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Jordan's Camponotus vicinus Journal

vicinus c. vicinus journal camponotus

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12 replies to this topic

#1 Offline sirjordanncurtis - Posted May 20 2020 - 11:14 PM

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Hey guys

 

It's been some time since I was active around here, but I thought I might as well make a journal for this species. I obtained 11 black C. vicinus queens this spring. Most of my queens are in a setup without any light right now, and I don't want to take them out, because they share the same space as my Camponotus maritimus so I just have this one queen for pictures right now. 

 

udGJZuF.jpg

 

They all have piles of eggs at the moment. I think the largest number I've seen is 13, and the least I've seen is 4. C. vicinus are really calm Camponotus species and I'm excited to see how well they do. 

 

I was going to upload a gif from imgur for photos, but I'm not sure if the forum still supports them. (One of the ones I had from a previous journal just turned into a link)

 

I'll have to make a setup to avoid the glare from the light I'm using right now, but since it's a ring, it goes around the queen and doesn't block our view  :D

 

These two photos seem to be slightly clearer. Let me know what you think!

 

JYTPlUF.jpg

 

caHl8xx.jpg


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#2 Offline sirjordanncurtis - Posted May 20 2020 - 11:28 PM

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:facepalm: I made this journal in the wrong subsection sorry


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#3 Offline JenC - Posted May 20 2020 - 11:29 PM

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Maritimus for Life


Current Colonies:
1x Camponotus Vicinus (3 Workers)

Single Queens:
3x Camponotus Clarithorax
4x Camponotus Maritimus
5x Camponotus Ca02
7x Camponotus Sansabeanus
1x Myrmecocustus Testaceus
3x Prenolepis Imparis

#4 Offline ANTdrew - Posted May 21 2020 - 3:01 AM

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:facepalm: I made this journal in the wrong subsection sorry

Been there, done that. Glad to see you back again.
"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 AntsDakota - Posted May 21 2020 - 4:42 AM

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Welcome back! I’ve seen you on older posts, yet I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. Amazing species, by the way. I’m going to try to find some this year.

Edited by AntsDakota, May 21 2020 - 4:43 AM.

"God made..... all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. (including ants) And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:25 NIV version


#6 Offline brian - Posted May 23 2020 - 1:14 PM

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Good looking woman you got there. Love the colors. Very lovely.

#7 Offline sirjordanncurtis - Posted May 25 2020 - 3:11 PM

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Hey guys. Not much of an update, but I've noticed that a few of the queens have gotten some larvae now. I'm using a different light source which helps to diffuse the light a bit and produce better pictures with less glare. I hope you guys like them!

vicinus 4
vicinus 2
vicinus 1
Closeup pic:
vicinus 3
 
Edit: I was looking at the pictures displayed, and it seems like in picture 2 or 3, you can see some small eggs(?) stored inside her gaster between the plates where it's translucent enough. I haven't seen that before, so it's pretty cool!

Edited by sirjordanncurtis, May 25 2020 - 3:13 PM.

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#8 Offline Antkid12 - Posted May 25 2020 - 3:31 PM

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nice! the queen must be getting ready to lay a lot of eggs!


Ants I have: Tapinoma sessile(2 queen colony). RED MORPH Camponotus neacticus(now has pupae!), Tetramorium immigrans (x3), Aphaenogaster sp, Temnothorax sp, Brachymyrmex sp.   possibly infertile   :(,  Ponera pennsylvanica, and Pheidole morrisi!  :yahoo: 

 

Other insects: Polistes sp. Queen

                    

Ants I need: Pheidole sp., Trachymyrmex sp., Crematogaster cerasi , Dorymyrmex sp. Most wanted: Pheidole morrisii

 

                    

                   

 

 


#9 Offline sirjordanncurtis - Posted May 27 2020 - 4:25 PM

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Just checked all of the queens, and I picked out the one which seems to have the most brood for today's pics. I think maybe 1 or 2 others have similar amounts of brood. These pics aren't as detailed as the ones from before, since I couldn't use focus stacking.

C. vicinus w/ larvae 3
C. vicinus w/ larvae 2
C. vicinus w/ larvae 1

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#10 Offline sirjordanncurtis - Posted May 31 2020 - 8:40 PM

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The queen from the last post now has pupae! 

