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[NancyZamora4991]

Hi everyone, I have finally decided to start a journal.

This journal will be featuring my favorite colonies which are Acromyrmex versicolor, Hypoponera, Camponotus laevigatus, Liometopum occidentale and my Lasius crypticus.

More species will be added.

 

Lasius Crypticus.

I caught about 70 queens up in Tahoe in august of last year. The queens did end up hibernating before getting workers and got their very first nanitics in April.

My main colony has around 30 workers or so with tons of brood. I did brood boost them a bit but most of the brood you see below is their own. They are super cute little ants

(Moldy test tube, they HATE moving)

 

Next colony that is featured is my Hypoponera queen. 

I caught a few Hypoponera queens in my blacklight, but They were dead right after so I traded a termite colony for a dealate with eggs with a friend. She is housed in Petri dish setup with soil and some spring tails I fed to her. They are semi claustral meaning I have to feed them in the founding stage. She eats mainly springtails and fruit flies.

I hope and pray that I get a colony out of this queen.

 

Next up is my Liometopem occidentale colony! (My favorite)

This species EXPLODES in population! even though they had a rough start, 8 worker first gen, They are still doing well. (First generation workers can be up to 60.) They have about 70 workers so far with tons of brood. They are super active and hyper. They can walk across any barrier with ease and they are super cool looking.I had them in a test tube for a long time and every time I opened the tube to feed, half the colony would jump out, so I moved them into an outworld which we love. They have around 20 workers out in the outworld at all times and have a huge appetite.

I don't know why the pictures say 2020 because I took these pictures a few minutes ago.

Edited by NancyZamora4991, August 6 2022 - 3:40 PM.

[NancyZamora4991]

Camponotus laevigatus:

My second favorite colony/colonies. I bought both queens from Zty guy and they hatched a workers a few hours before I got them. They grew so fast until then. (I kinda neglected them this past week) They are a beautiful species and are pretty aggressive. They eat quite a lot. They have two medians with only 12 workers!

Colony A.

 

Colony B

Edited by NancyZamora4991, July 14 2022 - 3:16 PM.

[bmb1bee]

Nice! What species are they?

[NancyZamora4991]

Oh whoops, I don't think I saved that part.

I edited it.

Edited by NancyZamora4991, July 14 2022 - 3:16 PM.

[NancyZamora4991]

Next up is my beautiful Acromyrmex colony! They have around 300 workers or so with a very healthy fungus and brood pile. 

I got this colony in February from AntMama from discord. Here is her site https://antgear.com/ants/. This colony came with 200 workers, 4 healthy queens and lots of fungus. Her setup makes it super easy and super safe to hydrate the nest. This colony was a little shook by the trip from AZ, but they recovered quickly.

She packed the nest with roses so the fungus won't go flying all over the nest in the shipping process. Here is a time-lapse of when the nest first arrived.

 A few days after they arrived.

 

They recovered great and were as happy as can be, but then after a many weeks the fungus started dying. It shrunk and shrunk until there was only a tiny little piece remaining. I thought this was the end

to my colony, as workers were dying left and right. Then out of nowhere they started foraging again and the fungus was growing bigger and bigger. The only sad thing is is that they connected the fungus to the ceiling and now I cannot see inside the nest.  They LOVE dried lantana petals. They wouldn't eat anything else for months until only recently they started cutting rose petals. When I drop them in you can hear loud crunching sounds of the majors cutting the dried petals.

 

Here is what the nest looks like now.

 

Here is a time-lapse of a major cutting up a rose petal.

 

[ANTdrew]

Why do you have different names on all your threads/ username?

[NancyZamora4991]

Hypoponera have 4 pupae.