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

Journal about Carebara (Pheidologeton) affina life

carebara carebara affina pheidologeton plaster nest

  • Please log in to reply
14 replies to this topic

#1 Offline stels - Posted August 31 2015 - 7:46 AM

stels

    Newbie

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 8 posts
  • LocationOdessa
This is my first journal in this forum. I was thinking about what to write and decided: I will tell you about one of my favorite ants. 
 
I'll tell about Carebara affinis.
In the past this ant called Pheidologeton affinis, but in the 2014 genus Carebara and Pheidologeton were combined into the common genus Carebara. Term "Pheidologeton" is more interest and fearsome! I and my colleagues still call this ants Pheidologeton or simple "geton".
 
I got this ants from China. I and my friend ordered 6 colonies of the C. affinis and 5 of C. diversa. C. diversa it's uncontrollable relative of C. affinis. Maby it was better that all C.diversa are died from mite. 4 colonies of affina died too. 2 colonies lived well. But after a while one of them lost their queen and the other find  mite! After this bigan my great mite war. I don't know exactly how I won the mite. I used various herbs, essential oils and a bait of the cockroaches and killed zophobas. In one day number of the mite began decrease.
 
There are no any mite there. This colony lived in the aquarium with soil about two years. In this month I desided resettle them to the classic plaster nest. Small colonies don't survive in plaster but big colony of easy living in well-humid plaster.
 
1_geton_form.JPG
This is current formicarium for carebara.
 
2_geton_arena.JPG
Arena is small. C.affina principally hidden underground ant. They always bury their food. In the next post I show you how it's going. For this I placed there a bit of sand. 
 
Few photo with big solders and small workers:
 
3_geton_1.jpg
 
4_geton_2.jpg
 
5_geton_3.jpg
 
6_geton_4.jpg
 
7_geton_5.jpg
 
Someone looking at us out of the darkness
 
8_geton_6.jpg
 
9_geton_7.jpg

Edited by stels, September 4 2015 - 7:24 AM.

  • dermy, drtrmiller, kellakk and 1 other like this

#2 Offline Alexant - Posted August 31 2015 - 9:32 AM

Alexant

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 87 posts

I am so glad these are on here now



#3 Offline William. T - Posted August 31 2015 - 11:48 AM

William. T

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 725 posts
  • LocationWestern Maryland

Awesome! I love seeing foreign ant species and how people keep them.


  • LC3 likes this

Species I keep:

 

1 Lasius cf. Neoniger 30 workers

1 Camponotus sp. 15 workers

20 Tetramorium SpE 30 workers

1 T. Sessile 200 workers

 


#4 Offline BrittonLS - Posted August 31 2015 - 7:04 PM

BrittonLS

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 284 posts
  • LocationFt. Worth, Texas

Darn cool foreign ants! Those are pretty awesome, thanks for sharing. Get your friends to share their ants on here too if they have any. And way to go on beating the mites, who knows how you pulled that off, very lucky. 

 

Are those gigantic ones majors?

 

And as usual just make sure they're locked up tight lol. You don't want to accidentally bump it off the table one day and have them go crazy all over Texas :P



#5 Offline NightsWebs - Posted September 1 2015 - 6:51 AM

NightsWebs

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 217 posts
  • LocationSo Cal

Wow, nice colony! Polymorphic ants are the best! The majors look huge in comparison! Thank you for Sharing!


Current Colonies;

Acromyrmex Versicolor

Dorymyrmex Bicolor

Pogonomyrmex Californicus
Pogonomyrmex Rugosus

Pogonomyrmex Tenuispinus
Novomessor Cockerelli
Myrmecocystus Mexicanus

 

Last Update: 08 Jul 2016

 

 


#6 Offline stels - Posted September 1 2015 - 10:29 PM

stels

    Newbie

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 8 posts
  • LocationOdessa

Are those gigantic ones majors?

 

And as usual just make sure they're locked up tight lol. You don't want to accidentally bump it off the table one day and have them go crazy all over Texas :P

 

No, it's not majors ) Pheidologeton have many many castes, but bigger of them I could not take photos. They hide in the darkest corners of the chamber and usually thre are many workers near. Ants on the photos is not very big - 9-10 mm. Majors size is about 15-17mm and more. They can bite through the skin. But it's happens very rare.  Pheidologeton it's one othe species who have not only majors caste, but also supermajor caste.

 

I want show few videos of my friend colony. He don't mind. He keep Carebara diversa. It's more agressive and slightly larger ant then Carebara affinis.

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=IhvHXUspW_I

https://www.youtube....h?v=jt1h7OZpmSc

Also I want to show you new photos of the strange ant in this colony. It is ergatoid - not normal queen but not normal worker-solder.Sometimes colony grows this caste. I was very surprised when I saw her. She is bigger then any big solder, like normal queen, but have small queen's thorax. Look at this: there is small solder in the right corner of the photo. This solder you can see on the previouse photos.

