189 replies to this topic

[Mettcollsuss]

Lasius speculiventris

I attached a small outworld to their tube, since it was getting hard to add food and new host workers without escapees. A day or two ago I saw definite trophallaxis between the queen and a host worker, which is a good sign.

 

Tetramorium immigrans

Over the past couple days I've been moving them from their old nest to the new one via aspirator. Every time I a batch of ants with the aspirator, I would look in it for the queen, but I haven't seen her. But the nest is now down to the last few workers and using a flashlight I can see into each area of the nest, and I can't see any queen remaining in the old nest. I don't see a dead queen in any of their trash piles. I assume that I just didn't see her in the aspirator. I'll keep an eye out for her in the new nest. Right now all the ants in the new setup are crowded into a test tube that I placed in the outworld as a backup water source. If the queen is in the new setup, that's where she'd be but it's too crowded for me to see.

[Mettcollsuss]

Formica subsericea

The main colony is doing good. I still see new batches of eggs appearing, but they're starting to slow down in preparation for hibernation. One of the founding queens has a few naked pupae, and all the rest are cocooned. The naked pupae are starting to darken, so they should be eclosing soon.

 

Lasius speculiventris

Most of the host workers have eclosed; there's only a few host pupae left. The first bio eggs have begun appearing. The bio eggs look like they're being cared for by the host workers, which is good.

 

Tapinoma sessile

Massive batch of eggs. They're definitely getting more protein hungry.

 

Tetramorium immigrans

The colony is finally fully moved into their new nest. When I first attached the new nest they were able to escape from under the lid. I'm not sure if it's because the lid wasn't even, or if i just didn't close it fully. I added some silicone to secure the lid and reattached it. No new escapes yet. Soon after I reattached the nest, it got a lot of attention from the ants and a couple days later they started moving in. To encourage the move, I covered the nest.

I finally got around to moving the straggling workers from the old nest to the new nest today. While doing so, I noticed that they had chewed tunnels and crevices into their nest that they were hiding in. Since I still hadn't seen confirmation of the queen in the new nest I figured she may be hiding in one of those crevices. Since the aspirator couldn't get the hiding ants out, I decided to break it open with a hammer and chisel (the nest was already non-reusable). It was a much tougher material than I expected. It took a little while, but I eventually found her in the very last tunnel that I cracked open. She was very stressed out and covered in dust, but alive. I dumped her (plus some of her attending workers) into the new outworld. Almost immediately workers began grooming her and guiding her closer to the nest. A little later she was in the nest and fully cleaned. I hope that she wasn't stressed out too much and that she'll be fine.

 

[Mettcollsuss]

Aphaenogaster picea

Lots of medium sized larvae. They've got a lot of brood but it's developing slowly. Their old tube has run completely dry, yet the queen and brood still won't move out into the new tube. It's been long enough that the new tube is already getting moldy. I'll add another new one soon. 

 

Brachymyrmex depilis

Caught several B. depilis queens over the past few days. Tube #1 has 7? queens (I'll double check later) and tube #2 has 3. I'll try keeping them for a bit, but I'll most likely end up selling them. Keeping something that small just seems like it could cause more problems than it's worth.

 

Formica fusca-group

The unidentified fusca-group queen has nanitics. What's interesting is that the queen is noticeably smaller than a F. subsericea queen, but her nanitics are larger than my F. subsericea's nanitics.

 

Formica incerta

Her nanitics are decently sized, definitely not full size but larger than I was expecting. When I gave them a piece of dubia roach the queen was the one that went after it, not the workers. They're accepting of protein earlier than most. Usually founding colonies — especially Formica — will reject insects the first 1-2 time I offer them, but they accepted it first time.

 

Formica subsericea

All but two of the queens have gotten nanitics.

 

Lasius americanus

First nanitic arrived yesterday, and a large pile of pupae. Normally, I would have waited for a few more workers to arrive before feeding, but the queen's gaster was looking particularly small so I gave them a drop of sugar water.

 

Lasius brevicornis

There was a Lasius brevicornis flight right in front of my house a couple days ago. I caught 25 L. brevicornis queens, but two died soon after I caught them. I have a few queens on their own, and the rest are in setup ranging from 2-5 queens.

