68 replies to this topic

[AntBoi3030]

How did you combine the queen with the host workers? I’ve got a L aphidicola and 30ish host workers.

[NickAnter]

Nicholas P: I don't think that I used hosts from different colonies. Maybe I did? Not sure. On some of the queens I did.

 

AntBoi: What I would do is dunk each worker in vinegar until it was pretty pacified, and then put it in the fridge until it curled up and stopped moving. Then I would take it out, rinse it with water, and then put it in the tube. Its just a million times easier to use pupae, so that way you only have to introduce a couple workers. Even my extensive pacifying process didn't always lead to passive hosts. Acanthomyops queens are pretty good at butchering unruly hosts though. However, aphidicola, not so much.

 

EDIT: I figured I might as well update the journal.

 

The aphidicola are doing great. Admittedly, they didn't get much out of that massive pile of larvae, but a new worker has already eclosed. They have like 16 more pupae left, and about the same number of larvae. They have like 15 eggs, and the queen is starting to get physogastric, so I expect more eggs. I'm going to powerfeed them this time, to hope that the larvae don't do anything stupid.

 

In regards to the Acanthomyops I may have been wrongly placing blame. I think the workers developed messed up gasters in the cocoons, and thus they were deformed and died. I even took some of cocoons myself, and they died. I may have injured those, but since they werent getting opened, they didn't really have anything to lose. They have 7 exerate pupae with normal gasters, so once those unravel, everything *should* be fine. They have 2 pupae that look like they should be opened today, so hopefully those will be normal.

 

The dark variant queen, which started with half the eggs as the first colony above, is set to get at around 20 more first larvae. Amazing, considering they were actually fed less. Clearly, the hosts were better at managing the larvae. Hopefully they will have some workers eclose soon.

 

The other queens had pretty much all their hosts die. I might try to re-introduce some hosts tomorrow, or take a couple as specimens for identification. They never really did much even with a healthy workforce, so I don't think they were very good queens in the first place.

Edited by NickAnter, April 13 2022 - 7:17 PM.

[NickAnter]

OK, so bit of news.

 

I did not place blame incorrectly. The hosts were indeed murdering the bios. I watched it happen a couple times.

 

The First Colony still does not have a worker, despite having numerous exerate pupae eclose.

 

The Second Colony has several eclose, and get murdered.

 

I had almost lost hope for them, since they each have like 7 hosts left, when today, to my delight, I saw two happy, healthy bio workers in the Second Colony.

I cannot wait for them to grow.

 

The aphidicola are doing great! They have 26 bio workers now, and all but like 6 hosts are dead. The bio workers aren't slouches either, and like 20 workers go into the outworld whenever there is any food, a pretty amazing feeding response for Lasius. The queen hasnt been laying any eggs, and they only have a couple larvae left, but I have been feeding them lots of protein, so hopefully the queen starts laying again.

 

My eventual plan is to get three nice horizontal formicariums all lined up together, each with a massive colony of one of the 3 subgenera of orange Lasius, now that I officially have a colony of all three.

And there is a video of the Acanthomyops.

[bullyfan]

OK, so bit of news.

 

I did not place blame incorrectly. The hosts were indeed murdering the bios. I watched it happen a couple times.

 

The First Colony still does not have a worker, despite having numerous exerate pupae eclose.

 

The Second Colony has several eclose, and get murdered.

 

I had almost lost hope for them, since they each have like 7 hosts left, when today, to my delight, I saw two happy, healthy bio workers in the Second Colony.

I cannot wait for them to grow.

 

The aphidicola are doing great! They have 26 bio workers now, and all but like 6 hosts are dead. The bio workers aren't slouches either, and like 20 workers go into the outworld whenever there is any food, a pretty amazing feeding response for Lasius. The queen hasnt been laying any eggs, and they only have a couple larvae left, but I have been feeding them lots of protein, so hopefully the queen starts laying again.

 

My eventual plan is to get three nice horizontal formicariums all lined up together, each with a massive colony of one of the 3 subgenera of orange Lasius, now that I officially have a colony of all three.

And there is a video of the Acanthomyops.

Did you have a chance to get any of the dead workers IDed?

[NickAnter]

Not yet. I've been pretty busy, but will probably start with that on the weekend.

[NickAnter]

Colony 1 has 10 workers now, officially outnumbering the hosts.

Here is a video of them I'm quite happy with:

 

Colony 2 has 2 workers, achieving a max of 5 before murder occurred, with only the two oldest, and I'm assuming strongest, Bios survived.

 

The aphidicola have gotten one more worker. No eggs laid, the queen is rather skinny. Hopefully we'll get some more eggs eventually.

[NickAnter]

The poor queen got 3 workers today, so that's cool. I'm going to move them to a new tube tomorrow.

 

I moved Colony 1 into a THA Lair as well.

 

Colony 2 has had no change.

 

And here is a video of the aphidicola:

[bullyfan]

Were you able to get the acanthomyops IDed? it'd be interesting if they were confirmed brevicornis. As that would be the first brevicornis in california

[NickAnter]

There is no brevicornis species in the subgenus Acanthomyops. If you are referring to my Lasius brevicornis journal, they are indeed brevicornis and in the subgenus Cautolasius.

 

In regards to this journal, they havent been doing much except for either slowly growing or losing bio workers in the case of the aphidicola.

The aphidicola queen had over 20 workers, but they started dying randomly, and she wasnt laying any eggs. So, I raided my Lasius americanus colony, and gave them like 25 pupae, hoping the presence of brood would encourage her to lay, and the increased workforce would be beneficial. Sadly, she only laid like 10 eggs. And then, the bios kept dying, with about 10 or a bit less remaining.

 

The main Acanthomyops colony is doing OK, slowly growing. I boosted them too, with about 20 americanus pupae. The queen laid a couple of eggs which have since disappeared. They have an indterminate amount of larvae (impossible to count, since they always cover them, not because there are very many of them). I'm hoping that they are just kinda in the same boat as my Formica, which havent laid eggs in months. Perhaps before hibernation they will lay again. And in regards to ID, sadly, the means necessary to ID Acanthomyops are beyond my tools. I cannot measure microscopic hairs, and the scope only focuses on an extremely small y-level so I can't really get very far.