Camponotus vicinus 1

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#11 Offline sirjordanncurtis - Posted June 15 2020 - 10:56 AM

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These pictures were taken about a week ago.
Camponotus vicinus 1
Camponotus vicinus 2
 
Yesterday, I noticed that one of my colonies suddenly had two workers! 
Camponotus vicinus 3
Camponotus vicinus 4

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#12 Offline sirjordanncurtis - Posted July 21 2020 - 1:31 PM

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Update 7-21-20

 

Today is going to be an update on ALL of my vicinus colonies. This includes a few colonies that I got from other people, and some Camponotus "vicinus" colonies. Today was sugar day, and I fed all of them some perky pet nectar. That's why you'll see some of them have red gasters :)

 

Black C. vicinus:

 

This colony currently has 4 workers, but it also has a lot of brood! Stoked for new workers :)

 

ydUrtqC.jpg

 

This was a colony that I got from Vern during one of his giveaways. They're doing really well. They only had 2 workers when I got them, but now they're on the verge of catching up to my other black vicinus colonies. They have 7 workers. 

 

hEPWEMt.jpg

 

These two colonies have 2 and 3 workers respectively. They both only have small brood currently.

 

MhS09vJ.jpg

 

dHPsmgw.jpg

 

This is a 5 worker colony that has barely any brood.

 

DoAgd0c.jpg

 

These two next colonies have 4 workers each. They don't have that much brood (only eggs), but hopefully they'll get more later on.

 

ixPXEyT.jpg

 

FKuEDjU.jpg

 

This colony only recently moved back into their test tube. Before that, they found a tiny spot right at the edge of their water tube to live in. They have 7 workers.

 

WUwNcNc.jpg

 

This was my fastest growing colony, and it is going to be the first among the black vicinus to reach 8 workers.

 

7Oh0Jno.jpg

 

Orange Camponotus vicinus:

 

I only recently got these orange C. vicinus. I say orange, but only the gasters of the queens and the mesosoma of the workers are actually orange. I really like how the yellows hairs stand out against their gasters. These seem to be faster growing compared to the black C. vicinus that I have. 

 

I got these two colonies from cocdeshijie in a trade. They both have around 8 workers right now. You can see a callow in the first picture. It's thorax is still a yellow dirt brown color, but it becomes more rich and turns auburn once their exoskeletons harden.

 

GQ5NVmw.jpg

 

ka1cFEy.jpg

 

This third orange C. vicinus colony was from Pogoqueen. They have a lot of larvae and only 2 workers. These look extremely similar to the vicinus I got from Coc, which is why I put them in the same category. It does seem like the queen is slightly smaller compared to the other two, but the only other differences I can spot are that the vicinus from Coc have darker and more defined "stockings" on their legs. 

 

ipetAUH.jpg

 

I'm pretty sure this last colony isn't actually vicinus. It's likely another species that was accidentally mistaken for vicinus. This seems to resemble the semitestaceus that I got from nurbs. You can see, even from this blurry picture, that the head is a lot shinier compared to all my other vicinus colonies. I got her from vern with 2 other queens. However, it seemed that during shipment, the queens all got injured. Since this was the least injured queen of them all (the other ones ended up dying), I separated her from the other queens, and gave her all their brood. Since it seemed likely she would overwork herself trying to care for the brood, I donated a semitestaceus pupa to her, which she readily accepted. The worker you see there is actually a semitestaceus worker. I think there may have also been some semitestaceus larvae (which are probably now among the pupae). Since she has not had any workers yet, I'm curious what they will look like. In the meantime, this semitestaceus worker is actually doing pretty well living with the queen.

 

oHFlNN4.jpg


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#13 Offline Antkid12 - Posted July 21 2020 - 2:46 PM

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The head also looks less wider than the vinicus.


Ants I have: Tapinoma sessile(2 queen colony). RED MORPH Camponotus neacticus(now has pupae!), Tetramorium immigrans (x3), Aphaenogaster sp, Temnothorax sp, Brachymyrmex sp.   possibly infertile   :(,  Ponera pennsylvanica, and Pheidole morrisi!  :yahoo: 

 

Other insects: Polistes sp. Queen

                    

Ants I need: Pheidole sp., Trachymyrmex sp., Crematogaster cerasi , Dorymyrmex sp. Most wanted: Pheidole morrisii

 

                    

                   

 

 






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