 

When I caught them, I realized that some of the queens had noticeably wider and often paler heads than the others (like this). It had me panicking for a little while because I thought I had caught two similar looking species and mixed them together. But by process of elimination, the more "normal" ones couldn't have been anything but L. brevicornis. They weren't parasitic, and they were too pale and eyes were too small to be Lasius s. str. Around here, the only Cautolasius are L. brevicornis and L. nearcticus. It seemed unlikely that they could be L. nearcticus since they prefer forests, and I've found L. brevicornis workers a few meters away from where the queens were found. So despite my initial panic, I feel safe saying that both forms are L. brevicornis, just variation within the species. This is further reinforced by the fact that in the poly tubes that have both forms present, they still get along and groom each other. Most of the queens seem comfortable being polygynous, though a few were aggressive towards other queens. The aggressive ones were separated and are on their own now. 

 

One of the queens I caught had two Lasius workers attached to her legs. I didn't think anything of it since they looked dead, and she didn't seem affected by it. When I checked on them the next day, it turned out that one of them was alive and had detached from her leg. The worker and queen didn't seem aggressive towards each other. I think she may have accidentally given herself a worker boost.

 

Lasius neoniger

While going through my pile of new L. brevicornis queens, I noticed two of them were larger and darker than the rest. It turns out two of the 27 Lasius queens I caught that night were L. neoniger. In one summer I've gone from zero to four species of Lasius. I'll need to narrow it down a bit. I'll keep all of them for a while, and then decide which ones are my favorites and which I should sell. I'm definitely keeping the L. speculiventris because parasitic species are cool, and I will probably keep a L. brevicornis colony because I want a polygynous Lasius, so it'll probably end up being between the L. neoniger and the L. americanus.

 

Lasius speculiventris

More bio eggs. Only a few bits of host brood left. The test tube they're in is starting to get overcrowded and some of the workers and host brood are staying in the outworld. I'm planning on moving them into a petri dish setup, but it could take up to a week and a half for the materials to arrive. For now, I'll move them into a larger outworld with an extra test tube. I'm actually planning on moving pretty much all my colonies except the Tapinoma sessile into a petri dish style setup.

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

Bought a small colony of these recently. They're definitely the most skittish colony I own. Even the slightest vibration anywhere nearby, and they all panic. They've got one corner of the nest dedicated to brood, of which they have a pretty good amount, and the other corner for their seed pile. Either side of the nest is lined with "ant bread" – seeds crushed into a grainy beige paste and spread on the walls.

 

Prenolepis imparis

Repletes have started appearing. I'm gonna experiment with keeping half the colonies like a normal ant, and putting the other half on a modified hibernation schedule to simulate their natural estivation periods.

 

Tetramorium immigrans

Fully settled into their new nest. I've attached a heating cable and they gather to either side of it, but not directly under it. I've been underfeeding them lately since the emergency setup I tossed them into when they escaped wasn't ideal for feeding. Now that they're in their new setup, I'm gonna be feeding them extra to make up for it.

 

 

I'm going back to school in a couple days, so updates will be more infrequent for at least a little while.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, August 28 2021 - 6:33 AM.

[Mettcollsuss]

Aphaenogaster picea

Moved them into a new nest. It's a petri dish-style nest with a 3d-printed water tower attached to a simple outworld. The colony was quick to move into the nest after I dumped them into the outworld. It also turns out there were more of them than I thought, they're just good at huddling so close together that it looks like there's fewer of them than there are.

 

Lasius brevicornis

I went through the brevicornis drawer and finally counted how many founding colonies I have — it's 13. I'm putting them into an early hibernation since L. brevicornis don't usually lay until the spring. Three of the queens have eggs already so I won't hibernate them until they get workers, but the other ten are going into the fridge.

 

Lasius speculiventris

Moved into the new nest. The egg pile has been steadily growing. The first eggs should be turning into larvae soon.

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

The brood pile is growing nicely. The first new workers to eclose under my care appeared a couple days ago.

 

Prenolepis imparis

Out of the four colonies, three have turned most of their workers into repletes. They're definitely getting ready for hibernation.

[ANTdrew]

Looking great! Did you make those nests?

