3 replies to this topic

[L.H]

This is my Formica sp journal. there will periotic updates whenever something happens to the colonies. I hope you guys will enjoy my journal!

Species of formica I'm currently keeping:

Formica subsericea

Formica subintegra

formica pallidefulva

unidentified formica sp that looks like subsericea.

 

I will be updating with pictures later today.

 

[L.H]

I have caught 2 formica queens during the last few days of July. One of them is the Formica subsericea queen and the other is unidentified. I brood boosted them with subsericea brood since they were some of the few formica queens I caught and I really wanted them to survive. They have since then laid eggs and gotten pupae. I fed them their first meals today, which was hummingbird nectar. 

 

Here are some pictures,

Both queens have turned very physogastric after drinking the nectar.

The queen on the top is actually a camponotus queen that also just got nanitics, the bottom one is the formica.

You can see both queens side by side in this photo.

Notice the size difference between the subsericea and the unidentified Formica.

As some of you may know from reading the previous journal, this is my Formica pallidefulva colony.

They have since then grown to be about 15 workers and have multiple pieces of brood.

(please ignore the rusty screws)

[L.H]

I have a second Formica cf. pallidefulva colony that I didn't mention in the first post. They are housed in a diy plaster nest that is growing moss/algae? on it. They have filled the inside with dirt that was in the outworld and it has since then became impossible to take pictures mostly.

 

Somehow there hundreds of springtails in the nest. I don't think they do anything and the ants don't seem to mind them, I've also heard that they eat mold so that's beneficial if the ants leave scraps in the humid nest that grow mold. As of now, I suspect the colony has around 100-150 workers and 20-30 large larvae and pupae. The workers are the same size as the queen so I'm not sure if they are pallidefulva of some other queen. They usually drag one grasshopper into the nest once per week and feast on it for that week. They are still going strong even though it is getting chilly outside.

 

 

Sometime last month I went outside to go anting. Close to my usual spot, I spotted a subintegra raid ongoing. They were raiding a pallidefulva nest and had succeeded. I then though to check up on a pallidefulva colony I had spotted the week before. I lifted the rock and . . . There it was! A small colony of Formica subintegra. My first thought was that I felt bad for the pallidefulva colony. Then the subintegra queen ran out and those thoughts changed immediately to "I've got to catch this queen!"

 

So there we have it. I now own a subintegra colony with around 50 or 60 hosts and 10 bio workers. They have 20 host pupae and a few bio pupae and larvae, eat a small cricket every week and drink plenty of hummingbird nectar. 

 

[L.H]

Update 1:

 

Formica pallidefulva Colony 1:

This colony is at 20 workers now. There are 4 pupae and not other brood. 

 

Formica pallidefulva colony 2:

As always, the colony is in the dirty nest and pictures still are not possible. They have a pile of about 20 pupae which is all I can see.

 

Formica cf. subsericea colony 1:

This queen's nanitics finally eclosed. She has 3 nanitics and 3 brood boosted workers.

 

Formica cf. subsericea colony 2:

All but one of this queen's nanitics have eclosed. She has 4 brood boosted workers.

 

Formica subintegra:

This colony readily accepts protein and sugars but i do not see any eggs of larvae. They have a mound of host pupae though.