43 replies to this topic

[PTAntFan]

On Monday May 11th, 2015 on a tip from Drew I went to the Cajon pass and caught 8 alates off Lone Pine Cyn Road.  They were just scurrying about so I snatched them up.

 

They are in three setups right now.  6 of them are in standard test tubes.  One is in an extra fat cigar tube I cleaned out and the 8th is in this makeshift foundary setup I made with a petri dish and some CastinCraft Easy Mold silicon putty.

 

 

As you can see from this pic, she went right in and found the chamber I molded for her.  She came out afterwards, so I don't know if this style will work or not.

 

 

The queen in the foundry is the least stable.  I don't expect her to make it.  She's very jittery when she moves, I am not sure if she was like that when I caught her or something happened in between then and now; car ride, whatever.  All the other seem pretty stable.

 

I think I will create some more of these foundaries and move the queens in there.  Guess I better get on it before eggs show up.

 

Does anyone know if this sp. needs food?  I gave a couple a spot of honey/water but they showed no interest, aversion actually.

Edited by dspdrew, May 21 2015 - 11:17 AM.
Fixed title spelling

[PTAntFan]

Here's a pic of the queen in the cigar tube. 

 

[Foogoo]

Does anyone know if this sp. needs food?  I gave a couple a spot of honey/water but they showed no interest, aversion actually.

Mine accepted both honey water and insects, but they're apparantly claustral as a few have sealed up their nest entrances so I doubt they need it. They also seemed perfectly happy and began laying eggs in test tubes, so I don't think they're a picky founding species.

[dspdrew]

 

Does anyone know if this sp. needs food?  I gave a couple a spot of honey/water but they showed no interest, aversion actually.

Mine accepted both honey water and insects, but they're apparantly claustral as a few have sealed up their nest entrances so I doubt they need it. They also seemed perfectly happy and began laying eggs in test tubes, so I don't think they're a picky founding species.

 

 

Are yours in something they can dig in?

[Foogoo]

 

 

Does anyone know if this sp. needs food?  I gave a couple a spot of honey/water but they showed no interest, aversion actually.

Mine accepted both honey water and insects, but they're apparantly claustral as a few have sealed up their nest entrances so I doubt they need it. They also seemed perfectly happy and began laying eggs in test tubes, so I don't think they're a picky founding species.

 

 

Are yours in something they can dig in?

 

I experimented with different founding setups and two of them are in Taluses which I added a bit of loose sand. One used it to plug up the entrance while the other didn't bother. I have a few in Mini Hearths who did the same thing with either sand I added or by pulling up grains of sand.

[PTAntFan]

Two queens have died.   I don't think one even had much of a chance really.  She was the shaky one I had in the talus.  However, I can't rule out that the silicone putty I used in the setup was a factor.  My daughter pointed out that some newer putty I made had left her hands oily.  Entirely possible it's involved, so I won't be using that anymore.

 

The second queen just died.  Not sure why.  I noticed that a few of my test tube setups looked like the cotton dam was kind of dry.  I am using brand new cotton balls, I can only hope there isn't some transference issue.  So, she may have desicated.  I'll never know.

 

I did take the precaution of poking the others down a bit to ensure moisture was present on the ant side.

 

Of the remaining six, three have a small clutch of eggs.  Yay!  And the other three do not.  They seem fine, but have so far resisted laying.  We'll see how they do, I am trying to leave them all alone for the most part and in the dark.  I have this setup in a bookcase that is mostly dark:

 

 

The foam crate has come in real handy and I think I'll buy a couple more.  I got them from the place that sells the test tubes.  Lake Charles Mfg. I used this same crate to place inside a small cooler on a tip I read on here from Drew.  Placed a couple small ice packs in the bottom and had a cool storage in my trunk for the whole day.  Actually placed my snacks and lunch in there until I started catching queens.

 

[PTAntFan]

A few of the queens spent some time digging at the cotton quite a bit.  I take that as a sign they wanted out.  Not sure about the implications there.  I also wonder about them having enough air...

[PTAntFan]

 

 

Does anyone know if this sp. needs food?  I gave a couple a spot of honey/water but they showed no interest, aversion actually.

Mine accepted both honey water and insects, but they're apparantly claustral as a few have sealed up their nest entrances so I doubt they need it. They also seemed perfectly happy and began laying eggs in test tubes, so I don't think they're a picky founding species.

 

 

Are yours in something they can dig in?