[NancyZamora4991]

I see in picture five that its a formisquarium

[Mettcollsuss]

Looking great! Did you make those nests?

Yep, except for the ones the Pogonomyrmex and Tetramorium are in, those are Cheeto's formisquariums. The ones I made are basically the same style but with water towers and in containers of varying shape. I got some plastic containers off Amazon, used a step-bit drill to make the tubing hole, 3d printed a water tower, and poured in some ultracal. In future versions I might add some kind of separator that lets me have two different levels of ultracal in the same nest, mainly for the reason of the ultracal fitting around the water tower in a more aesthetically pleasing way.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, September 6 2021 - 3:56 PM.

[Mettcollsuss]

Formica subsericea, Formica incerta, indet. Formica fusca-group, and Camponotus pennsylvanicus have been put into hibernation.

 

Aphaenogaster picea

In typical Aphaenogaster fashion, they've already begun dirtying up their new nest. They've got a good appetite for a colony approaching hibernation. I'm starting to experiment with seeds with elaiosomes, which are part of their natural diet. I broke the elaiosome off a couple castor bean seeds, which they quickly accepted. I plan to try more types of elaiosome-bearing seeds soon. I added some photos of them eating the elaiosomes.

 

 

Brachymyrmex depilis

One of the three queens has dug a founding chamber in the sand, the other two are just sitting on top of the sand. The two on top of the sand have eggs, and I assume the one in the chamber has eggs too. I hope that it won't be too large a separation and that they'll still get along when workers arrive.

 

Lasius americanus

Still producing brood. It's doesn't look like a huge amount compared to the queen's nanitic brood pile, but the queen had a huge nanitic generation, so it's still a pretty decent amount. They're very hungry. I always give them a very healthy serving of sugar water, and the queen's gaster is always skinny again a few days later. Maybe they just have a very fast metabolism.

 

Lasius speculiventris 

First bio larvae! They have a batch of 1st instar larvae that I assume came from the first batch of eggs. They're the same size and color as the eggs, the only reason I noticed them was because they were spread out along the ground while all the eggs were clustered up in balls. I'm gonna be giving them even more protein so that they can hopefully reach bio workers before hibernation.

 

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

A little while ago, I noticed that they had a particularly plump larvae standing out in their brood pile. A few days later, a male alate pupa appeared. It must have been a trophic egg that didn't get eaten, or the queen accidentally didn't fertilize an egg. After another few days the pupa disappeared, I assume they ate it.

 

[Mettcollsuss]

Apologies for the lack of updates recently. I've been busy with school, and not much major has happened — mostly just hibernation stuff.

 

Aphaenogaster picea

These girls really love to make their nest dirty. Dead bodies go into the outworld, but all other trash is placed in the corner of the nest. No evidence of hibernation preparation. Lots of eggs & small larvae. A little over 120 workers at the moment.

 

Lasius americanus

Workers are healthy, lots of developing brood, but the queen decided to just die. Whenever I would check on them, her gaster would always look unusually small and starved, even though the workers had full social stomachs. I'm pretty sure the reason she died had something to do with that, but I'm not sure what that reason is.

 

Lasius speculiventris

The queen appears to have stopped laying eggs for the year, but they've got plenty of larvae. For a while they had just 1st instar larvae, and I was about to toss them into hibernation, but then I noticed a few larger larvae. Now, about half their larvae are still 1st instar, the other half are 2nd and 3rd instar. The larvae are developing slowly, but they're developing so I'm holding off on hibernation for now.

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

I was hoping that they wouldn't hibernate, but it looks like they're going to. They're suddenly very averse to heat, evacuating the brood to the outworld whenever the heating cable is turned on. The brood pile is shrinking, and I don't see and new eggs or small larvae in the brood pile. I'll toss them in the fridge once all their brood ecloses.

 

All the other colonies are either in hibernation, preparing for hibernation, or continuing as usual.

[NickAnter]

Hmm, I put my aphidicola in hibernation - their larvae appeared to stop growing and they refused proteins. Hopefully we get to see some similar speculiventris workers here.

 

Also, it would be very cool to see a depilis colony - good luck with them.

