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Happy to show a couple of Atta sp. queens

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#1 Offline FormicForeman - Posted August 6 2020 - 4:41 PM

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Captured two queens 4 weeks ago and a third one 2 weeks ago.

 

Captured near Guadalajara, Jalisco. They are smaller than the roasted Atta mexicana that are sold as snacks, so maybe they are Atta cephalotes? Those are the two most common in the area.

 

I could not find a lot of information, except for 25C and 80% humidity, so I improvised a two chamber formicarium. On one chamber the plaster is kept moist, the other side is not. They seem to prefer the drier side.

 

For the first week there was no sign of fungus, but then there was explosive growth for the first 2 queens, and today I noticed larva. I only check on them once every 5 days, with a very dim deep red light. I broke the rule to take the pics, but still used a dim light, sorry for bad quality pictures.

 

The third queen still has her wings, and did not show signs of fungus, so I took a tiny sample of fungus from another queen and gave it to her, her fungus is now growing great.

 

Any advice on how to survive this founding stage is appreciated.

 

 

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#2 Offline TechAnt - Posted August 6 2020 - 5:01 PM

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Awesome! Wish we had Atta here in California, but we only have Acromyrmex here. Sorry I don’t have any advice on keeping Atta, but I know the keepers of Trachymyrmex and Acromyrmex feed their colonies rose petals. You should make a journal on them.
My Ants:
(x1) Campontous semitstaceus ~20 workers, 1 Queen
(x1) Camponotus vicinus ~10 workers, 1 Queen (all black variety)
(x1) Tetramorium immigrans ~100 workers, 1 Queen
(x1) Myrmercocystus mexicanus -1 Queen
(x2) Mymercocystus mimcus -1 Queen
(x1) Mymercocystus testaceus ~45 workers, 1 Queen

#3 Offline BlueLance213 - Posted August 7 2020 - 3:34 AM

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You should make a journal on these, I find this extremely interesting that they cultivate fungus. 



#4 Offline ANTdrew - Posted August 7 2020 - 4:16 AM

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You should make a journal on these, I find this extremely interesting that they cultivate fungus.

Every journal on these dead-ends after 4-6 weeks.
"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 BlueLance213 - Posted August 7 2020 - 5:32 AM

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They that difficult to keep?



#6 Offline Croux - Posted August 7 2020 - 5:35 AM

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I believe they have very exacting humidity requirements, too. You may not be able to achieve this with solely moist substrate.





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