15 replies to this topic

[Gregory2455]

FINALLY!!! I finally got a Myrmecocystus queen to raise a worker! Yes!!! I received this queen as a dud from dspdrew last year after he caught her... somewhere out in the desert. After constantly feeding her since she ran out of her original fat reserves, she finally decided to let some of her brood grow, and one actually made it to be a worker. There should be at least three more workers coming soon, and I believe she has a few eggs right now. I will move them into a setup that is proper for repletes to hand from the ceiling which should last a few months.

Edited by Gregory2455, February 20 2019 - 10:09 PM.

[Alza]

Are repletes born repletes, or are they workers that are fed a lot?

[Gregory2455]

Are repletes born repletes, or are they workers that are fed a lot?

I think they are born as slightly larger workers, and some become repletes, some stay normal workers and become repletes if needed.

[Miles]

Nice! I have a small colony of this species.

[Ants4fun]

Nice! I have a small colony of this species.

You should make a journal here! I know you have a couple journals on queenant.proboards.com, but you should make some here! By the way, you didn't find these ants in Idaho, did you?

[dspdrew]

That's amazing.

[Gregory2455]

Surprisingly the worker is still alive and well. These, along with a few other colonies will be getting proper formicaria this week.

[LC3]

=D

[Foogoo]

Miles, maybe you can weigh in, does Ray Mendez do anything different or does he also get a few successful colonies out of many unsuccessful queens? I'm amazed by his colonies in your video clips. Yet reading journals, it seems like this is a difficult species to get past founding.

[Gregory2455]

Update: 7/28/2015

I caught three more queens out in the desert, but one of them already died...

That means currently I have the queen with a single worker and two brand new queens.

[Gregory2455]

Update: 8/16/2015

One of the new queens has a fairly sizable pile of pupating larvae. The other one seems to be infertile, as her eggs have not yet even turned white from yellow.

[Gregory2455]

The worker of the queen from last year died yesterday.

[Gregory2455]

Update:9/3/2015

The fertile queen from my night trip in late July got workers a few days ago.

[dspdrew]

Mini-mexicanus.

[Gregory2455]

Mini-mexicanus.

rofl

[Gregory2455]

Discontinued.

This colony just randomly died out. Oh well.