[Mettcollsuss]

The Crematogaster cerasi, and the remaining Formica subsericea, Lasius brevicornis, and L. neoniger have been put into hibernation.

 

Aphaenogaster picea

Looks like they're preparing for hibernation, though I'm not completely certain. The larvae appear to all be stopping development, and they're ignoring feeder insects, but on the other hand, the queen still seems to be producing eggs.

 

Lasius speculiventris

Larvae appear to be stopping development, or at least are developing extremely slowly. The queen's gaster is also staying smaller, even with plenty of sugar water and feeder insects. They're still accepting sugar water, but seem to be ignoring feeders. Unless they start developing more soon, I'll toss them into hibernation.

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

I had thought they were preparing for hibernation, since eggs and smaller larvae disappeared from the brood pile and they started becoming averse to heat. But now new eggs have appeared, and they're back to clustering around the heating cable, so hopefully they won't have to hibernate.

 

Prenolepis imparis

Colonies are fattening up well. The majority of workers are repletes now. When I checked up on them a few days ago one of the queens in the three queen colony was dead, along with a few workers. They were all piled up by the entrance cotton. The next day, another queen was dead. There don't seem to have been any more deaths since. I'm not entirely sure why. Disease seems unlikely since it was so sudden and specific, and doesn't seem to have spread to the rest of the colony. It's possible that the P. imparis I have around me are a monogynous variant, but it seems strange that they waited this long to kill off the excess queens, especially since I haven't seen even the slightest hint of aggression before. If it is due to monogyny, it also wouldn't explain the few workers that died as well.

 

Tetramorium immigrans

Finally stopped neglecting this colony as much. I've been giving them more feeders, and put a heating cable on their nest. They've got a big pile of larvae right in the center of the nest, and pupae held against the walls. I can't see where they're keeping the eggs, but they're definitely there.

[Mettcollsuss]

Camponotus pennsylvanicus

The main colony is still in hibernation, but I just brought the two founding queens out. They both kept their larvae overwinter. Their gasters are looking a tiny bit smaller than I'd like and they're not accepting sugar water, but they should hopefully still have enough to raise some nanitics.

 

Formica fusca-group

I think I've narrowed it down to either F. glacialis or F. subaenescens. I've looked through AntWeb several times, and I can't find any other species around here that are 1. noticeably smaller than subsericea, 2. less pubescent than subsericea, and 3. solid black (besides F. hewitti, but the body shape doesn't match). I'll wait until I can put a specimen under the microscope though.

 

They came out of hibernation a few days ago. Doing well, all survived hibernation and the queen's gaster is starting to plump up. Not sure if it's just from sugar water, or if there's also already egg production, but either is good. I've started feeding them fruit flies daily to hopefully stimulate egg production.

 

Formica incerta

A couple eggs now. Very plump gaster on the queen. Starting to do daily fruit fly feedings.

 

Formica subsericea

The main colony is still in hibernation, but the five founding colonies have come out. A couple have eggs already.

 

 

Lasius brevicornis

Brought the Lasius brevicornis queens out of hibernation. One of the 6 queen tubes looks to have kept their larvae overwinter. The rest did not keep their brood. In addition to the variation in head shape I noted in an earlier update, I also noticed that the queens vary in overall size as well.

 

Lasius neoniger

Six of the seven queens survived hibernation. A few kept their larvae overwinter.

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

Brood production has kept a steady, low/medium pace throughout the winter, and has started to pick up recently. A week or two ago they dragged most of the chia seeds from the outworld into their nest, though I've still never seen them eating any. They don't touch any of the other seeds. They seem much more interested in insects than seeds. I gave them a water feeder in their outworld, which they've appreciated.

 

 

Tapinoma sessile

The main colony is still in hibernation. I decided to stop neglecting the smaller colony as much. They're down to one queen and a few workers. I moved them into just a test tube and began feeding them more often. Interestingly, the queen seems more interested in the insects than the workers. A few new eggs have appeared.

