9 replies to this topic

[Mende]

Hello, in this journal I will post about one of my Cataglyphis nodus colonies.

Basic information about Cataglyphis nodus:
Cataglyphis nodus is a species that's native to some parts of Europe, Anatolia, Middle East, North Africa, Caucasus and some parts of Central Asia. They're mostly found nesting in sandy soils and dry stony habitats. Being a thermophilic species they're the most active during midday, looking for dying/dead insects ( usually killed by the heat ) to feed to their hungry larvae. Those '' gathering sessions'' can quickly turn into an epic sight when loads of workers turn back to their nest with insects between their mandibles quickly one after another.
 
Introduction:

I got my colony with around 25 workers in the summer of 2022. After producing around 10 workers, they entered hibernation in autumn. They left hibernation on 9 February without additional heating or feeding. Everything became a lot faster. What started as 30 workers and 3 eggs quickly became hundreds of workers feeding dozens of hungry larvae.
  ( in the picture you can see the colony a couple days before leaving hibernation, couple workers are not on the picture)

Feeding:

I feed my Cataglyphis nodus colonies a large variety of things. Some of the '' regular'' feeders are buffalo worms, dubias, redrunners and crickets. I almost exclusively feed them live prey because they're able to take them down really quickly without receiving damage. Besides the regular stuff, I've feed my colony many other things, including silverfishes, mealworms, grasshoppers, flies and brood of colonies. Also, they love hunting Messor workers so it's good fun for them when one of my Messor colonies escape and choose the wrong outworld to harass. I feed them a daily or a couple times a week depending on their brood status, sugar water is pretty much always available in their outworld ( together with drink water ).

Nesting:

I've moved this Cataglyphis nodus colony rather early to a nest. Normally I keep my Cataglyphis nodus colony in test tubes with a plaster bottom ( https://youtu.be/oTa...FO1wh2aPIuwQ664)  but I wanted to try out how they'll do in a proper nest. I moved them to a self-made plaster nest with a watertower. Later when they got bigger, I added more plaster nests with water towers to their setup. Currently they're housing in 3 plaster nests with a water tower and one without a water tower. Oh and I use a 40x30cm plastic box with sand and plaster decoration as outworld.
( picture of their first nest )

Heating:

I've heated my colony by simply placing a heat mat on their nest covering half of it and once they got more nests, I began heating an entire nest to 38c. All the brood was kept in the nest that was heated while the queen was in the cooler nest, which makes sense because in the nature the queens don't stay directly under a stone that is exposed to sun while the brood is kept under it. I recommend everyone that is keeping Cataglyphis nodus to heat their colonies propely because it is a key factor for fast brood development. When feed and heated enough, egg to worker can take as little as 25 days with this species. My colony tripled in worker count in less than 3 months, which is an impressive speed for such a relativel big species.

A week or two ago, my colony entered hibernation. Closing the season with an impressive 375+- workers ( started the season with 30+- workers ) . I'm still feeding them a couple insects a week but they aren't too interested in them ( they don't have brood). I've also stopped heating them because it'd be nothing but electricity waste to heat them now. 


 

[Invix]

Such an interesting species. They almost look like toy ant figures!

[100lols]

Awesome start to your journal!! Loving all the information. Great work on your nests as well. Cheers!

[Mende]

I forgot to say:
The colony entered diapause on 22/11/2023, or for our American friends: 11/22/2023

[Mende]

Time for a big update!
 

The colony has laid eggs! On 18/03, after almost 4 months, I finally saw eggs in their nest. They laid eggs on a day when it was warmer than usual in my ant-room ( the weather was great ).

since they've got eggs, I've increased the frequency and amount of food I offer them. They take everything I give them.

Today (26/03) when I looked in their nest, they had larvae! It took them only 8 days from eggs to larvae, with barely any heating. Larvae mean more mouths to feed so I will increase the amount of food I give them. I feed them crickets and fruit flies as protein source now. But I've fed them many more things in the past but my colony likes things that they can cut in smaller pieces the most. For example buffalo worms, crickets, all kinds of flies and Messor workers.

 

[Mende]

18/03

26/03


 

[Mende]

The colony is doing something that I have never seen any other colony do:
They seem to have a protein-reserve. Which consists of insects that have been cut in pieces. Which they keep stored in a dry segment of their set-up. Here a picture of what it looks like:

    the water tower is empty*

I am certain that they are actually storing it for eating purposes instead of basically trashing it because I see them actually feeding it to their larvae, here a picture of that:

 


This behaviour can actually be found in wild colonies aswell. All Cataglyphis nodus colonies that I have found in the wild ( in Turkey ) were also keeping a pile of dry insects under stones that are connected to their nest via tunnels. Which is understable because Cataglyphis nodus lives in areas that are quite harsh and having a protein storage that doesn't rot quickly could be the difference between growing and dying.

Now what makes this more interesting is that those insects dry out completely under stones which get extremely hot under the sun ( or under the heat map in my colony's case ). This means that their larva is able to consume protein in form of dried up insects. So what would be the reason for them to not accept pre-dried insects? Nothing, right?

For me, sourcing my colonies with protein is the biggest problem when I am on long holidays. Providing them with sugars is simple, in form of dry sugar crystals and water is also easy, I basically place enough test tubes with water in their outworld and that keeps them going. But if they accept pre-dried insects, it would be the solution for sourcing this colony with protein when I am away. Since it is very easy to make a system that'll drop some dry insects from time to time. Without me physically being there.

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

My fam is from turkey so when I visit I see this and it amazes me every time. 

[Mende]

I forgot to specify which Cataglyphis nodus colony I am talking about since I've got 2 of them. So in short:
The colony in the first post is my '' main '' colony with the most workers.
The colony shown in the post from March 26 is my second colony which is a lot smaller than my main colony.

I will post updates on both colonies so that we can also see if there are difference between the colonies.


My main colony laid eggs on March 21. they eclosed on March 26, and today on April 5, after 11 days, their larvae has began spinning cocoons. Which means that it took 16 days from egg-pupa.
My other colony on the other hand, still have small-medium larvae. This is because I heat my main colony a lot more. Currently the part where my main colony keeps its brood ( 2 of the 4 nests ) is heated to 39c. This might sound too hot but they are keeping the brood right under it ( literally as close as possible by holding the eggs against the glass ).

[Mende]

I did a little counting with crazyants.de's very handy antcounter.. it's not exact but it gives an idea of how much brood this colony has ( / had 2 days ago when I took the pictures) :


  

It's not exact because there are 2 more nests that they use where they usually store eggs for a short period and there were workers that run out of the nest into the outworld with brood in their mouth*