 

IMG 5309
IMG 5308
IMG 5311 Specs

Edited by stels, September 4 2015 - 7:25 AM.

  • BrittonLS, LC3 and Wan1 like this

#7 Offline NightsWebs - Posted September 2 2015 - 5:50 AM

NightsWebs

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 217 posts
  • LocationSo Cal

thank you for sharing! 17mm is a huge ant! That's just awesome!


Current Colonies;

Acromyrmex Versicolor

Dorymyrmex Bicolor

Pogonomyrmex Californicus
Pogonomyrmex Rugosus

Pogonomyrmex Tenuispinus
Novomessor Cockerelli
Myrmecocystus Mexicanus

 

Last Update: 08 Jul 2016

 

 


#8 Offline LC3 - Posted September 2 2015 - 8:51 AM

LC3

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 1,323 posts
  • LocationBC, Canada

Did you ever get bitten by one of them? XD



#9 Offline dermy - Posted September 2 2015 - 9:14 AM

dermy

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 1,392 posts
  • LocationCanada

Wow this Colony is crazy looking. The size of that one is cool!



#10 Offline Diffeomorphismus - Posted September 2 2015 - 9:17 AM

Diffeomorphismus

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 46 posts
  • LocationGermany

Thank you for sharing your experience with these nice ants with us. But I am sure that the right name is Carebara affinis and not Carebara affina. The latin form "affina" does not exist. The right declension is: affinis, affinis, affine ;)



#11 Offline William. T - Posted September 2 2015 - 11:53 AM

William. T

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 725 posts
  • LocationWestern Maryland

Awesome pictures. Does the massive worker do lifting and act as a troop carrier or does it chop up food?


Species I keep:

 

1 Lasius cf. Neoniger 30 workers

1 Camponotus sp. 15 workers

20 Tetramorium SpE 30 workers

1 T. Sessile 200 workers

 


#12 Offline stels - Posted September 4 2015 - 7:23 AM

stels

    Newbie

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 8 posts
  • LocationOdessa

Thanks!

 

Did you ever get bitten by one of them? XD

 

 No  :) But they have sting. When workers attack you, they begin to sting. Small worker stings do not hurt... it's unpleasantly... But ant about 5mm sting stronger then Solenopsis geminata worker. It's hurt! Solder about 17mm sting VERY hurt! I didn't try it. It told me my friend who met them in Vietnam. The solders sting him. Also big solder of C.diversa really can bite your skin. But I never get him this opportunity ) 

 

Thank you for sharing your experience with these nice ants with us. But I am sure that the right name is Carebara affinis and not Carebara affina. The latin form "affina" does not exist. The right declension is: affinis, affinis, affine ;)

 

In our forum we discuss it desided that affina is correct. I don't know why we think this! You right: affinis is correct term. I'll edit journal title. Thank you!

 

Awesome pictures. Does the massive worker do lifting and act as a troop carrier or does it chop up food?

In most cases they play role of pots with food. Something like honeypots ants. In my colony they never chop seeds. Now I mean biggest solder about 15-20mm. Smaller caste like 5-10mm size workers do many works. Usually this is food crop and chamber or tonnels building. 

 

Workers are small but very clever. Soldiers in contrast of workers are a little blunt. Until that time they never left anthill chambers.

For example behavior of Carebara diversa workers and solders.Workers perform the comunications task. They are very fast and sociable. They find the food very quickly. If the food big ... or still alive!... some numbers of workers back to the nest and find big solder (or solders). After this they snapped at him and begin easy bit him and beat the antenna. And the soldier begins to run with workers on his head and thorax wherever warkers want.



#13 Offline BrittonLS - Posted September 5 2015 - 5:57 AM

BrittonLS

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 284 posts
  • LocationFt. Worth, Texas
Holy cow, they're like 20x bigger than the workers! That's ridiculous! No wonder you ordered these ants lol. This is really cool, show us more pictures and things any time lol.

I am seriously freaking out over here.

#14 Offline antmaniac - Posted October 14 2015 - 9:22 PM

antmaniac

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 507 posts

Amazing ants! The major workers in Pheidole Sp. is the same. They usually just take order from the minor workers for some reason. Their default action is to run and retreat back to the nest to protect the most valuables, such as queen and brood, since the majors are very precious resource of the colony. They will go out and attack, if the minor order them to, maybe using scents and dragging. The minor worker also use this method to calm the major, sometimes one or two minor will get cut in half in this process during the major's rampage. When you reach the queen, however, the major will act totally different, they are not longer shy away but more aggressively defending/attacking.



#15 Offline MegaMyrmex - Posted September 21 2017 - 6:04 AM

MegaMyrmex

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 637 posts
  • LocationEllicott City, Maryland
Update?!?!?!?!?!

Proverbs 6:6-8 New International Version (NIV)

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
    consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
    no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
    and gathers its food at harvest.

 






Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: carebara, carebara affina, pheidologeton, plaster nest

1 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users