 

Tetramorium immigrans

I never really notice their growth until I look at old photos of the colony, but when I do it's definitely a large change. They could probably use a larger outworld but I don't know if I have the room on my desk for one. I may try to give them some more room by making their outworld further away and giving them a long piece of tubing to travel through. They've been eating mostly just dubias and sugar water, with the occasional experimental food tossed in. One of the experimental foods I tried recently was one of those frozen pinky mice that pet stores carry for snakes or other reptiles. I thawed it and placed it on a piece of tinfoil. It was a big success, and the mouse was reduced to a skeleton in less than 24 hours. The brood in the nest turned pink from the mouse meat, and they also stored the pieces of meat that weren't eaten in the nest to be eaten later, or until they go bad. Given their very positive reaction to the mouse, I'll likely incorporate them into their regular diet, though I'm not sure exactly how often yet.

 

[ANTdrew]

It’s awesome to see these long running journals and successful colonies. Keep up the good work!

[Mettcollsuss]

Brachymyrmex depilis

Queens are out of hibernation. Last I checked, most have eggs.

 

 

Camponotus pennsylvanicus

Main colony is doing well. I counted ~70 workers when I pulled them out of hibernation, I haven't counted since but I'd guess they're at 80+ now, as well as a healthy-sized brood pile. Shortly after I took them out of hibernation I moved them from their old THA fortress to a petri dish nest, which is now already filling up.

One of the founding queens died, but the other successfully raised nanitics after coming out of hibernation. After her first nanitic eclosed, I boosted her with a pupa from the main colony as an experiment. They were put off by it for a little bit, but accepted it and it eclosed successfully. Since the main colony has a lot of brood and it proved successful, I may try boosting them with a few more.

bonus photo: worker missing a mandible

 

Formica fusca-group

New workers are finally elcosing. I need to get them an outworld since its getting hard to feed them in the tube now. They seem to burn through sugar water very quickly; their gasters always seem emptier much sooner than any of my other colonies.

 

Formica subsericea

Main colony is doing well, has a lot of brood. In the past they've seemed uninterested in heat but now they're crowding around the heating cable. I moved them to a petri dish nest since they've worked well for other colonies and I'm a fan of them, though it seems like this colony may be better in a more traditional nest. The petri dish nest is fine in terms of functionality, but it's visibility isn't great. Normally petri dish nests have good visibility, but the subsericea have decided to use the lid as their bathroom area, which didn't happen when they had chambered nests with separate chambers to use as poop chambers.

 

Lasius speculiventris

Brood has been developing steadily. They finally got their first pupae around 10 days ago. The first pupae they got were cocooned so I didn't suspect anything, but some of the more recent pupae are exarate, and I noticed that the pile was made up of mostly male pupae. I'm staying hopeful, since there are still a few worker pupae, and according to Tbone, he's had L. aphidicola produce males for their first generation. I'm not sure if the males are from the host workers laying eggs, or if they're from the queen being weird. When some of the males eclose, I'll put them under the microscope to see if they're americanus or speculiventris. At the very least, they've still got a couple worker pupae, it just sucks that most of the energy for this batch of brood went towards males and they'll only be getting a few bio workers.

 

 

Tetramorium immigrans

Edited by Mettcollsuss, February 21 2022 - 5:32 AM.

[Kaelwizard]

No text needed for the Tetras lol.

[United-Ants]

That's a lot of ants beautiful formica and pogonomyrmex

[ANTdrew]

No text needed for the Tetras lol.

Haha! I’ll say! Great work as always, Mett.

[Mettcollsuss]

just a short, quicker update, I may add some photos later if I can

 

Brachymyrmex depilis

One queen has some larger brood, or at least what I assume is larger for B. depilis. The others either don't have brood or are hiding it.

 

Camponotus pennsylvanicus

Outgrowing their current petri dish nest. More and more workers are starting to hang out in the outworld and half of the nest is just a pile of brood and ants.

 

Formica subaenescens

The mystery fusca-group finally have an identity! One of the workers died in a good condition, so I was able to pin her and get an ID.

If anyone wants to see the specimen: https://www.inatural...tions/108557628

 

Despite their smaller size, they continue to be more energetic, braver, and more voracious than any of my founding subsericea colonies of a similar size. 

 

Formica subsericea

I’m not fully decided yet, but I’ve been thinking about selling my main subsericea colony to make room for more colonies and to let some of the ones I have grow more. I’ve kind of reached the plateau of the enjoyment that I can get from them, especially now that I finally have some species of Formica other than the default subsericea.

