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Aaron's Pheidole obscurithorax Journal (Updated 4/22/19)

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#1 Offline Aaron567 - Posted May 6 2017 - 8:55 PM

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This is a journal on my 10 month old Pheidole obscurithorax colony. Here are some pictures I have taken as they've grown.

 

July 1, 2016

 

I found the queen in the pool.

2IHq8mb.jpg

 

 

August 2016

 

First nanitic.

QLtpmK9.jpg

 

 

September 2016

 

This is the first major pupa the colony got, when they had around 20 workers at the end of September.

5xYHN1O.jpg

 

 

October 2016

 

The first major worker.

OhhpUo1.jpg

 

 

November 2016

 

The colony moved out of their test tube and into their first formicarium, the 3" Inception Chamber by Tar Heel Ants. 

FyeOkRn.jpg

 

 

December 2016

 

They had around 70-80 workers during this time.

ndti7Wb.jpg

 

 

January 2017

 

LNC4lIF.jpg

 

 

April 2017

 

This is when I moved them out of their old Inception Chamber and into a new nest. They had 150-200 workers. Keep in mind that this colony would be much larger by now if I would've been heating them this whole time. I just started heating them a few weeks ago.mx8pvmF.jpg

jHp2Jno.jpg

 

This is a young major that is acting as a replete. With many Pheidole species, some of the majors in the colony may be repletes, just sitting on the walls of the nest with their gaster full of stored liquid food. My colony does this. They have around 30 majors now and almost half of them store food.

rP4eR6o.jpg

 

 

May 2017

 

This colony is doing well since I have been heating them. Around February and March, they weren't growing much and were inactive and also not very excited about food anymore. Since I started heating them, this completely changed and now they are very active.

RpfXBAi.jpg


Edited by Aaron567, April 22 2019 - 5:53 PM.

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#2 Offline Leo - Posted May 6 2017 - 9:31 PM

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nice colony



#3 Offline AntswerMe - Posted May 7 2017 - 7:42 AM

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Very nice indeed. I'm looking to get one of these queens myself. My last one never got to the worker stage.

#4 Offline Bracchymyrmex - Posted May 7 2017 - 9:07 AM

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Amazing photography. Also very inspiring to see the colony's progress over the last year.



#5 Offline Aaron567 - Posted July 7 2017 - 1:52 PM

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July 2017

 

This colony was becoming a little cramped in their nest and never really seemed to settle in the way I wanted them to. They were constantly moving into the outworld and tubing. Since I have recently released my Solenopsis invicta colony which was living in my Fortress Formicarium (Tar Heel Ants), I decided to clean the Fortress and move this Pheidole obscurithorax colony into it. 

 

There are now around 300 workers in this colony. I haven't been feeding them very much for the past month or so, so there is currently not much brood. After moving them into this nest yesterday, I spotted a couple hundred eggs and newly hatched larvae, which is a good sign. This species has an interesting way of accepting food. When I put food in their outworld, they always pick it up and move the food into the nest to eat it instead of eating it in the outworld.

 

i9loiY9.jpg

UYRGhoC.jpg

ipYGNTb.jpg

05IAHdA.jpg

I2hcjMK.jpg

 

You can see the queen in this picture.

k0mNzCy.jpg


Edited by Aaron567, April 22 2019 - 5:52 PM.


#6 Offline Bracchymyrmex - Posted October 5 2017 - 12:32 PM

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Any updates on this colony?



#7 Offline Derpy - Posted February 5 2018 - 9:18 PM

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Update?

-1x Parasitic Formica Sp. Colony

-1x Pogonomymrex Californicus Colony

-1x Camponotus Hyatti Colony

 


#8 Offline Aaron567 - Posted February 6 2018 - 6:02 PM

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Update?

 

Basically their formicarium broke, and I didn't have another one, so they had to be in a weird setup and it was hard to feed and hydrate them. The colony kept on losing workers until they were down to only about 50 with very little brood. Then I moved them into a test tube. The next couple months after that, they shot up to over 100 workers. I have since bought them a new nest and they are doing fine. Just recovering. I have them in a larger nest than what's in the last update, so I will take updated pictures when they fill this nest.



#9 Offline Derpy - Posted February 6 2018 - 7:12 PM

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Ok

-1x Parasitic Formica Sp. Colony

-1x Pogonomymrex Californicus Colony

-1x Camponotus Hyatti Colony

 


#10 Offline Aaron567 - Posted April 22 2019 - 5:58 PM

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April 2019

 

First female alates are hatching now. More reproductive larvae on the way.

 

bXUzaO2.jpg

rng5PkD.jpg

fWMHOme.jpg

 

This is the same colony and everything.. from the queen I caught nearly 3 years ago. They should've gotten alates a lot sooner than this, but my patterns of generally not taking good care of them and letting them have massive die-offs wasn't good for their growth. They're currently rocking a tubs-and-tubes setup, as I've given up on using formicariums.


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#11 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted May 12 2019 - 7:04 AM

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Update?





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