10 replies to this topic

[Ameise]

Since I have a number of queens, and am terrible at actually keeping track of things, I will simply handle them all in one journal.

 

As of 6/18/2017, these are the queens, from top to bottom:

 

Queen Α: Tapinoma sessile

 

    Captured about a week ago just crawling around. Her gaster doubled in size within a day, and she started laying within a day. I presently count 7 eggs, which are very tiny and difficult to capture with my phone. They are rather scattered, and I don't see her always tending to them. Not sure if she will do well long term.

 

Queen Δ: Camponotus chromaiodes

 

    Captured last weekend (June 11, '17) in southern Illinois. Seems healthy, occasionally grooms herself and her gaster. No brood. Out of all of the queens, seems to dislike my presence the most. Quite pretty, though.

 

Queen Ε: Camponotus pennsylvanicus

 

    Captured last Monday (June 12, '17). Was found under a rock next to a Tetramorium colony. Was either injured already, or was injured during capture - is missing her left antenna and part of her right front leg. Was given sugar water immediately after capture which she readily drank for about an hour - she practically doubled in size during this. She presently has a single egg which she laid yesterday (June 16, '17). She has been very consistent in tending to the egg - cleaning it regularly and randomly moving it around (but it always ends up back in the same spot anyways). Due to her injury, she does have some difficulty cleaning herself and moving efficiently.

 

Queen Ζ: Camponotus pennsylvanicus

 

    Captured two days after Eta. Was found under a garbage can, and quickly captured. No brood, tends to lean on her side - not sure if actually healthy. Grooms regularly, including gaster. There does appear to be a very small dent in her gaster on the right side near the thorax, which from what I've read does not bode well for her. However, it doesn't guarantee failure - we'll see how she does.

 

Queen Η: Camponotus pennsylvanicus

 

    First queen of the bunch captured, about three weeks ago. She landed next to me while I was working outside, and walked around for a bit, then scurried to hide under a tarp. I then captured her. No brood, has not removed wings. Her behavior is a bit different from the other queens - she doesn't groom as much, and sometimes 'investigates' the cotton plug but has not pulled on it. I suspect she cannot turn around in the tube due to her wings, which also means she cannot drink. I will likely move her into a larger (perhaps 20mm) tube on Monday. She does, however, have one of the largest gasters of them.

 

Queen Β: Tetramorium sp. cæspitum

 

    Caught about a week ago. Was practically dead and being carried by a Tetramorium worker. I suspect she was captured and was to be used as food. I recovered her, gave her sugar water which she readily drank for some time, and doubled in size. She was the first queen to have any brood, but she is very poor about tending to them. Her brood are extremely scattered, and she seems to be addicted to the wet cotton - she doesn't leave it, and any new brood she has also attached to it, and she appears to be neglecting her old brood.

 

Queen Γ: Tapinoma sessile

 

    Caught two days ago (June 15). Was just scurrying, same as the other. Since being put into a tube, has doubled in size, but I do not yet see any brood.

[Ameise]

Update on Queen H (Eta). Not long after I made the post, she had a burst of activity for about an hour (I have a webcam). She successfully turned around, and then turned back around. She began moving very quickly, and fluttering her wings. She then had a 20 minute grooming session, wherein she also cleaned her gaster's tip about 5 times. Then she began investigating and tugging at the cotton a bit, and is now back to grooming and cleaning her gaster. I've never seen her this active - it's sorta strange.

Edited by Ameise, June 18 2017 - 1:18 AM.

[Ameise]

Tonight (technically the morning of 6/19 - isn't insomnia fun?) I offered queens Δ, E, Z, and H honey water (superconcentrated water solute with orange blossom honey) - I figured that since Camponotus tends to like sugar, also likes citrus... they'd like this. So far, I have been correct - Delta and Epsilon are still drinking it about 10 minutes later. Zeta, however, has not investigated or cared. She is continuing to lean to one side, and is less active than the rest. There is a small dent still in her abdomen, and her gaster was larger than the others (until this feeding). My worry is she may have parasitic larvæ - I will continue to watch her.

 

My hope is that if the queens have additional energy from this feeding (which I did not expect them to accept, especially as Epsilon has an egg - how often does delicious orange blossom honey just appear near your nest?).

 

Eta, on the other hand, I've attached her tube to a small container. There was a very small flood in her tube which appears to have been why she was panicking/fluttering. I need to clean her tube. The additional room may give her the opportunity to remove her wings if she so pleases, as well.

 

To show the cuteness of their feeding, here's a picture:

[HongKongAnter]

NIce job! Good luck 

 

[Ameise]

A lot has happened and I will likely post photos tomorrow.

Unfortunately, Queen Β died not long after the last entry. She never really took care of her eggs, and was one day too weak to really move herself from the cotton, and drowned.

 

All others from the journal are still alive - however, as I have new queens, new names must be made as well.

