12 replies to this topic

[Barristan]

Today I received a Monomorium floricola colony with 3 queens and a couple of hundred workers. As always I like to keep small and new colonies in small plastic boxes, so I can monitor them better:
 

 
Despite their tiny size, they are quite active and started exploring their new outworld as soon as I opened their old test tube.
 
To give you a better image of how tiny they are, I created a picture with 2 ant vector images that are exactly 1.5 mm and 2 mm (which is the size range of worker ants of M. floricola):
 

 
I offered them a new test tube since the old one had a too-small diameter so I couldn't attach a cork to it:
 

 
I drilled a hole with 3 mm diameter into the cork so that the ants feel more comfortable in the new test tube but are still able to go in and out.
 
Beside sugar water, I offered them a cricket (Gryllus assimilis) and grounded hazelnut:
 

 
Monomorium spp. are truly omnivorous and eat beside sugary water and insects/meat also seeds and nuts.
 
However, they were more interested in the cricket than in the hazelnut:


 

I want to finish today's journal entry with two additional images:
 

 

[MrPurpleB]

Looks pretty cool. I think the sand and the rest of the setup is fitting to the asethics of this mono.

What type of sand is that?

[Barristan]

What type of sand is that?

 

Playing sand.

[ANTdrew]

Awesome! I love this genus.

[Barristan]

The ants moved into the new test tube:
 

 
I counted the ants there:
 

 
115 workers and 4 queens.
 
Around 20-30 are still in the old test tube but all the queens moved into the new one. If you look closely you can also see small piles of eggs.
 
I am really looking forward to the development of this colony.

[Barristan]

My colony is doing fine.
 
I feed them fruit flies twice a week and they eagerly carry parts of the fly back to the nest:
 

 

 
The eggs the queens had laid, have already developed into larvae and there are already new eggs in the nest:
 


 

So far I'm quite pleased by the development of this small colony.

[ANTdrew]

How come every European version of our ants has cooler coloration? Those fruit flies are huge next to them. Nice work in any case.

[NickAnter]

Supposedly these are common in South Florida. I have always thought they looked really cool, glad to see a colony of one, and a journal!

[AnthonyP163]

I heard from someone who kept them a few years back that the key to fast growth is to throw stupid amounts of food at them daily. He got them to dozens and dozens of fertile queens, thousands of workers, inbreeding size, etc.

[ANTdrew]

I heard from someone who kept them a few years back that the key to fast growth is to throw stupid amounts of food at them daily. He got them to dozens and dozens of fertile queens, thousands of workers, inbreeding size, etc.

I’d say this is true of most Myrmicines.

[Barristan]

How come every European version of our ants has cooler coloration? Those fruit flies are huge next to them. Nice work in any case.

 
Inbreeding? I don't know
 
 

I heard from someone who kept them a few years back that the key to fast growth is to throw stupid amounts of food at them daily. He got them to dozens and dozens of fertile queens, thousands of workers, inbreeding size, etc.

 
Yep after some time they will come into an exponential growth phase and are mostly limited by the food you give them. Pheidole pallidula and Crematogster scutellaris have been the fastest-growing species so far, I'm curious how the Monomorium floricola will do.

Edited by Barristan, June 17 2021 - 8:53 PM.

[MrPurpleB]

These pictures look fantastic. Good job!

[Ants.co]

Update?