7 replies to this topic

[Etherwulf]

I caught this Camponotus sp. gyne on 28 January 2015.

 

At first, I thought she was unfertilised because of the large distribution in urban areas but I still decided to put her in a test tube. She pleasantly surprised me by removing her wings the next day and consuming a large chunk of the food I gave her. 

 

 

 

Here she is, gorged with green ant jelly. 

 

 

Overall setup

 

 

Removed wings

 

 

 

Remains of food

 

 

 

New food given (Orange version)

Edited by Etherwulf, January 31 2015 - 9:38 PM.

[Gregory2455]

What jelly is that?

[Etherwulf]

Its my version of the Bhatkar-Whitcomb diet. The green one has a higher sugar to protein ratio and no preservatives. The orange one has a higher protein to sugar ratio and contains sodium benzoate as a preservative. I found that some ants don't take quite as well to the orange one because of the added preservatives so I generally feed them founding queens the green one first. After they get their first nanitics, I feed them the orange one along with sugar water. This has worked quite well as compared to the inverse of this routine (Orange then green.) Right now, I'm messing around with the chemical percentages to improve receptivity.

[Servercheck]

That does not look like Odontoponera transversa... Looks like a skinny Camponotus queen... Of course, I might be wrong and it might just be an angle problem.

Edited by Servercheck, January 31 2015 - 9:28 PM.

[Gregory2455]

That does not look like Odontoponera transversa... Looks like a skinny Camponotus queen... Of course, I might be wrong and it might just be an angle problem.

Agreed.

[Etherwulf]

Thanks for the correction. Indeed its a Camponotus sp.. Self-serving bias probably screwed up my judgement. 

[Crystals]

Interesting.  That is the skinniest, and most slender Camponotus queen I have ever seen.

Quite interesting to see the differences between Malaysian and Canadian ants. 

[Gregory2455]

Interesting.  That is the skinniest, and most slender Camponotus queen I have ever seen.

Look at benjiwuf's Camponotus pennsylvanicus.