43 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

6-30-2013
 
I found this Formica moki queen on June 22nd 2013, in Mount Baldy, California. I was taking a look at some other small ants, when she just came running past. I had been trying to find a queen of this species for the past two weeks, but had no luck until that day, when I wasn't even trying.
 

 

 

 
 
About two days later, she laid three eggs, and at the time of this post, has a pile of what looks like about 12 eggs now.
 

 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 7-12-2013
 
Some of the queen's eggs seem to have disapeared, but she does now have 4 cocoons, 1 larva, and 1 naked pupae. Her brood has been developing very fast.
 

 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 7-21-2013
 
This queen just got her first three nanitics. It looks like she has about seven or eight new eggs too.


 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 8-4-2013

 

All is well.  Here's some video of the queen and the seven workers she has now.

 

[dspdrew]

Update 1-3-2014

 

After about four months with no brood, the queen finally laid two new eggs. Right now they have nine workers. I just moved their test tube into a little foraging container.

[dspdrew]

Update 1-14-2014

 

Apparently these ants are much more comfortable in the container I put them in, because now they have a big pile of new eggs. I guess there were actually three, not two eggs laid just before I moved them, because those are now three large larvae.

[dspdrew]

Update 1-22-2014

 

Things are moving quite fast for this colony now. They have three naked pupae, six larvae, and another fresh pile of eggs. It's amazing how much this queen is producing all of a sudden. For some reason they like to gather with have half the brood and the queen sometimes in one of the corners of the foraging container, while the rest are in one or both of the test tubes.

[dspdrew]

Update 2-15-2014

 

The colony is up to 18 workers now. There isn't any more larvae or pupae, but it looks like they do have a brand new pile of eggs.

[dspdrew]

Update 5-10-2014
 
This colony is doing great, they now have 40 workers and a good amount of brood.
 

 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 6-2-2014
 
The colony is still doing well and growing. They are now up to about 55 workers. They're still living in the same test tube and container, although sometimes the entire colony will come running out of the test tube when they get disturbed, carrying all the brood with them.
 
Here's a video and some pictures of them hunting fruit flies. I just cleaned their container out, so they're all outside of the tube and sitting in the corner at the moment.
 

 

 

 

 

[LAnt]

Definitely going to use fruit flies.
Was that a sting in the video?
 

Edited by LAnt, June 2 2014 - 1:42 PM.

[dspdrew]

These don't sting, but at one point it looked like it sprayed a little acid on the fly.

[Chromerust]

Cool video Drew. Yeah you guys who don't have fruit flies I highly recommend to for any ant species.


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[Gregory2455]

What has happened since then?

 

 

 

These don't sting, but at one point it looked like it sprayed a little acid on the fly.

Yes, Formica do not sting, but yes they spray acid. When I was in Idaho I picked one up, and its tactic was to first create an open wound, then spray acid onto it. Hurt just as much as a sting.

[Gregory2455]

You only have one colony?

[dspdrew]

Yes, just one, so I've been pretty lucky with it.

[Gregory2455]

Usually mountain species are easy to keep. 

[dspdrew]

What do you mean by mountain species?

[Gregory2455]

Formica, Lasius, some Camponotus, the ones found up in the mountains here in Southern California.

[dspdrew]

Oh, well there's a pretty big difference between the mountains above and the mountains below five or six thousand feet.