 

Since then, I caught and had die a Ponera pennsylvanica queen, caught a Crematogaster cerasi queen and several Tapinoma sessile queens (including whole colonies), another Ponera pennsylvanica queen who is still holding in there, a Camponotus subbarbatus queen, 3 more Camponotus pennsylvanicus queens, and 10 Tetramoria sp. queens. Not all will be recorded in this journal right now. So..

 

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Queen Α: Tapinoma sessile
 

So far, not much has changed, Her brood is all in once place now, in a nice pile. She guards it heavily. I suspect she would be happier in a glue/sand tube rather than a plain one.

 

Queen Δ: Camponotus chromaiodes

Unfortunately, nothing here has changed. I've moved her into a substrated tube. A week or so ago, I offered her some larvæ from a wild C. pennsylvanicus colony, which she groomed for a few hours, and then decided to eat instead. Today, I offered her a larva (which has an egg stuck to it) from a wild C. subbarbatus colony. She has acknowledged it's there but does not appear to have decided what to do with it. She has yet to have any brood of her own.

 

Queen Ε: Camponotus pennsylvanicus

She has about 10-12 eggs, which she keeps bundled near or under her at all times.

 

Queen Ζ: Camponotus pennsylvanicus

 

Has about 10-12 eggs as well, and keeps them bundled or near her at all times.

 

Queen Η: Camponotus pennsylvanicus

Is still alate, and has still not laid brood. Every day, I lean more towards her likely being unmated. She is in a sand tube at the moment.

 

Queen Β: Tetramorium sp. cæspitum

 

As said earlier, this queen is dead.

 

Queen Γ: Tapinoma sessile

 

Gamma is in a small sand tube, and has a small clutch of brood.

 

New Queens

 

Queen Θ: Tapinoma sessile

 

Theta is in an epoxy tube, and currently has a single egg which she tends to.

Queen Ι: Camponotus subbarbatus

 

Iota so far has had no brood of her own. She has also rejected any attempts at boosting her - I've attempted to boost her both with Camponotus pennsylvanicus larvæ (which she ignored, and didn't even eat) and Camponotus subbarbatus larvæ (which she ignores). I am considering brute forcing and attempting to boost her with a subbarbatus worker. She also refuses any food.
 

Queen Κ: Crematogaster cerasi

 

Kappa was caught with some brood (~2 larvæ and a few eggs). She presently has about 5-6 larvæ which she tends to regularly. She is kept in a sand tube.

 

Queens Λ, Μ, Ν: Camponotus pennsylvanicus

 

These queens are still rather new and have not been established into the brooding area.

 

Queens Ξ, Ο, Π, Ρ: ?Tetramorium sp.?

 

These queens are mostly alate, and I haven't IDd them yet. They are also relatively new and I haven't put them in the brooding area.

 

Queens Б, Ґ, Д, Ђ, Ѓ, Ё, Є, Ж, З, И: Tetramorium sp.

 

These queens were caught after the nuptial flight a few days ago. 6 of them are still alate. I do not know yet which are likely fertilized, and they were just moved into proper tubes. They aren't ready for journals.

 

Queens Σ, Τ, Υ, Φ, Χ: Tapinoma sessile

 

These queens are still unsorted, and a few are full colonies that I am trying to deal with.

 

Queens Ψ, Ω: Tapinoma sessile

 

This is an experimental bigynous T. sessile founding colony. There are a few eggs in their tube at the moment. They have yet to fight. The previous experiment (with Gamma and Theta) failed after they began fighting, whence I separated them.

Edited by Ameise, July 3 2017 - 5:33 AM.

[ultraex2]

Nice job so far!

 

Any nanitics yet?  I have 2 tubes of T. Sessile (1 single queen and 1 quad-queen setup).  The single queen just had it's first workers eclose sometime over the weekend.  

[Ameise]

Not yet. The Crematogaster (Kappa) has two naked pupae; I expect workers within 2 weeks. One of the brood I tried to boost the subbarbatus with is also a pupa, but whether that matters or not depends on whether or not she tends to it.

Also, the [Hypo]ponera queen died. No idea what's going on. They all have been dying within a week.

[Ameise]

So, caught a number of Tetramorium today (I think I have about 30 of them) and two Formica sp. I have not yet labeled them, or even processed them.

 

It appears as though the C. subbarbatus queen Iota has accepted the brood. She is moving it around and tending to it. This is progress, and is the first 'motherly'-ness I've seen from her at all. The brood is fairly mature, so with luck she will have nanitics soon. I can't tell what is up with the C. chromaiodes queen Delta. I had given her a cocoon which also had an egg stuck to it. The egg hatched into a larva, which she has not eaten - instead, she is constantly cleaning it, vigorously, but not eating it. Earlier, she started tearing the cotton ball apart, but she wasn't trying to escape -- she was wrapping the brood, both the larva and the cocoon, in cotton. I put an end to that and wrapped the cotton ball in cotton gauze which she can't really tear at. Not sure at all why she was doing that.

