7 replies to this topic

[Loops117]

Anyone have experience with these guys or any other odd casts? Most of the species that are "exotic" looking are warmer climate ants, so i'm unable to get ahold of any. But i would like to know other peoples experiences. They look cool, and seem to have a cool life style.

 

For instance, the turtle ant uses its head to block the entrance to the nest.....that's awesome.

[MrmrGatlin]

The Cephalotes here in FL also are the most finicky. You can rub their feet at night and they'll still give you the middle finger as they slowly starve themselves to death haha. I haven't kept them personally, just what I hear from anecdotal accounts.

[Loops117]

I figured that would be the case since i don't see any active journals for them. I know when i take my trip down to the keys, i'll be keeping an eye open for them. Wonder if they're even there.

[123LordOfAnts123]

Here's an excerpt from antwiki on C. varians feeding habits:

"The diet of free-living colonies of Zacryptocerus varians is not known, but it can be partly inferred from laboratory studies. In the laboratory the foraging minor workers are totally inept as predators. When workers encounter live insects outside the nest they generally avoid them. The very short mandibles and rigid body form make them physically less capable of pursuing prey even if the behaviour were well developed. Even small aphid nymphs just large enough to fit between the mandibles of the ants were handled ineptly in laboratory tests. The Zacryptocerus pushed at the aphids with their heads, seized and carried them briefly in their mandibles and then, invariably, broke contact and ran away. Not a single aphid was carried back into the nests. It is a remarkable fact that no solid food of any kind was ever seen to be carried into the nests, although the ants were presented with abundant quantities of diverse materials over a period of months. The ants are nevertheless strongly attracted to the tissues and haemolymph of freshly killed insects. This material they scrape, lick, and nibble away, swallowing all that they acquire and later regurgitating the liquid or semiliquid food to their nestmates. All of the insects offered in this manner were accepted: cockroaches, a nymphal chermid, two species of scarabaeid beetles, tachinid and muscid flies, a geometrid moth, and a variety of microlepidopteran moths. On four occasions workers were observed feeding on one of their own larvae. The workers prefer freshly killed insects to decomposed ones. Although fragments of insects in all stages of decomposition were available in the nest vicinity, and occasionally in abundance, foragers were seen to lick them on only two occasions, and then only for a few minutes. Honey and sugar water were avidly accepted by laboratory colonies. Also, natural honeydew was taken when leaves containing aphid colonies were placed near the nests.....In the laboratory, colonies flourish on a diet of fresh insects and honey. In the red mangrove forests of the Florida Keys ....Z. varians is one of the most abundant ants."

[drtrmiller]

Zacryptocerus is deprecated and is now Cephalotes.  Very nice info, though.

[Loops117]

Thank you for that excerpt. That really helps me out and gave me some good insite on what i should find while in the keys. It's sad that they don't last while in captivity, but it will be nice to get some good pictures and videos.

[Mdrogun]

I found a Stigmatomma queen once, she died within a week of me finding her for no reason.

[Batspiderfish]

Tetramorium atratulus (formerly Anergates) is interesting caste-wise, as it has no workers, the males are flightless, and the queens look slightly wasp-like in the way males often do. Queens are about the size of a Tetramorium sp. E host worker, and probably have the exact same environmental needs, but require a host colony. It would even seem that Tetramorium atratulus might be capable of coexisting with the Tetramorimium host queens. It would probably not be a particularly long-lived colony if kept in captivity.

 

 

I found a Stigmatomma queen once, she died within a week of me finding her for no reason.

 

Successful Stigmatomma queens seem to have assistance from one or two workers that come with them, according to a lab paper I remember reading a while ago, back when Stigmatomma were still Amblyopone. They are definitely unique and mysterious in their biology and behavior. 

Edited by Batspiderfish, June 24 2016 - 11:55 AM.