 

No, just test tubes now, should I provide some soil?

[dspdrew]

No need.

[Foogoo]

No need.

Agreed. The one I have in a test tube seems to be doing perfectly fine.

[PTAntFan]

After 20 days I have 5 queens out of 8 left still. 

3 of the queens are producing and 2 are not.

The producing queens seem great and look like this one with a small clutch.

 

The other 2 seems to be unable to settle and their tubes are dirty:

 

 

I decided to move one of them to a talus like setup with some soil she could dig.  Will see how it goes.

[PTAntFan]

Test.

Edited by PTAntFan, June 3 2015 - 6:28 AM.

[dspdrew]

?

[PTAntFan]

So as of today we are down to three of the eight queens remaining alive.  One of the three that had eggs (Queen #1 actually) seems to have drown in some kind of overheated condensation accident.  There wasn’t a ton of water in the tube, but the queen apparently got into it and rolled around or something crazy so she is gone.

I took her brood and divided between the remaining three queens, two of which already had eggs, the third did not.  The two that took brood either ate them or adopted them.  I think the former but it’s hard to tell because they suddenly all eclosed one night and both queens had nanitics.  That was before the weekend around the 18th of June. 

 

So, queen #2’s colony has begun and is doing nicely in their test tube for now. 

Queen #3’s colony has also begun and has moved into a GroTube XL from ByFormica.  I am actually really happy with this formicarium.  It’s clean, logical and super functional.  The visibility is phenomenal.  The moisture reservoirs seem to be functioning very well. And the ants seem very happy.  If i had one criticism, I would say that it is difficult to really tell what the moisture situation is inside the nest.

I’m amazed at how cautious this species is.  Anything they touch with their antenna besides honey/water causes an immediate retreat.  Even dead fruit flies!  This evening I was shining a light on the Colony #4 queen and she looked right at it as if she knew exactly what was going on.  The young ants in colonies #2 and #3 are particularly cautious.  I would think this species would be fairly successful in the wild with such carefulness, though I am curious to see if later when the colonies are larger if the workers become more bold.

[PTAntFan]

Queen #4 continues to live out her life with apparently no intention whatsoever to lay eggs and raise a colony.  I've had her in test tube, test tube with outworld and now a jar with dirt.  The jar has had a lid and now no lid.

 

About the only thing I haven't done is put her on a dark shelf and just leave her there for a week.  She eats honey/water and I think fruit flies or part of them so I am nervous to ignore her.  She's been away from her originating colony for six weeks; i can't imagine she can live without a food source now.  But no eggs.  I had another just like her that I let go into my garden. That may be her fate too, particularly if I can scare up some more queens in the coming weeks.

[dspdrew]

I’m amazed at how cautious this species is.  Anything they touch with their antenna besides honey/water causes an immediate retreat.  Even dead fruit flies!  This evening I was shining a light on the Colony #4 queen and she looked right at it as if she knew exactly what was going on.  The young ants in colonies #2 and #3 are particularly cautious.  I would think this species would be fairly successful in the wild with such carefulness, though I am curious to see if later when the colonies are larger if the workers become more bold.

 

wook, who used to be a moderator here, always said that Formicinae are smart ants, while Myrmicinae are stupid. It really does seem to be true.

[Ants4fun]

I agree^^ my Aphaenogaster are stupid, but my Camponotus behave the same way as you describe.

Edited by Ants4fun, June 23 2015 - 8:08 PM.

[LC3]

 

I’m amazed at how cautious this species is.  Anything they touch with their antenna besides honey/water causes an immediate retreat.  Even dead fruit flies!  This evening I was shining a light on the Colony #4 queen and she looked right at it as if she knew exactly what was going on.  The young ants in colonies #2 and #3 are particularly cautious.  I would think this species would be fairly successful in the wild with such carefulness, though I am curious to see if later when the colonies are larger if the workers become more bold.

 

wook, who used to be a moderator here, always said that Formicinae are smart ants, while Myrmicinae are stupid. It really does seem to be true.

 

Speaking of this, is Formicinae related species more evolved on the evolution chart than their Mymicinae counterpart?

[PTAntFan]

I've added a Webcam for Colony #2.

 

 

http://embed.bambuse...hannel/PtAntFan

 

[Foogoo]

I've added a Webcam for Colony #2.

 

 

http://embed.bambuse...hannel/PtAntFan

That's awesome! What webcam is that? I'd love to do that with my Foscam but it won't focus that close up...