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Lasius flavus (Wegmier)


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7 replies to this topic

#1 Offline Wegmier - Posted April 6 2021 - 3:13 PM

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Update #0: L. flavus introduction

Welcome to my Lasius flavus journal! I've had this colony for a while and have finally decided to start a journal about them

Growth of this colony has been slow compared to my Lasius niger colony which was started only three days before this one

In my country Lasius flavus is colloquially called the yellow meadow ant. In the wild they live almost entirely off honeydew from plant root aphids where they get most of their nutrients from. Because of their subterranean lifestyle they are rarely seen above ground unless you start tilting rocks along grass fields (in the Netherlands at least), or during the nuptial flights

A short summary of this colony of the past few years:

17 July 2018: Caught a few L. flavus queens


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30 August 2018: First nanitics!

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1 November 2018: First hibernation (picture taken a few weeks before). They end the first year with ~30 workers. I gave 9 flavus colonies away and kept 1

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19 October 2019: One year later, they enter their second hibernation with ~250 workers

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29 September 2020: One year later, they go into their third hibernation with maybe ~500 workers? They're still kept in a tubs & tubes set-up

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6 April 2021:

The colony was taken out of the fridge mid February


They hibernated with a nice amount of larvae, which developed into large piles of pupae as they left diapause. Lots of growth soon!

I decided to make a small Ytong nest for them because the test tubes setup didn't really let me observe them

Their new home:

KSGAiVE.jpg

Also hooked up an outworld with soil from my garden (baked to sterilize it):

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Placed them into their new outworld:

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They wouldn't move so I eventually resorted to dumping them (except for the queen's tube):
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Pupae were the first to be moved into the nest:

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A small number of naked pupae as well:

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Most of them have moved in now! (except for the queen and a couple dozen workers) :


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Edited by Wegmier, April 7 2021 - 9:30 AM.

  • ANTdrew, NickAnter, DDD101DDD and 2 others like this

1 x Lasius niger -  https://www.formicul...-wegmier/page-6

1 x Lasius flavus - https://www.formicul...flavus-wegmier/

4 x Camponotus fedtschenkoi - https://www.formicul...-wegmier/page-2


#2 Offline NPLT - Posted April 6 2021 - 4:12 PM

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I've read your Lasius niger journal some time ago, and it always amazes me how your Lasius colonies grow,


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Um, uh, Ants!

 

link to journal: https://www.formicul...lt-ant-journal/


#3 Offline NickAnter - Posted April 7 2021 - 6:19 AM

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Beautiful species, and excellent journal as per usual! I am still so bummed my one Lasius brevicornis queen died.

Hi there! I went on a 6 month or so hiatus, in part due, and in part cause of the death of my colonies. 

However, I went back to the Sierras, and restarted my collection, which is now as follows:

Aphaenogaster uinta, Camponotus vicinus, Camponotus modoc, Formica cf. aserva, Formica cf. micropthalma, Formica cf. manni, Formica subpolita, Formica cf. subaenescens, Lasius americanus, Manica invidia, Pogonomyrmex salinus, Pogonomyrmex sp. 1, Solenopsis validiuscula, & Solenopsis sp. 3 (new Sierra variant). 


#4 Offline Canadant - Posted April 7 2021 - 7:10 PM

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Cool formicarium. Nice work. What have you been feeding them?

Edited by Canadant, April 7 2021 - 7:10 PM.

"You don't get what you want. You get what you deserve".

#5 Offline Lillyrose - Posted April 10 2021 - 5:30 AM

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Man look at that growth... has the queen moved yet? The others will move her soon if she doesn't lol.

#6 Offline Wegmier - Posted April 28 2021 - 9:23 AM

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Cool formicarium. Nice work. What have you been feeding them?

 
Thanks! Mainly fruitflies and dubia roaches, and occasionally mealworms, morio worms, black soldier flies, waxmoth larvae, redrunners, small spiders and crickets
 

 

Man look at that growth... has the queen moved yet? The others will move her soon if she doesn't lol.

 
I waited three weeks and the queen still wouldn't leave the test tube. So I gently tapped it and she rolled out  :whistle:


Edited by Wegmier, April 28 2021 - 9:23 AM.

1 x Lasius niger -  https://www.formicul...-wegmier/page-6

1 x Lasius flavus - https://www.formicul...flavus-wegmier/

4 x Camponotus fedtschenkoi - https://www.formicul...-wegmier/page-2


#7 Offline Wegmier - Posted April 28 2021 - 9:27 AM

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Update 1: Settling in (April 28 2021)
 

The large pile of pupae from last update has eclosed. The nest slowly is filling up


C7RebQ3.jpg

The top view doesn't really show how many workers there are

The walls are packed and crawling with orange:

RLPnRS8.png
 

The queen refused to leave the test tube in the outworld, despite the rest of the colony moving into the Ytong nest

I carefully tapped her out of the test tube and the workers immediately moved her into the nest:


rs01xvv.png
 

The colony has also produced a winged male. Maybe a sneaky egg laid by the workers that wasn't eaten

They did the same thing last year, when the colony produced two males at only ~150 workers

 
The male was killed a few days later
 

jV2eosO.png


  • Kaelwizard, NickAnter, TacticalHandleGaming and 1 other like this

1 x Lasius niger -  https://www.formicul...-wegmier/page-6

1 x Lasius flavus - https://www.formicul...flavus-wegmier/

4 x Camponotus fedtschenkoi - https://www.formicul...-wegmier/page-2


#8 Offline KK_KeepsAnts - Posted January 2 2022 - 8:05 AM

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Do you happen to know at what point I should move my Lasius Flavus colony out of their test tube? They have around 10-20 workers currently. Also, I live in a very warm climate so I'm not sure if I should hibernate them. Or, should I just attach the test tube to an outworld?






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