14 replies to this topic

[stuhrike]

Thought I'd take a stab at this journal thing.  

Pogonomyrmex Rugosus was THE ant from my childhood that I collected like crazy (workers for Uncle Milton's ant farms) so when I decided to get back into anting 2-3 weeks ago, they were the main ant I was after.

Went out to 29 Palms on July 20 and managed to dig up four P. Rugosus queens.
The founding chambers typically look like this:

 

I was way too eager to dig these up to really take any good pics or pay close attention but what I found interesting was that all of the P. Rugosus queens in my area ALWAYS started digging their hole next to a small stick.  

Anyways, here are the queens:

 

Crappy close up of one of the queens.  This is before my macro lens came in the mail

 

Set three of them up in test tubes and by the very next day, all of them had a small clutch of eggs.  Maybe 10-15 each.  Hard to see in the picture.

 

The next day, I went out to Phelan and Mormon Rocks with Subverted to try and find some more P. Rugosus but didn't find any except a random alate zipping along that I saw out of the corner of my eye.  Came home to find that the P. Rugosus had flown and there were founding chambers everywhere.  So on the 21st and 22nd, I ended up digging up 22 more P. Rugosus queens... 

So this is where I ran into a problem.  I only originally bought 12 test tubes from Amazon thinking I'd never catch more than 12 queens ever with my luck.  Clearly, I was wrong.  I ordered 50 more test tubes (which doesn't seem like enough either) but they're not going to be here until next week.  The queens were just sitting in the containers I had used to catch them with a wet cotton ball/roll of paper towel (also ended running out of cotton balls...) and things weren't looking good.  

Having read up on Retroman's suggestions, I decided to try giving them a small dirt set up but decided to experiment a little.
The containers are basically Tic Tac containers that I got from Michael's.  I decided to try four different setups with dirt.

 

Setup 1

Dirt with water and a small hole down the middle to help the queen get started.
As you can see in the pic, the middle queen decided to immediately start on her chamber and started digging.  

 

But I soon found that it was either too wet or maybe they just didn't like it since the left queen didn't do anything and the right queen was kinda eh about the whole ordeal.

 

Three hours later

The left queen kept trying to crawl out and ended up closing/covering up the hole I placed for her while constantly trying to get out.

The middle queen doesn't mind at all and she just kept digging. 

The right queen dug a bit more but decided to keep trying to get out.

 

Twelve hours later

Left queen hadn't done anything so I reopened the hole for her and she immediately started working on her chamber.

Middle queen has dug out a nice chamber at the bottom and has started to close her chamber.

Right queen just kind of still chilling...

 

Setup 2

This time, no water added.  Essentially setup 1, just the same dirt and a hole in the middle and no water.

This time, left queen and middle queen began to dig.  Right queen was just derping.

 

Three hours later

Left queen keeps going down.

Middle queen has started a little chamber a little ways down.

Right queen still derping.

 

Twelve hours later

Left queen has decided she likes to do a vertical plank...all the time...

Middle queen likes to chill in her unfinished chamber.

Right queen...derp...

 

Setup 3

Same dirt, no water added, but a hole added at the corner of the container for them to start with.

All three queens began to immediately work on their chambers though the right queen decided to do a little Irish jig first.

 

Three hours later

All three queens have excavated a lot of dirt.  More than most of the other queens.

 

Twelve hours later

All three queens have dug near to the bottom and have started made chambers that are visible from the front and back of each container.
The right queen went bonkers and dug up so much dirt she just chose to close her chamber in the end.
I ended up taking a toothpick and cleaning out most of the dirt they excavated in order to give them more room to place things and give myself room to feed/water them if need be.

 

Setup 4

Same dirt, no water added, no hole given for them to start with.

After making the first three, I decided to have a little bit of a control and see what they do when nothing is given to them hole-wise.

 

Three hours later

Left queen has begun excavating dirt from the corner.

Middle queen has also begun digging from another corner.

Right queen...another derp...These righty queens....

 

Twelve hours later

Left queen hasn't progressed much beyond three hours and in fact, ran over her dirt pile so much, she flattened it a bit.

Middle queen has dug herself a little U and a chamber and the very middle.

Right queen hasn't done anything at all.  However, she is missing an antennae so I'm wondering if that's affecting her somehow.  Considering their penchant for corners, I poked a hole in the corner for her and she immediately began to go to work.

 

Right queen has begun digging as soon as that hole was given.

 

So far...

If I had to say, it seems P. Rugosus really like corners...maybe it's just the P. Rugosus from my home in Hesperia but they generally all seem to aim for a corner in the end.  I'm sure the lack of real space confines them but they really do seem to prefer it.  

 

I'll try and update this tomorrow and let you guys know how this turns out.  I still have another 11-12 P. Rugosus sitting in their collection vials so will make more of these tomorrow, hopefully some new setups with some of your guys' input.  

Thanks for stopping by and reading.  

Edited by stuhrike, May 18 2021 - 7:22 PM.

[dspdrew]

Almost all my queens of any species start digging their nests in the corner of the container.

[Ants4fun]

Good idea with the tic tag containers! I will have to use that... Though I would add water if I were you, so that the chamber doesn't collapse on them.

Edited by Ants4fun, July 24 2015 - 7:54 AM.

[stuhrike]

Almost all my queens of any species start digging their nests in the corner of the container.

 

That's cool.  From now on, I'll provide them a hole in the corner.

 

Good idea with the tic tag containers! I will have to use that... Though I would add water if I were you, so that the chamber doesn't collapse on them.

Well, the soil I used from nearly a foot down and it was still moist.  I added water to it afterwards to make it a bit more thick.

Oh, and you can find the tic tac containers at Michael's.  Pretty cheap.

Edited by stuhrike, July 24 2015 - 1:13 PM.