 

Lasius brevicornis

One of the five-queen colonies became the first of the L. brevicornis to get nanitics. They don't seem interested in protein yet, but they are very hungry for sugar water, especially the queens who drank a couple drops and didn't even have a noticeable change in gaster size.

 

Lasius neoniger

One of the neoniger queens got nanitics a couple days before the brevicornis. They accepted both sugars and proteins right off the bat.

 

Lasius speculiventris

The worker pupae have started eclosing, and it turns out that they're americanus workers. Which means when I collected the hosts, some eggs must have come along with them, even though I could have sworn I didn't see any. I've also been grabbing any males that dare wander into the outworld and putting them into an alcohol vial. The males are, as suspected, americanus males which means the host workers have been laying eggs. On the bright side though I did catch the queen laying an egg, so after a couple false alarms, at least actual bios are just a month or so away. Patience, I guess.

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

Moved them to a new nest and outworld, because the old ones were getting dirty, and the outworld was also getting pretty small and had a pretty strong booklice infestation. The new nest is the same size, but I gave them a larger outworld and a longer tube between the two. A few booklice made it to the new outworld, but I should be able to stop them from getting out of control by keeping the trash pile regulated and killing some off whenever I can. I’ve tried offering them some various types of seeds I’ve heard that they like, such as grass, nyjer, dandelion, but the only seeds they’re interested in are chia and canary seed, mostly chia. One corner of their nest is just a giant pile of chia seeds, with the occasional canary seed mixed in, and another corner is a smaller pile with an even mix of canary and chia seeds. But their diet of chia, canary seeds, and feeder insects is serving them well and their brood pile is looking healthy. They also have one particularly large larva, which just turned into a male pupa. They’ve accidentally produced a male pupa before, but ate it before it eclosed. If this one survives, it’ll make a good specimen.

[Mettcollsuss]

One of these days I'll have the time and energy to do a full update with photos...

I'm having to cut down on my ant collection a little so that I can focus more on school for the coming year, my general plan is to have fewer colonies but to grow out the ones that I'm keeping larger. The colonies mentioned in this update are likely the ones I'm gonna be keeping going forwards, others are likely/maybe going to get sold.

Aphaenogaster tennesseensis
Traded for an A. tennesseensis colony when I went anting in WI with a few others the other day. They're larger, both in physical size and colony size, and more interesting to observe than my A. picea, so I'll likely trade the picea out for these. So far they've ignored superworms, and after getting advice on their food preferences from their previous owner, I tried fruit flies. They were more interested in the fruit flies, and I can only assume they ate them since after I looked away for a minute the fruit flies completely disappeared.

Camponotus pennsylvanicus
Moved them to a 6 inch petri dish from their old 2.75 inch petri dish, and they're already mostly filling it. Their spring population boom has slowed down considerably, but they're definitely still growing. As of the last time I counted, a couple weeks ago, they had gone from ~70 workers coming out of hibernation to ~280. In addition to the new nest I also gave them a new, more naturalistic outworld with sand, soil and wood chips as substrate.

Formica obscuriventris
We found a massive F. obscuriventris colony while on the previously mentioned anting trip. The colony dominated the entire area, with nests all over. We found a particularly large nest in and around a large fallen log, and were able to collect three queens from it. I ended up getting two queens and some workers to accompany them. I traded out my large F. subsericea colony, but I now have an even better formica species. They're highly polygynous, polymorphic, polydomous, and much more aggressive than subsericea. This colony had no brood when we collected them, so they haven't started production for the year. It should be fun to see them go through their spring population boom in captivity.

Lasius speculiventris
I overwatered the nest a while ago, which, when I started heating them, created a ton of condensation and obscured my view into the nest. Now that its finally fading and I can see them well again, they've been producing brood like crazy, and the number of speculiventris workers is somewhere around equal to the number of host workers and is soon going to exceed it.

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis
No major changes since the last update, continuing to grow slowly and steadily.

