28 replies to this topic

[Mettcollsuss]

15 Oct 2021

Not much to update on. The colony has been preparing for hibernation. The fungus has been shrinking. It started pretty slowly, then disappeared rapidly, then stayed at a small/medium size for a little while. It's begun shrinking again recently. A large pile of discarded fungus has growing in outworld #2. Interestingly, the discarded fungus is staining the plaster beneath it orange. I don't expect anything else interesting to happen this year. Once the fungus shrinks more, I'll put them into hibernation.

 

I often won't have more to update on other than the repetitive "I fed them this, the fungus grew a bit, etc." So I figured I would just use this journal for the very large or interesting updates. For all the more average stuff, I'll just share the viewing link for the spreadsheet I used to document their day-to-day care. I stopped updating it after the first couple months, but I plan to start using it again next spring, after hibernation.

 

This link should work, but if it doesn't let me know.

https://docs.google....dit?usp=sharing

[Mettcollsuss]

7 Jan 2022

I brought them out of hibernation about a week and a half ago. I haven't seen any fungus since I took them out, I assume it's still in it's diapause pellet form and is hidden underneath the ants tending to it. I'm hoping I see growth from the fungus soon. I've been offering dried flower petals, which they aren't accepting enthusiastically but aren't ignoring either. I've been using mostly rose petals, which are one of their favorites, but I've also tried some new flowers, some butterfly pea flowers and jasmine flowers. Whenever I put the flower petals in they're generally ignored for a little while, but I'll come back a day or so later and a good portion of the petals will have been collected. Hopefully the fact that they're accepting plants (even if slowly) means fungus growth is coming soon. If, worst case scenario, the fungus doesn't grow for a while longer, I'll try giving them a little longer in hibernation and see if that fixes anything.

 

I attached their old nest to a new nest & outworld.  I gave them one larger outworld instead of two smaller outworlds like they had previously. It should be more interesting to watch them forage in this new outworld. Their current nest doesn't have good visibility and the watering system isn't great either. The new nest is a large petri dish style nest. I'm a fan of petri dish nests because they offer great visibility, plus seeing the fungus grow wide and flat should be interesting. I'm keeping the new nest covered and letting the current nest get exposed to light. I'm also keeping the new nest more humid than the old nest. I'm not letting the old nest completely dry out, because I'm paranoid about potentially damaging the fungus while it's still small and just waking up, but I'm doing everything else I can to make the new nest more appealing. Every time I look into the new nest, I see more workers hanging out in it, so hopefully some fungus is moved in there soon. 

 

I probably won't update until something happens, either until they move into the new nest or until the fungus gardens start growing again. If you're interested in seeing more frequent and casual updates, I have an ant journal going on the Ant Keeping & Ethology Discord as well.

[antsriondel]

So cool!

agreed

[Mettcollsuss]

24 Mar 2022

I meant to get around to updating this journal sooner. They actually moved into the new nest right after the last update. It wasn’t long after they moved that things started seeming wrong. Even in a nest with much greater visibility, and consistent plant offerings, there was no sign of any fungus gardens. I waited a while, and there was no sign of anything, so I’m pretty sure their fungus died in hibernation. There’s a population of Trachymyrmex a couple hours south of me, so I can hopefully collect some fungus from a wild colony to replace theirs. However, I’m not gonna be able to head down to collect them until probably around May. So, they managed to survive off a sugar water feeder for a couple months until it was warm enough for Cheeto to ship me some Acromyrmex fungus, which should serve as a temporary solution until I can get Trachymyrmex fungus. The Acromyrmex fungus arrived a couple days ago, and it looks like everything's going smoothly. I poked small pieces of the fungus down the tube from their outworld into their nest. They definitely didn't like me messing with their nest entrance, and got pretty agitated. Their initial reaction to the new fungus seemed aggressive, it was immediately swarmed and I saw many workers biting at it. I came back an hour or two later and they had calmed down. They were still swarming around it, and a few were still biting at it, but it seemed to be out of curiosity rather than aggression. By the next morning they had already added some pieces of rose petal to the fungus and begun to care for it. They also cut off some small pieces of fungus, many of which were being carried around and some of which had been used to seed another garden on the back wall. It should be a fun experiment to watch them tend Acromyrmex fungus for a little while until I can collect more Trachymyrmex. I'll add a photo dump later.

[aznphenom]

When and what conditions do you go looking for them?

[Mettcollsuss]

Sometime in the spring, on a warmer day (~70s), when they'll be closer to the surface and easier to dig up.

[aznphenom]

Sometime in the spring, on a warmer day (~70s), when they'll be closer to the surface and easier to dig up.

I see. I will give it a try again. Went last fall and actually found a queen running around. Released her after I couldn't find any fungus after digging up random entrances.

[ANTdrew]

Any updates on these, Mett? I drank the Trachy Kool-Aid yesterday.

[TennesseeAnts]

Update?