7 replies to this topic

[CatsnAnts]

Update 7-30-2020

 

This will be where I am going to record all of my S. pilinasis colonies. I currently have four colonies with a grand total of 22 queens shared between them.

 

 

Strumigenys pilinasis (9 queens) *NEW*:

 

This colony is by far my largest colony in terms of queens, workers, and brood. They have not had any worker deaths as of yet, and appear to be laying lots of eggs as can be seen in the photos:

 

 

 

Strumigenys pilinasis (6 queens):

 

This colony has also been doing well with no deaths since capture (I mistook a worker playing dead when I recorded a death in the other journal), and lots of eggs being layed. This colony has also started to build a wall around their brood pile similar to my S. clypeata colony, but it's nowhere near the size:

 

 

 

Strumigenys pilinasis (4 queens) *NEW*:

 

This colony is my most recently captured colony with four queens. I actually just got them two days ago when I found them inside of a hickory nut. One of the four queens has one back leg missing, but its likely that she joined the colony after the "founding" period and experienced some aggression:

 

 

 

Strumigenys pilinasis (3 queens):

 

This colony had a disaster strike! Ever since their capture, they have had workers dying off almost every single day for no apparent reason, as this was my only Strumigenys colony to have had deaths so far. Today, I finally figured out the reason: Mold! I woke up this morning to their whole brood pile covered in mold as well as a few of the workers (both living and dead). The queens, as well as a few workers, were huddled in a spot away from the mold with a fresh batch of about 12 eggs. I quickly aspirated these seemingly healthy individuals and was forced to euthanize the rest of the colony in the freezer. I sanitized their petri dish and gave them a brand new setup. Hopefully, the mold will go away, but it's probably on either the queens or workers that I aspirated already. No pictures today, sorry.

[ponerinecat]

Such a beautiful genus, along with every other dacetine. Fell in love with them since I first found out they existed.

[CatsnAnts]

Such a beautiful genus, along with every other dacetine. Fell in love with them since I first found out they existed.

I really need to learn more about these kinds of ants, they're so unique! I'm not too knowledgeable on detailed-ant-things like body parts, anatomy, or functions in general, but hopefully I'll learn a lot more about them by keeping them. I'm just lucky to have a diverse area to find them. I may buy a few macro filter attachments so I can get extremely magnified photos of the face for better identification.

[Kaelwizard]

Such a beautiful genus, along with every other dacetine. Fell in love with them since I first found out they existed.

I had only found them at first by photos under a microscope and I thought they were super ugly. Then I found out how cool they look after looking up normal photos of them.

[Antkid12]

Great pics!

[ponerinecat]

 

Such a beautiful genus, along with every other dacetine. Fell in love with them since I first found out they existed.

I had only found them at first by photos under a microscope and I thought they were super ugly. Then I found out how cool they look after looking up normal photos of them.

 

The "ugliest" ants often have the most interesting biology, or are some of the most extreme specialized predators. I honestly find the mere fact that the body is so specifically sculpted to fit a special role to be beautiful.

[DDD101DDD]

What camera do you use?

[CatsnAnts]

What camera do you use?

I use a Canon eos Rebel xsi and the standard lens combined with a reversal ring. I’ll be making a tutorial later today.