17 replies to this topic

[UtahAnts]

I'm starting this thread to focus solely on my Formica colonies. Here's the original journal. At the moment, I have 5 colonies, each a different species. Identifying ants is not my strong suit, let alone Formica species. I'll list the colonies in order from largest to smallest in colony size. Colony B might not even be Formica, I'm still undecided. Hopefully as I get better pictures on this thread some people can step in and ID some of these species.

 

Colony A: Around 150 workers. Queen from my area in Utah Valley (spanish fork to provo).

Colony B: Around 50 workers. Colony from southern Utah Valley

Colony C: 30 workers, likely a subsericia group species. I found the queen in my area.

Colony D: 10 Workers. Queen from up north near Idaho

Colony E: 8 Workers. Colony from the same location as colony B

 

Colony A

 

2020 seaon

Queen was found in the 2020 season (sometime around late June). Due to toxic particles in their firebrick nest, most of the colony died off. I moved the remaining workers and queen out into one of my first home-made nests. When they came out hibernation, only four workers were left.

 

March 15 2021

I moved them into a THA mini hearth.

 

April 22

Lots of new brood!

 

May 26 

Around 30 workers now, tons of insects being eaten every day. They created a chamber of sand over their water tower, limiting sight.

 

June 4

Most of the larvae pupate

 

June 26

Large population boom, moved them into a handmade nest.

 

August-September

No more brood, around 150 workers.

 

February 21 2022

Out of hibernation, the colony already took protien today. The areas around the water towers look dark from defecation and over hydration on my part.

Edited by UtahAnts, February 21 2022 - 9:09 PM.

[UtahAnts]

Update: 

 

Colony A (formica neorufibarbis): Around 150 workers and around 50 fat larvae

Colony B: 7 queens 50 workers, piles of eggs, larvae and pupae

Colony C (subsericea group): 30 workers, selling this colony off next week

Queen of colony D died, adding new colony in their place (2 queen 1 worker Formica subsericea)

Colony E: 3 queens 20 Workers. Eggs and Larvae

 

Images taken 4/4/22

 

Colony A

I moved colony A, F. neorufibarbis, into a THA type 1 fortress. They are staying in the lowest chambers with all their brood, making it difficult to get clear images. As the colony grows I'll be able to get better pictures. In the mean time here's some foragers breaking a cricket up

 

 

 

 

Colony B

They are in a tubs and tubes setup, planning on moving them out soon

 

 

 

Colony D

Lots of brood

 

 

Edited by UtahAnts, April 5 2022 - 8:30 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Nice work with these!

[UtahAnts]

Update:

 

Colony A (formica neorufibarbis): Around 250 workers and brood

Colony B: 7 queens 90 workers, piles of eggs, larvae and pupae

Colony D 2 queen Formica subsericea: 10 workers and larvae

Colony E: 3 queens 30 Workers. Eggs and Larvae

 

Colony A

Starting to fill their fortress with loads of brood. It seems spring time is the main grow time for this species.

 

April: 

 

 

 

 

Today: Some brood in the outworld. Now the colony has basically doubled in size from the last image

 

 

 

Colony B

This colony goes crazy for sugar, I opened their outworld and they freaked out becuase they had brood there. They started running around but then discovered the sugar drops. Who needs pupae anyways?

 

 

[UtahAnts]

Colony A (formica neorufibarbis): Around 300 workers and brood

Colony B: 6 queens 150 workers, piles of eggs, larvae and pupae

Colony D 2 queen Formica subsericea: 30 workers and larvae

Colony E: 3 queens 30 Workers. Growth seems to have stalled, it may be time to move them out of their dirt container.

NEW Colony F: Parasitic Formica species: 10 workers and host pupae along with a dozen parasite larvae.

 

Colony A

They are now using the entire fortress, I'll need a new nest for them by August so I'm planning on making them something pretty cool. One of the brood chambers, most of my colonies are now hanging brood from the ceiling, maybe to create a better humidity gradient within each chamber?

 

 

 

Colony C

I moved this colony into a basic petri nest, it's quite interesting to see them sepate parts of the petri dish with dirt, creating their own chambers but not completely limiting visibility. The main chamber is in the bottom left of the image. I've never had problems with condensation for Formica species, and if anything it seems to contribute to the needed humidity gradient.

 

 

 

 

Colony F

I don't want to disturb them too much so any pictures I take right now will have poor quality. I know it's unlikely anyone will be able to identify down to species from this image, but any suggestions? Queen is about 11mm long.

 

 

[United-Ants]

Colony a is formica montana
colony f will have to wate till workers if they keep growing after geting first workers they are formica rufa group if they stop growing then they are formica sangweana group

[UtahAnts]

I found that the queen of colony A and a Formica neorufibarbis queen seem to be the same in size and coloration. I suppose Formica montanus could also be an option, and they seem to be a rarer species as well.

 

 

Formica neorufibarbis queen from ant wiki key:

 

 

 

Colony A queen:

 

 

[UtahAnts]

In this update I'll include the approximate age of each colony, and their preferred diet.

 

Colony A (formica neorufibarbis). Around 350 workers and plenty of brood. Their THA fortress is extremely messy so its about time I make something new for them.

Age: 3 years, 2 months

Diet: Crickets, fruitflys, spiders, mealworms, earwigs. Hummingbird nectar and organic apples without peel.

 

 

 

 

Colony B: 3 queens 200 workers. No more brood, getting ready for diapuase.