Tapinoma sessile
I visited Michigan a couple weeks ago and while I was there, I was able to collect a T. sessile colony. They were sunning themselves under a very small, flat rock. I honestly didn't expect to find anything under it since it wasn't buried in the soil at all like most rocks I find ants under, it was just sitting on top of the leaf litter. I managed to collect 6 queens and a good number of workers (and destroyed my lungs while I was at it). I haven't tried to count how many workers I got, but it's enough that they already completely fill a test tube setup. When I collected them, they just had clusters of 1st instar hibernating larvae. In around 12 days they've already begun producing eggs and the larvae are already around mid-sized, some maybe larger.
I hope to grow this colony out to a decent size so that I can do some sort of trailing setup with long stretches of tubing for them to trail through. I also hope that they inbreed once they start producing alates. With luck, they'll inbreed this summer since I've heard that polygynous Tapinoma sessile inbreed in summer, the same time they would have flights, and that colonies can produce alates at only a few hundred workers.

Tetramorium bicarinatum
I got this colony around mid December. They had 11 queens and only a small handful of attending workers. This has been one of the fastest growing species I've ever kept. In three months they went from a handful of workers to producing alates. Shortly after the alates appeared, I began seeing signs that they may be inbreeding. Now, four months since I got them, they're filling a 4 inch petri dish nest and have definitely started inbreeding. I see many queens that have shed their wings on one side, but not the other. The alates and even queens also like to follow the workers into the outworld to explore and occasionally sip the sugar water themselves, but never do any actual work. I have a similar hope for them as I do the T. sessile, which is to have a large setup with many trailing opportunities. It's already partially there, since they're inbreeding, and I recently moved their outworld to the shelf above them so that they have to trail further and upwards to get to it.


If anyone wants to see the anting trip I mentioned:

Edited by Mettcollsuss, June 7 2022 - 4:57 AM.

[Mettcollsuss]

The long overdue photo update, with the photos I got of each colony since I last posted their pictures.

 

Aphaenogaster tennesseensis

The A. tennesseensis colony has been doing great. My only complaint is that they love to cover the lid of their nest with garbage so that it’s hard to see in. The workers from first generation in captivity are smaller than the wild ones, but they should hopefully be back at full size soon. They were slightly picky at first, but now they’ll eat dubia roaches, fruit flies, blue bottle flies (at any life stage), dead Camponotus workers, and crushed nuts (particularly almonds). Their egg pile is currently like twice the size of the queen.

 

when I first got the colony

 

the colony after they moved to their new nest

 

Camponotus chromaiodes

I went camping at Sand Ridge State Forest the weekend of May 28th. I was able to collect four recently flown C. chromaiodes queens from a rotting log. All four had either eggs or no brood. One of the four is a noticeably darker color morph than the other three. I’m thinking on a way to make an oligogynous setup for them.

 

 

Camponotus pennsylvanicus

Their spring brood boom has officially ended. At its lowest, they only had a few eggs and small larvae. Luckily, it looks like another batch is starting up.

 

 

Camponotus subbarbatus

I found three C. subbarbatus queens from the same log as the four C. chromaiodes queens. I haven’t had a successful Myrmentoma colony before, so I'm glad that I have another shot, especially since it’s the one of the prettiest Myrmentoma around here, and I’ll have three shots at it.

 

 

Formica obscuriventris

It’s been mostly smooth sailing since I got them. Their brood pile didn’t grow as large as I expected, but at least they’re getting some new workers. A week or so ago, I noticed that out of nowhere the outworld had gotten a massive grain mite infestation. A day or two later, I noticed some parasitic mites on the queens. After closer inspection, the parasitic mites seemed to be on at least half the colony, especially the larger workers. I moved them to a completely new setup to get them away from the mites. I plan to rotate their setup every week or two until the mites are gone, to prevent the mite eggs from being able to hatch and start a new generation. I also bought some Stratiolaelaps scimitus (Hypoaspis miles) mites, which are predatory on, among other things, other mites. The setup rotation plus the predatory mites should hopefully be enough to get rid of the parasitic mites.

 

 

the mites

 

Lasius speculiventris

I haven’t been able to get a new population estimate lately, but the colony is now biological workers by a vast majority. Their old nest was getting so crowded that they started storing pupae in the tube and in the outworld. I moved them to a larger 4” petri dish nest, which they’re already filling most of, though they definitely still have some room to grow in it.

