28 replies to this topic

[L.H]

Today, I found something extremely good. There is a brachymyrmex colony that's slightly larger than a founding colony in one of my other sealed terrariums. I will not be moving them out but I will do weekly flooding of honey and fruit flies. In the same terrarium, there was also a founding colony of lasius neoniger or americanus.

[L.H]

Something surprising just happenedin my multi queen Tapinoma sessile colony, they just kicked out a queen. She was even being attacked. It was shortly after a sugar water feeding. Does anyone know why?

Anyways I will attempt to put the queen with some workers into a test tube.

[ANTdrew]

She may be unmated or too old to produce brood. Ants are cruel in their efficiency.

[L.H]

Update 5

Prenolepis imparis
The queens are doing fine. Most of the smaller groups of 3 and below have large larvae and even has pupae. For some reason, they are polygynous but they don't seem to do too well in groups over three, as all but one of my five queen group founding colonies had queens die out until they were in groups of 3 and below. The single/double queens had the largest larvae. This has also happened in past years. This is just my speculations though. Anyways the queens should get nanitics within the next few weeks. It's very exiting since I haven't kept Prenos in a while.


Tapinoma sessile
They have surprisingly produced many male and female alates. This explains why they haven't produced to many workers. Weirdly enough I found a bunch of tiny winged ants hatching from the brood pile. They seem to be males about half the size of a normal male alate with a more rounded point if the abdomen. I suspect that they are either microgynes or a parasitic species of workerless inquiline tapinoma like tapinoma incognitum.

Formica pallidefulva:
The queen now has 13 workers!!! She has tripled her colony size since she got out of hibernation. She currently has 2 pupae, 2 larvae, and 2 eggs. I guess she really likes the number 2 today.


Tetramourium immigrans
They have 7 workers 1 larvae and a pile of eggs.

Crematogaster cerasi
The colony has probably doubled or even tripled. Most of the pupae from the last batch of brood have eclosed. Right now the queen has a pile of 100-200 eggs.


Temnothorax curvispinosus
The temnothorax colony is doing very well they have a large brood pile that they, for some reason scatter throughout the entire tube. She has 11 workers.


Myrmica americana
A couple more nanitics have eclosed in the myrmica colony. This bring the worker count to 4 with another worker that should eclosed within the week.


Brachymyrmex delphis
This colony is doing excellent. Most of the larvae from the last update have pupated. I finally witnessed them cutting up a fruit fly and bring it into the nest. This is very neat to watch because of how small they are and there is no waste to clean since the larvae eat every last part of it. Also the queen is super fat and she has a huge egg pile.

You can see pieces of the fruit flies on the larvae.

Other things I was doing
I have been experimenting with culturing flies as a consistent food source for my insects. So far it has been a success and I get around 5-10 flies per day which is more than enough for feeding.

To explain the process, I just catch some flies(green/blue bottle flies) put them in a moistened container which gets them to lay their eggs. Next, I soak some turtle food in water( I just use turtle food because I have a turtle and it's just the most convenient for me), you can also use cat or dog food or just raw meat. Place the eggs on the food source and they should hatch within the day. Once they start trying to climb up or all over the container, they are looking for fresh air so the can get out and burrow in the ground to pupate. After about a week they should start coming out of their cocoons and you can feed the flies to your animals. You could also just feed the maggots. Make sure to add ventilation holes but block them up with cotton or something similar. For pupating, put some dirt into a container and add the maggots in. Keep the dirt dry but add a few drops of water every day.

It may look and smell pretty disgusting but it is worth it if you are like me and sustain your colonies on insects caught outdoors since it can be hard sometimes if you are busy and can't afford to spend too much time on catching bugs.

Edited by L.H, June 11 2025 - 6:21 AM.

[L.H]

I forgot to mention in the last post, but the Lasius claviger have bios!!!

There a bit hard to see, since the combined factors of poor lighting and the bios being almost invisible make them easy to miss. On the last picture there is a bio worker in front of the queen's head.

Apart from that, I also went anting and caught a Aphaenogaster colony. They are in the hundreds and I have made a plaster nest for them.

[ANTdrew]

You’re having good success with some difficult species. Congrats!

[Ants_Dakota]

You’re having good success with some difficult species. Congrats!

I agree, congratulations! Now, the next step is to exercise some restraint and not collect any established wild colonies. You already have an awesome collection, and many of the queens you caught come from your local ant population. Why dig up that population just for more ant colonies when it will hurt you in the long run? Just think about this long term like any pet keeper would. When you buy a dog, you have to commit to keeping it for around 12-15 years. Can you do the same with all of your ants? 

[ANTdrew]

I couldn’t agree more.

[Zhuge]

Keeping a sucessful Brachymyrmex colony is a sign of being a pro antkeeper.