parvula - 4 queen polygynous colony with larvae + devoloping workers

    Camponotus pennsylvanicus  - 1 queen with 2 cocoons, and a few larvae and eggs

    Tetramorium immigrans - 3 colonies, first nanetics!

    Formica pallidifulva - 1 queen, 8-10 eggs

    Tetramorium atratulum - 1 queen with roughly 17 host workers

    :D Pheidole pilifera - 1 queen! recently caught! :D

    Solenopsis Molesta - 2 queens so far, polygenous set-up

---------------------------------------------------

My Ant Journal - yibsi’s Wonderful Ant Keeping Journal 5-22-21 - Ant Keeping Journals - Ants & Myrmecology Forum (formiculture.com)

My T. Atratulum Journal - https://www.formicul...ontinued/page-2


#8 Offline TheAntGuy - Posted August 4 2021 - 1:56 AM

TheAntGuy

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 306 posts
  • LocationMoreno Valley California

04/08/2021 (dd/mm/yyyy)

 

It's been a bit  :whistle:

 

       Apologies for the delay, not much had been happening especially due to my neglecting my ants from catching too many Camponotus. I have some good news, great news, and amazing news, which would you like first? Just kidding I am choosing for you. Starting with the good news, the two queens that turned out to be fertile are still alive, and are doing well, more on those later. The great news is that I caught more of these just last night, and not only that, but I also got a second species which is larger and has different coloring, not sure what species but I retitled this journal to including all Lasius species. Now for the amazing news, I finally got my hands on a temporary social parasite... AND I got not only cocoons of a host species but callows as well. Back to last year's queens just for a moment, they had each lost a worker which left one workerless and one with a single worker. I wanted to get them back up to par, but for some reason it didn't click in my head until tonight that I quite literally had the perfect materials to do so, the host brood and callows for the parasite were the same species as these queens, so I gave a single callow to the workerless queen, along with about 8 or so cocoons, and gave the remaining 10-15 I had separated to the 1 worker colony. Now, back to the parasite. The queen has not been identified yet, but I knew as soon as I had caught her that it was a parasitic Lasius sp. I had caught her Sunday night, then tubed her when I got home, and slept.

 

       I woke up the next morning to go back anting at the same spot in the afternoon, hoping to flip a rock to find a Lasius colony warming their brood. This is exactly what I found as well, within 10 minutes of arriving too. The problem was getting at least 1 callow which is harder than it seems considering they only tend to be callows for about 2-3 days or at least that's what I've observed so far. I did collect one and I gave all the brood and the callow to the queen as soon as I got home that night (1am, 14 hours out anting  :blink: ) She freaked out a bit at first, running around while the callow sat there wondering what was going on. I checked back an hour later after tubing about half of what I caught that night, and she and the callow were grooming each other, a great sign. Since that night, I took out about 25 cocoons and a newly hatched callow for the other Lasius, and there are 3 callows (excluding the one I gave to the other queen), including the one I inoculated with at the beginning. I never counted the cocoons especially because I am fairly sure I ended up squishing some, but I would estimate there is around 40. I'll update this with many pictures in the morning, I need to find my photography light so I can get some good shots. 


Edited by TheAntGuy, August 4 2021 - 1:57 AM.

  • ReignofRage likes this
Check out my journals, instagram, and youtube channel.

Insta: @theantguy17

Youtube: The Ant Guy





Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: lasius, non-parasite, california lasius

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users