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Froggy's Trachymyrmex desertorum Journal

trachymyrmex fungus grower

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#1 Offline Froggy - Posted July 30 2021 - 3:02 PM

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I haven't been active on here for a hot minute, but I though I should start being active in more communities and have decided to start with this journal.

 

Recently, on 7/24/21 at 9:45 AM, after some large rains, I went out into my yard and looked if I could find any morning fliers (I had slept through my alarm I had set for 4:45 AM), I found two Acromyrmex versicolor queens (not what this journal is about, though) and one Trachymyrmex desertorum queen. Surprisingly, these were the only three queens I had found that morning.

 

9SCyib7.jpg

 

A Trachymyrmex desertorum queen.

 

I put them into fungus grower setups and the Trachymyrmex regurgitated it's fungus pellet the next day. I gave it rose petals and a mesquite leaf, it liked the rose petal but not the mesquite leaf as much. Recently I gave it an outworld (just an extra fungus grower setup I had that was dry) and it's been using it a lot, I've put oats (steel cut and rolled, it seems to prefer steel cut), mesquite leaves, ironwood leaves and rose petals into it, it seems to like steel cut oats the best. Here's a series of photos from over the course of the past few days (and hopefully into the future): https://imgur.com/a/E3nQB0S

 

Since it's bloomed the queen has been foraging a lot more and has been putting a lot more food on the fungus, it's also laid a few eggs. I'm hopeful for this queen and I hope she makes it. Trachymyrmex desertorum seems like a cool species, and in general Trachymyrmex is a cool genus that I never realized I wanted.

 

I think that's all the context needed. I'll give updates whenever something interesting happens, or whenever I feel like it. I'll try to add photos of the fungus on that imgur post daily, or at least as often as possible.


Edited by Froggy, July 30 2021 - 3:04 PM.

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#2 Offline Froggy - Posted July 30 2021 - 3:03 PM

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Also forgot to mention, this is my first time keeping fungus growers, so any tips or (constructive) criticisms are appreciated!


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#3 Offline Froggy - Posted July 31 2021 - 3:14 PM

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Apparently you can't add images to an imgur post after you close it unless you log in, so I'll post it here every so often.

 

The pile of stuff on the fungus has been growing a lot.

 

FntNpJF.jpg

 

I'm not sure if it's laid any more eggs, and none of them have hatched yet so we'll see how long that'll take. It really seems to like the steel cut oats, it's basically all it's been putting on it's fungus.


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#4 Offline Froggy - Posted August 6 2021 - 6:44 PM

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The fungus has grown a lot, I keep thinking it hasn't grown to much but then I look at photos from even just the day before and realize it has. I still don't see any brood, so I don't know if it actually has none, or is just hiding it somewhere.

 

AUFat5g.jpg


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#5 Offline mmcguffi - Posted June 23 2022 - 9:32 AM

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How are these doing?

 

I've never seen these Trachy before -- I'm surprised by how similar these look to many Acromyrmex species



#6 Offline United-Ants - Posted August 22 2022 - 5:23 PM

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Update?





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