[Jonathan21700]

I use Tic tac boxes alot and their are working well! Good luck!

[stuhrike]

Well, here's an update.

All of the queens that have dug to the bottom have laid a couple of eggs viewable in some of the pics if you zoom in.  

 

Setup 1

 

Setup 2

 

Setup 3

 

Setup 4

 

Also, the twelves queens I still hadn't moved yet, four of them hadn't laid eggs and were moved to Tic Tac Box setups.

Progress after a few hours with a hole poked in the corner since it yielded the most success with previous queens.

 

But eight of the twelve remaining queens had a few eggs each.  I knew if I placed them in Tic Tac boxes, they'd most likely get buried, lost, or eaten.  I still had a bunch of Myrmecocystus Mexicanus, which all have eggs, I had to move and decided to try making similar but smaller setups as the one I made for my P. Californicus queen.  

 

I bought these smaller plastic boxes from Hobby Lobby to try out and here are the two different set ups with queens.

Queens with more eggs got the bigger boxes.  

 

Big Box Setup - with corner hole added

Overhead view

 

Side view

 

Smaller Box Setup - with corner hole added

Overhead view

 

Side view

 

Also, a lot of my queens were still in Tic Tac boxes but they were laying loads of eggs as evidenced by my M. Mexicanus.  I decided to try the same set up for my P. Rugosus with the remaining queens.

Queens were all fed byFormica's Sunburst before being moved.  

 

Thanks for stopping by.

[Herdo]

Great information here, thank you. Is P. Rugosus semi-claustral?

[LC3]

Great information here, thank you. Is P. Rugosus semi-claustral?

I think Pogonomyrmex are semi-claustral.

[Jonathan21700]

 

Great information here, thank you. Is P. Rugosus semi-claustral?

I think Pogonomyrmex are semi-claustral.

 

Not all of them . P. rugosus  are fully claustral.

Edited by Jonathan21700, July 25 2015 - 11:35 AM.

[stuhrike]

Great information here, thank you. Is P. Rugosus semi-claustral?

 

Thanks.  Like Jonathan21700 said, P. Rugosus is full claustral.  Most of the pogonomyrmex are semi-claustral but according to what I read somewhere, P. Barbatus, P. Rugosus...and one more I can't recall are fully claustral.

[Jonathan21700]

 

Great information here, thank you. Is P. Rugosus semi-claustral?

 

Thanks.  Like Jonathan21700 said, P. Rugosus is full claustral.  Most of the pogonomyrmex are semi-claustral but according to what I read somewhere, P. Barbatus, P. Rugosus...and one more I can't recall are fully claustral.

 

Also P. Maricopa.

[stuhrike]

Update

There hasn't been much change to the test tube queens and the dirt Tic Tac box queens.  Just cleared out a bit more dirt for the dirt Tic Tac box queens if they had excavated a lot.

 

Just going to update the Big box setup queens, the small box setup queens, and the empty Tic Tac box queens.

 

Big Box Setup

Probably due to lack of space, the queens have dug all over this box in what looks like a series of tunnels and chambers.

Looking from below, it looks like they laid some eggs too.  However, I chose not to take any pics and quickly replaced them so they don't cover up their chambers like the P. Californicus queen.

The only change I made to this set up was that I chose to remove the cotton ball.  It was creating a lot of moisture/condensation and I wasn't sure how that'd affect things.  

 

Small Box Setup

I chose to remove the cotton ball before taking pictures.

Due to lack of space, it would seem that the queens dug out a single chamber and started laying eggs as well.

The left queen was initially in her chamber but she came out when all the disturbance started.  

It was actually pretty funny.  As soon as I opened the lid, she crawled out.  Having realized her error, she immediately tried to crawl back into her box and into her hole.  

 

Empty Tic Tac Box

These queens seem relatively happy in here as well.  

So, I guess this setup works as well after having seen how my M. Mexicanus queens liked the simple box.

The left queen has a dented gaster in two places.  I'm not sure if she'll make it.

The middle and right queens have a small pile of eggs that you can see in the picture.

[Gregory2455]

 

 

Great information here, thank you. Is P. Rugosus semi-claustral?

 

Thanks.  Like Jonathan21700 said, P. Rugosus is full claustral.  Most of the pogonomyrmex are semi-claustral but according to what I read somewhere, P. Barbatus, P. Rugosus...and one more I can't recall are fully claustral.

 

Also P. Maricopa.

 

I do not think so. I think only the barbatus group are fully clausteral while P.maricopa is in the californicus group. Pogonomyrmex tenuispinus are also in the barbatus group which is the one that stuhrike did not recall.

Edited by Gregory2455, July 26 2015 - 1:04 AM.

[Herdo]

 

 

 

Great information here, thank you. Is P. Rugosus semi-claustral?

 

Thanks.  Like Jonathan21700 said, P. Rugosus is full claustral.  Most of the pogonomyrmex are semi-claustral but according to what I read somewhere, P. Barbatus, P. Rugosus...and one more I can't recall are fully claustral.

 

Also P. Maricopa.

 

I do not think so. I think only the barbatus group are fully clausteral while P.maricopa is in the californicus group. Pogonomyrmex tenuispinus are also in the barbatus group which is the one that stuhrike did not recall.

 

 

 

Good to know, thanks everyone.

[Jonathan21700]

 

I do not think so. I think only the barbatus group are fully clausteral while P.maricopa is in the californicus group. Pogonomyrmex tenuispinus are also in the barbatus group which is the one that stuhrike did not recall.

 

They are fully claustral. here's what this paper says. "Queens of the fully claustral nonforaging species Pogonomyrmex rugosus and Pogonomyrmex maricopa contained the greatest amount of these proteins".

Edited by Jonathan21700, July 26 2015 - 12:37 PM.