107 replies to this topic

[BitT]

Maybe I'm just messing with mine too much. Too eager with these girls. When did you exactly capture yours this year and when did they start laying after you captured and set them up? I really love this species.

[ANTdrew]

VB, I got a dozen of these last weekend around 10:00pm on my blacklight. I would’ve got some for you if I’d known you were interested.

[ANTdrew]

I just got one, VB. She’s yours if you want her.

[Aaron567]

What time of night do they fly?? I have a blacklight setup with no results yet, but just wondering when I'll get them!

 

For me they start landing 20-30 minutes after the sky is completely dark.

Maybe I'm just messing with mine too much. Too eager with these girls. When did you exactly capture yours this year and when did they start laying after you captured and set them up? I really love this species.

 

Nearly all the ones I have now that are getting nanitics I caught between May 20 and May 30. The dealate queens only take 2-3 days to lay their first eggs, in my experience.

[VenomousBeast]

I just got one, VB. She’s yours if you want her.

Yes please!! I also caught 5 queens tonight with my black light around 10 as well!! Which was good cause I needed to put it away at 10:30 because we are heading to Morehead City, NC for Independence Day!

[Aaron567]

July 23, 2020

 

Everything is going well so far. I have several 3-queen colonies, but my largest and best colony currently has 8 workers with several more on the way. Their larvae are pretty large; I don't know if it's because they're majors or just larger minors due to more food intake. Probably the latter, because I doubt they'd be like Pheidole or something and get majors on the second generation of workers. Certainly didn't happen that quickly last time I got majors.

[FSTP]

really great photos

[VoidElecent]

Any formicarium ideas? I have a growing colony of C. impressa, but I'm kinda stuck because I don't know what to move them into. Thinking THA discus, maybe.

[Aaron567]

Any formicarium ideas? I have a growing colony of C. impressa, but I'm kinda stuck because I don't know what to move them into. Thinking THA discus, maybe.

 

My plan for now is to keep mine in test tubes for a long time. I'm thinking any formicarium that doesn't have large open spaces (such as the Mini Hearth) should work okay, but my whole purpose of keeping them in 18mm tubes indefinitely is just experimental to see if they can indeed be kept without being in <5mm wide spaces while thriving at the same time.

[AntsDakota]

You could just add more test tubes as the colony grows larger, and never have to move them into a formicarium. How large do these colonies grow, anyways?

[VoidElecent]

 

Any formicarium ideas? I have a growing colony of C. impressa, but I'm kinda stuck because I don't know what to move them into. Thinking THA discus, maybe.

 

My plan for now is to keep mine in test tubes for a long time. I'm thinking any formicarium that doesn't have large open spaces (such as the Mini Hearth) should work okay, but my whole purpose of keeping them in 18mm tubes indefinitely is just experimental to see if they can indeed be kept without being in <5mm wide spaces while thriving at the same time.

 

 

Ah, nice. Yeah, mine are in 16s. I've been thinking of experimenting with inserts (cork, maybe), but that could get real messy real quick.

[Manitobant]

For a formicarium id try a bifurcated mini hearth. The tight chambers would probably be perfect for twig nesters.

[AntsDakota]

An Inception Chamber with either the 'random' design (which may be a bit small, even for Colobopsis), or the 'three chamber' design would work as well.

[Aaron567]

September 13, 2020

 

I am down to just one colony because I sold the rest; I picked the best-looking colony to keep for myself, which is the same colony that is seen in the last update. It looks like they've just hit 20 workers and I currently have their test tube sitting in an acrylic outworld with sand at the bottom and a twig (with several branches) for them to climb on. I'm only giving them small cricket legs and sugar water for now. They never feed on the protein much but I think that's normal for them. Several of their newest workers have been quite large to the point where I almost want to call them media workers, but they certainly don't have the phragmotic morphology present in majors. I'm somewhat surprised the colony has not produced any majors yet, so I'm beginning to wonder if that's something they usually wait until right after diapause to do. 

 

Brood-wise, they have at least 20 eggs, larvae, and pupae combined. I apologize for the undesirable glare in these pictures. 

 

 

Here is a zoomed out picture of their tube without the outworld. Only 17 workers are in this picture because the remaining 3-4 were in the outworld at the time.

 

[Aaron567]

October 5, 2020

 

Turns out, they're looking a tad bit worse now than they did in the last update. I discovered, too late, that workers had been escaping from a tiny hole in the lid of their setup. Without all the escapees I estimate there would be around 30 workers by now, but there are only 17. The brood pile is small, probably because I halfway forgot about this colony... But, I have discovered that they really love baby red runner roaches and they accept them and enjoy them a lot more than any other protein item I've tried for them.

 

In the next few days I will begin to introduce them to temperatures of around 63 degrees F (17C), with a new wine cooler I got this year. I will introduce them to those temperatures slowly, putting them in and taking them out of the cooler every few days. I'll do this to signal to them that winter is coming, so that the queens stop laying eggs. The goal is to simulate the first few cold snaps that happen here in northwest Florida, prior to full-blown winter. Wine coolers are awesome for this because you can control the temperature down to the degree, and adjust it over time. I think when all current brood matures into workers I will put them in the cooler for good and not take them out until late February. It seems like Colobopsis impressa undergoes a broodless diapause, unlike many Camponotus which go through diapause with a batch of larvae.

 

[Aaron567]

March 20, 2021

 

First update in over 5 months. I attempted to diapause this colony like I diapause my Camponotus colonies, but they're apparently a bit different about it. I put them in the wine cooler (at 55F) for short periods of time throughout winter, but they always had pupae and I didn't want those to die, so I just kept the colony in the 60s (F) outside the wine cooler for most of their "diapause." Unlike with Camponotus, they insisted on keeping pupae throughout the entire diapause, and it seemed like they might've had some larva growth as well, but no egg-laying.

 

Sometime in February I began heating them again and the queens immediately started laying eggs and now the colony is looking great. They even have their first major larvae! There are around 35-40 workers total and there is going to be some considerable growth in numbers over these next few weeks. When all current brood matures, the colony should be past 100 workers.

 

Major larva in the first picture.

[Lillyrose]

they're looking good .. love the larva pics!

[Aaron567]

April 16, 2021

 

Three majors have eclosed and the colony has surpassed 60 workers.

 

[ANTdrew]

Amazing!

[NPLT]

I love the look of Colobopsis ants, a shame Poland doesn't have any.