39 replies to this topic

[yen_saw]

This is one group of Atta texana (5-queens) I will be keeping track here. I do not plan to disturb the group often so I probably only update once a week during this early founding stage. So it has been a week since the queens were collected. Today I found that one queen couldn't make it and as you can see bad fungi appear on the body rather quick. The dead queen was discarded by the other surviving queens (now down to 4) at the far side of the container away for obvious reason. All the queens appear to gather near the small droplet of fungus pellets seen attached to eggs laid by the queens. Hopefully the fungus will grow in the following week.

 

 

 

 

Edited by yen_saw, May 11 2019 - 11:26 AM.

[VenomousBeast]

Looks good so far!

[Acutus]

Ok so I'm kinda just learning this fungus ant stuff. did your Queens start the fungus or did you have to supply some to them?

 

What is the substrate in your container? and there are two Test tube ports? I assume one for water. the other?

[Leo]

Substrate looks like plaster or hydrostone. The queens have a small piece of fungus with them when they begin their nuptial flights. The 2nd of the 2 ports appears to be blocked with cotton.

[yen_saw]

A week comes and goes. This group is down to 3 queens but the fungus grew quite a bit. Fingers crossed at least a colony can be established from this particular group.

 

[VenomousBeast]

Wow!! the fungus grew very quickly!! 

[yen_saw]

Here goes another week. The trio still working on building up the fungus. There is also a single queen set up with impressive fungus development. Hopefully I can see any larvae development next week but currently they are being kept in dark and cool (75-77F) area.

 

 

 

 

[ANTdrew]

Truly amazing!

[Acutus]

Those containers you are using. Are they something you made or where did you get them? It looks like the test tube entrance is like a gasket?

[yen_saw]

So here comes larvae! almost a month have passed since the queens are collected.

 

 

[FSTP]

this is great, the fungus looks like a tasty pile of popcorn.

[Dethundrel]

Those are some cool looking ants and seems like they are off to a good start. I wish you the best of luck and look forward to updates!

[Wedge]

These look amazing and it seems like they are doing well so far. Good job! I was wondering if you have been feeding them yet or if they are able to grow the fungus up to this point on their own some how. If you are giving them anything, what have you tried so far?

[yen_saw]

These look amazing and it seems like they are doing well so far. Good job! I was wondering if you have been feeding them yet or if they are able to grow the fungus up to this point on their own some how. If you are giving them anything, what have you tried so far?

No I do not feed the queens anything at all so the fungus must have been growing from the feces or eggs produced by the queens. I do not plan to provide any food plant until workers with visible mandible are present. I have seen first few pupa today and all three queens are still happily tending to the fungus. I just had a quick look and decided not to disturb them so no picture update this week.  

[Wedge]

Ok awesome. Thanks for letting me know.  I have some Trachymyrmex queens that I just recently found and have been watching this thread and reading others to get an idea of how I want to get them going.  So far they are in containers similar to what you have but a bit smaller. They haven't regurgitated their fungal pellets yet and I wasn't sure if I needed to start feeding them to encourage them to do that.

[yen_saw]

Finally worker emerged! Fungus garden developing well and load of pupa too.

 

 

[Herdo]

Very nice yen_saw! I had no idea this species was polygynous.

[NickAnter]

Very nice job, hopefully these will be successful.

[ponerinecat]

Very nice yen_saw! I had no idea this species was polygynous.

Queens might get killed off later, though.

[yen_saw]

 

Very nice yen_saw! I had no idea this species was polygynous.

Queens might get killed off later, though.

 

Once the colony has enough workers that are able to cut leaves and build fungus, I will separate the queen individually and divide the amount of fungus and workers evenly for each queen. There is always risk of losing the queen with growing colony.