Age: Around 2.5 years

Diet: Crickets, some softbodied isopods, fruitflies, spiders. Hummingbird nectar is liquid gold for these guys

 

Colony D: 2 queen Formica subsericea: 45 workers and some small larvae. Getting ready for hibernation.

Age: Around 1 year 1 month.

Diet: Crickets, earwigs, fruitflies. Hummingbird nectar and some organic fruits.

 

Colony E: 3 queens 4 workers. Their dirt container had a mold outbreak, I was able to save several workers and 3 queens. Formica are just too messy for closed containers.

Age: Around 1.5 years

Diet: Love fruitflies, also took crickets. Humminbird nectar and sugar water.

 

Colony F: Parasitic Formica species: 10 host workers and a dozen parasitic workers.

Age: Parasitic introduction was 2 months ago

Diet: Don't know their favorites yet, they do take crickets. As with most small colonies, humminbird nectar is a must.

 

 

[UtahAnts]

Colony A (formica neorufibarbis). Around 350 workers and plenty of puape. I'm about to take them off of the heat as soon as their puape eclose. All of their puape are naked, likely due to the lack of substrate in the hebel material. This does not seem to effect the mortality rates of new workers at all. I may be selling this colony soon, so this may be the last update for colony A. I've also noticed they now prefer diluted honey to hummingbird nectar.

 

 

 

Colony B: 3 queens, 200 workers. Hibernating.

 

Colony D: 2 queen Formica subsericea: 45 workers. Hibernating. May be sold off as well.

 

Colony E: 3 queens 4 workers. Hibernating.

 

Colony F: Parasitic Formica species: 20 mixed workers, hibernating.

 

 

 

[United-Ants]

Why sell colony a??

[UtahAnts]

I got a good offer for them, and they consume more insects then any other colony I own.

[United-Ants]

Ok formica do eat a lot

[UtahAnts]

Last update of the season.

 

All colonies in hibernation. I only sold Colony D so Colony A is still featured, I can only imagine their protein intake next year. I'll gladly take a break over the winter until then. 

[UtahAnts]

Quick Winter Recap. 

The colonies I sold were transferred to reputable ant keepers. This leaves the largest colony (colony A) and the Parasitic colony (colony F) which will continue to be featured in this journal.

 

Colony A - (formica neorufibarbis). Around 350 workers 

Still in hibernation, I fed them sugar once and supplied a constant water supply, with no casualties. They will likely need a new formicarium by April.

 

Colony B: SOLD (discontinued)

 

Colony D: SOLD 

 

Colony E: SOLD

 

Colony F - (Parasitic Formica species) 10 host workers and a dozen parasitic workers.

Came out of hibernation a week ago, currently at room temperature. I'll start feeding protein in a week or two.

 

 

 

[BDantsalberta]

It looks like cf aserva? it's hard to id red parasitic formica queens.

[UtahAnts]

Colony A - (Formica neorufibarbis). 350 workers 

This colony came out of hibernation last week however I'm not heating them yet, leaving the colony at an ambient room temperature of 65 degrees (18 degrees Celsius). They've accepted roaches and crickets along with sugar water. The queen loves to hang out in the lower chambers, and can often be seen climbing over the clumped workers. Unfortunately this colony loves to make their nest dirty every winter (see last years February update), and so images are a pain. The chamber with the water tower in particular is especially dirty (see below).

I'm still trying to think of ideas for their next formicarium design, which will hopefully carry them into a mature colony size of a few thousand workers - suggestions welcome.

 

 

 

 

Colony F - (Parasitic Formica - possibly aserva?) 20 workers

The queen laid eggs a week ago, which should develop into little larvae within the next few days. The colony has taken roaches, humminbird nectar and sugar water. They are currently being heated at around 80 degrees. I'll see if this colony will take more host workers in the next month - large wild colonies of this species often have enslaved Formica workers. However if this species doesn't require additional hosts I'll hold off on the larva-napping.

 

 

 

[UtahAnts]

Formica neorufibarbis - 350 workers 

 

The queen has been laying eggs since the beginning of march, with the first new workers of the year eclosing sometime last week. The colony now has about 200 brood items and they continue to eat well and generally thrive. The one issue I have with this colony is the amount of debris they place on the glass. This behavior makes getting decent images pretty difficult, but I can't argue with a happy queen.

 

 

Parasitic Formica - possibly aserva? - 30 workers

 

Similar to the colony above, the queen has been laying  plenty of eggs. There are about 4 host workers now with the rest being bio workers. I don't think this species is a slave making colony as the bio workers seem perfectly capable of brood care and grooming.

 

See the queen roaming the outworld to the left of the test tube.

 

[UtahAnts]

Formica neorufibarbis - 400 workers - SOLD

 

I recently sold this colony and so I thought I should do a final update. The amount of brood has diminished, however with roughly around 200 brood items left, this colony is well on its way to hit 1k by the end of this season or the beginning of the next. The queen is usually in the bottom chamber, however I could not locate her for a picture. Below is a previous picture of this very productive queen in her early days. Overall the colony was a lot of fun to keep, however their large appetite and tendency to make everything dirty made it a bit difficult to keep them for the last several years. That said, I would recommend the species for a beginner - very easy to get going from a single queen and nice steady growth each season.

 

 

 

 

 

Edit - formatting the GIF

Edited by UtahAnts, May 27 2023 - 7:40 PM.