2 replies to this topic

[ctantkeeper]

So, I recently became aware of the fact that in Rhode island (a hour or twoa way from where I am currently located), exists colonies of trachymyrmex septentrionalis. As you can imagine, I want to look further into this later this spring or summer and possibly dig up a colony. I have seen them cultured in laboratories in Uconn with incredible ease. What would you recommend in terms of "food" for the fungus (I have heard of people using yeast, caterpillar and rabbit droppings and petals, but I would like to see if there are any other options.)? Do they respond to captivity well upon being moved from the wild in the form of mature colonies? Any suggestions for setups (I have a few idea, but would like to see what you guys think about this.)? Any other information / tips I should now? etc.

Edited by ctantkeeper, March 25 2017 - 3:25 PM.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

So, I recently became aware of the fact that in Rhode island (a hour or twoa way from where I am currently located), exists colonies of Trachymyrmex septentrionalis. As you can imagine, I want to look further into this later this spring or summer and possibly dig up a colony. I have seen them cultured in laboratories in Uconn with incredible ease. What would you recommend in terms of "food" for the fungus (I have heard of people using yeast, caterpillar and rabbit droppings and petals, but I would like to see if there are any other options.)? Do they respond to captivity well upon being moved from the wild in the form of mature colonies? Any suggestions for setups (I have a few idea, but would like to see what you guys think about this.)? Any other information / tips I should now? etc.

 

For food they don't really cut leaves so much as collect foliage that's already fallen off the plant (which they then cut). They're fond of flower petals and the frass of herbaceous insects: caterpillars, grasshoppers etc... I doubt yeast will work and question if their fungus would consume it, though there are "fungus growing" ants that grow yeast instead of fungus. I've never raised them but I know they are grown in laboratory setups for study. Whenever moving fungus gardens to a new setup I would expect some amount of shock as they like to keep the humidity at the right level; and actually that's probably why you'll only find them nesting in very selective environments (only at certain sides of a slope or hill, only with so much sun exposure etc). Their fungus gardens tend to be the size of a baseball or soft ball, and colonies are often small, containing only 1 to 4 gardens. I think they're colonies have multiple queens though so that might be a factor. Also what time of year it is can play a role in how many gardens they have. Their nests go down a ways, something like 4 feet so they may setup a garden every few inches and focus on one or the other depending on what season it is. Also they like to limit the amount of contact their fungus gardens touch adjacent soil which is why you'll usually find them hanging from roots of plants or situated under a rock.

 

Colonies go dormant over the summer months so try to locate them before the last week of May if you can. When they go dormant will depend on what kind of year we're having. When we did the NJ Ant Together one year we found colonies still active in late June, but the following year there was no sign of them to be had at the same location.

[i2chip]

I've had a trachymyrmex sp. colonony before (no wild workers). Although they only got 3 workers strong before they died I DID find out what food they preferred.

(They died because I accidentally left an opening large enough for the workers to fit through and escape but not large enough for the queen, so the workers left the queen and took the fungus with them and starved the queen.)

Anyway, I found out that mine did like caterpillar frass, although I didn't find a lot. I've seen them use pollen from oak catkins often. I bought a bag a dried raspberry leaves online and they did use some of those too.

If you do dig them up and you see that they aren't feeding the fungus, I'd put them back though.

Edited by i2chip, March 26 2017 - 6:02 AM.