 

 

Myrmica punctiventris + others

From the same log, I was able to collect a colony of some small-medium sized Myrmica species. The colony had only one queen, hidden in the very last chamber I searched. They were very easy to collect because every ant in the colony played dead instead of running away when I opened their nest. Myrmica were very common in the area, and I saw a lot of workers and even queens just wandering around. I experimented with collecting the individual queens I found and tossing them together with a random worker or two I found. They always got along, so I assumed the whole area was one large polygynous colony. In total, I collected a colony with a queen and a few dozen workers, and three individual queens, each accompanied by a couple random workers I threw in with them. When I got home, I put the colony in a tubs & tubes setup, and after giving them a little while to settle in, I introduced one of the queens + couple workers. Against my expectations, there was some aggression. The introduced workers and queen weren’t being immediately killed, but they were being grabbed and dragged around. In response, they would usually play dead. Since it wasn’t a full-out killing-level aggression, I left them together overnight to see if it would change. The next morning they were behaving the same way so I separated them. Despite only introducing a queen and a couple workers, I saw way more workers being attacked than I added, which I’m still not sure about. The workers that were being attacked continued to be dragged around for a few days until they died, then they continued to drag the bodies. I put the three other queens plus some workers in a tube together, and they didn’t attack each other. But once they were sitting next to each other, I noticed that there were three distinct sizes of queen, and two sizes of worker. The majority of workers were smaller, but I saw a couple larger workers in the 3q tube. The largest queen is larger than any of the workers, and slightly redder than the other queens. The smallest queen is the same size as the smaller workers. The medium-sized queen is larger than the small workers, and around the size of the large workers. The queen of the main colony looks like a medium-sized queen. The small and average queen got along and huddled together by one end of the tube, along with the brood and a couple workers. The largest queen wasn’t attacked but was always sitting apart from the others. So I moved the large queen plus the couple large workers to a separate tube. In the end of this mess, I have a 1q colony with a few dozen workers and a lot of larvae, a 2q tube with the small and average queen (maybe the small queen is just a microgyne of the same species?), and a 1q tube with the large queen. Once they get new generations of workers that are less mixed-up I’ll try keying them.

Writing this part a little later. I’ve determined that the main colony is M. punctiventris, but I’m still working on an ID for the others.

 

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

They’ve gone back to storing their seed pile in the outworld. I woke up today to see a newly eclosed female alate in the nest. I’ve noticed this colony is prone to accidentally creating alates. They’ve produced a couple male alates in the past, but they’ve always eaten them before they eclosed. I’m guessing they just accidentally let a larva get a bit too big. Especially because when compared to the colony’s queen, it’s definitely not full sized.

 

 

Tapinoma sessile

Alates and new workers have been eclosing, and the brood pile is looking pretty good. I was expecting a species that’s as opportunistic as T. sessile to provide a bit more difficulty, but it’s been completely smooth sailing. No escape attempts, no nesting in annoying spaces, etc.

 

 

sessile larvae are a weird shape

 

Temnothorax curvispinosus

I bought a colony of T. curvispinosus recently. They were originally in a plaster setup, which I placed on its side in an outworld. I made them a new nest that was very flat and made from woodfill filament, to mimic their natural nesting habits. The nest doesn’t have any hydration in it, but they should be able to get all the water they need from a water feeder in the outworld. I placed the new nest in the outworld to let them get used to it, expecting to have to move them forcefully later, but the next morning they were fully moved into the new nest. They have only 73 workers, but they’re at a mature size and producing males.

 

 

Tetramorium bicarinatum

Continuing to grow. They’re filling a 4in diameter petri dish nest plus their old almost 3x3in nest. I also have concrete proof that they’re inbreeding now. The past few days, I’ve seen 2-3 pairs mating in the outworld. I separated a couple of the mating queens plus some workers to make a new colony. 12 hours later, both queens were still coupled, and 24 hours later one was still coupled.

 

the colony when I first got them

 

the colony's first alate brood

 

 

some photos I got of a dead queen and a gynandromorph from the colony

 

Bonus photos:

Lasius brevicornis (top) and Lasius neoniger (bottom) drinking sugar water

Edited by Mettcollsuss, June 18 2022 - 8:14 AM.