[ultraex2]

Nice!  Definitely post pictures of the Crematogaster nanitics if you can, that species is so cool.

 

I was able to catch 4 Tetramorium over the past couple days, no Formica yet.

 

For the C. Chromaiodes, that's some interesting behavior... I can say that I haven't seen that in any of my ants, granted I only have 2 C. Pennsylvanicus queens.

[Ameise]

Nice!  Definitely post pictures of the Crematogaster nanitics if you can, that species is so cool.

 

I was able to catch 4 Tetramorium over the past couple days, no Formica yet.

 

For the C. Chromaiodes, that's some interesting behavior... I can say that I haven't seen that in any of my ants, granted I only have 2 C. Pennsylvanicus queens.

Yeah, I've yet to figure why she's doing it. She tended them quite heavily for a day or two, then started wrapping and hiding them in cotton. When I gave her pennsylvanicus larvae (which is one of the closer species to them - actually, likely the closest) she tended them for a day, and then ate them. Perhaps she was going to eat them, but is not hungry at all, so wrapping them was the next best thing?

The Crematogaster pupæ are starting to get darker, as is the C. subbarbatus cocoon. The Crematogaster is very attentive, and moves the brood around every few minutes, and also sometimes does a weird "run in a circle" thing around the tube, sometimes with the brood. It's weird. Interestingly. the subbarbatus has yet to have any of her own brood. If she doesn't start laying, having workers isn't going to fix anything, only delay things (though I can always continually brood boost, but that's tedious). I would love to find more subbarbatus queens, but I'd literally never seen their species before in my life, and was surprised to find this queen (they're surprisingly pretty, though my wife says that the Formica queens are adorable).

[Ameise]

Continuing briefly from last time (sorry for the disorganization, my workshop is a mess) -

 

There have been Tetramorium and Formica flights here over the last week. In total, I've caught around 38 Tetramorium queens, and I'm guessing about 10 Formica queens. I had also caught a parasitic Lasius queen, but not only do I lack any known Lasius colonies nearby, but she died within two days in captivity. Almost all of the Tetramorium and Formica queens already have eggs. The Formica queens are all incredibly skittish.

 

I'm also presently working on building some oak-dowel founding formicariums with methylparaben. They're still in progress, soaking. They then need to dry out.

 

Also of interest - a few days ago I had to tear out part of my roof's woodwork as it had been infested by what appears to be Camponotus nearcticus. I caught quite a few workers and a ton of brood, mostly cocoons, but no queen.

 

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Queen Α: Tapinoma sessile

 

Little has changed from last time. Her clutch is not developing rapidly. She may need a smaller tube.

Queen Δ: Camponotus chromaiodes

 

So, of the brood from the earlier subbarbatus colony, all died except for a tiny first instar larvae, which she tended to heavily (which is funny to watch as that larvae is smaller than a chromaiodes egg). I also have given her some of the brood from the nearcticus colony. She seems to have accepted all of the larvae and tends to it, and a few of the cocoons. The rest she appears to have put into a refuse pile. She keeps checking the cocoons, biting at them - I presume she's checking if the workers are ready to eclose. They will be very small, but I'm hoping that having workers may induce brood-production. She has also been moved to a 20mm sand tube.

 

Queen Ε: Camponotus pennsylvanicus

 

Moved her to a 20mm sand tube. The move went... OK. She doesn't appear to have lost any brood during the move, which ended up being forced. She was offered some brood from the nearcticus colony, but moved it all to a refuse pile.

 

Queen Ζ: Camponotus pennsylvanicus

Same as Epsilon, except that instead of moving the brood to a refuse pile, she simply relocated herself and her eggs to the far end of the tube that the brood was in. Epsilon did not do this.

Queen Ζ: Camponotus pennsylvanicus

No change. Was offered a cocoon, has moved it around but otherwise ignores it.

 

Queen Γ: Tapinoma sessile

 

No change.

Queen Θ: Tapinoma sessile

 

No change.

Queen Ι: Camponotus subbarbatus

 

The most interesting one here so far. I offered her a lot of brood - from the subbarbatus colony and from the nearcticus colony. She accepted almost all of it - and one of the nearcticus cocoons actually eclosed, and she now has a tiny nearcticus worker. The worker doesn't do much, but she's there, and sometimes tends to the larvae. I don't know if she has any eggs of her own yet, though, but she is extremely attentive of the brood.

Queen Κ: Crematogaster cerasi

 

No changes. Moves the brood a lot.

 

Queens Λ, Μ, Ν: Camponotus pennsylvanicus
 

Lambda and Mu both have eggs. Nu lacked eggs, so I decided to offer her some nearcticus brood as an experiment. Insofar, she has ignored it.