154 replies to this topic

[NickAnter]

I think it is the other way around. I think that they enter only very small colonies, ones with only shy, small nanitic workers. Myself, and M_Ants have both gotten eggs with small numbers of workers, and I think, unlike Lasius, less may be more, so long as they are fed often.

[NickAnter]

Well the S. plebeius colony is exploding...

 

They are amazingly still polygynous, and have hundreds of brood, and probably 150 or more workers now. Also, incredibly, they barely make a dent in filling the nest. I am hopeful that it will be a forever home for them, or at least last a year.

 

The validiuscula queen keeps eating her brood, the idiot.

 

The Solenopsis truncorum colony is doing fantastic too! They have about 10 quite large larvae, and I am hoping, really hoping, for major workers to magically appear...

I am currently in a bit of a dilemma in regards to moving them to the same type of formicarium that the plebeius are in though. They are so incredibly small, about half the size of the plebeius workers, and as they only have like 12-13 workers, I'm not sure if they would even forage outside the nest, so if I do move them, I will probably just put some food in the vinyl tube that attaches to the formicarium, and once they get over like 25-30 workers, which they should once all their brood ecloses, Ill attach a formicarium.

[NickAnter]

A while ago, I put some pieces of sunflower seed into the plebeius outworld. It was ignored for a while. However, a couple weeks ago, they have started to demolish any sunflower seed that I put in the outworld, turning them to dust. I have watched them feeding their larvae with it as well, and I'm pretty happy about this, because if they can survive off of mostly this it will make feeding them a breeze even when their colony gets massive.

Here are some pictures of this, without a macro lens:

Seeing this success, today, I tried giving my truncorum colony a piece of sunflower seed too. They seemed to like it as well, and took some tiny pieces to feed to their larvae! I am wondering if this seed eating behavior of the genus around here is what allows them to get their carbs, as I'm sure many seeds of many plants end up buried in the ground, ripe for the picking.

Here is a video of the colony, it turns out I can get far better quality with a dark background: 

 

I was finally able to get their perfect golden color on video, which I'm pretty happy about.

 

The validiuscula queen laid a pile of eggs, maybe she will magically be fertile. Last I checked she was panicking, running around with the pile of eggs attached to her gaster.

[ANTdrew]

Lovely color!

[NickAnter]

Validiuscula: Dead a while ago.

 

Solenopsis truncorum: In new formicarium, same as plebeius. About 30 workers w/ brood. They grow quite slowly.

 

Solenopsis plebeius: Oh boy. They are well over 300 workers, maybe around 400 now. They have a massive pile of larva that never shrinks, the queens just keep pumping out eggs. I have not changed their diet either, and its very fun to watch their larvae munching on tiny pieces of sunflower seeds. They motor through sunflower seeds quite quickly, and they never cease to grow. Anticipating them outgrowing their formicarium, as they will when their current larva pile ecloses, I have poured an ultracal formicarium in a petri dish that has NO GAPS so they cannot possibly escape unless they chew through the cotton or vinyl tubing. It is over twice as large as their current formicarium, and I hope it will last them their entire life, which I do think it will.

 

Solenopsis xyloni: Languishing. I actually did feed them yesterday believe it or not.

[ANTS_KL]

Validiuscula: Dead a while ago.

 

Solenopsis truncorum: In new formicarium, same as plebeius. About 30 workers w/ brood. They grow quite slowly.

 

Solenopsis plebeius: Oh boy. They are well over 300 workers, maybe around 400 now. They have a massive pile of larva that never shrinks, the queens just keep pumping out eggs. I have not changed their diet either, and its very fun to watch their larvae munching on tiny pieces of sunflower seeds. They motor through sunflower seeds quite quickly, and they never cease to grow. Anticipating them outgrowing their formicarium, as they will when their current larva pile ecloses, I have poured an ultracal formicarium in a petri dish that has NO GAPS so they cannot possibly escape unless they chew through the cotton or vinyl tubing. It is over twice as large as their current formicarium, and I hope it will last them their entire life, which I do think it will.

 

Solenopsis xyloni: Languishing. I actually did feed them yesterday believe it or not.

You mentioned that the plebeius queens lived in different nest areas? I believe its a case of oligogyny. The queens to this to avoid confrontation.

[NickAnter]

They seem to be together now. Must have been coincidence. Still no aggression thankfully.

[NickAnter]

Solenopsis truncorum: About 40 workers with a decent amount of larvae. Doing well.

 

Solenopsis plebeius: Nearing the 500 worker mark. They have stopped eating for a bit, so IDK what that's all about. Once all these larvae pupate, then eclose into worker's their current formicarium will be completely filled. I will then move them into the new formicarium, which should hopefully last them until a couple thousand workers.

[NickAnter]

Solenopsis truncorum video:

I have been feeding them a baby mealworm every 2-3 days or so. It's amazing how much they eat. I was in the process of filming a much better video of the mealworm fighting back, and them rushing at it, but then my phone crashed, and the video never saved. Needless to say, I was rather upset.

[eea]

can't imagine how small that meal worm is

[NickAnter]

I got a video of them killing a mealworm!

 

They are truly a pretty fun colony, even though I have to observe them through the eyepiece of a microscope.

 

[NickAnter]

OK, well, very long time and no update.

 

The truncorum died.

 

I now have 5 truncorum queens in a group with eggs. They all have wings, but none of them are at the front of the teube as most infertile ones do. Hopefully they are fertile.

 

Onto the plebeius.

 

My goodness, this colony has tested me. They have been growing and growing like crazy, eventually reaching about a thousand workers. (I did move them into the new formicarium).

A couple weeks ago, they had a bit of an escape. The tube connecting their nest to their outworld was accidentally unlplugged just barely, so they streamed out of the gap for a while. No issue, only about 100 workers escaped, and I got them all back in w/ my aspirator. That was nothing compared to what happened a week ago.

 

I woke up to hundreds of plebeius workers all over my ant desk, and with no easy to see trails, just everywhere. They had managed to chew a small hole in the acrylic next to the vinyl tubing. How they got thru the acrylic before the vinyl tubing, I frankly have no idea. Anyway, I aspirated most of them up, and dumped them back into their nest. I added a fluon layer to their outworld (which has held up since, thankfully) to make this easier, since there were still hundreds of workers in the outworld. I placed some rather nasty modelling clay which I thought they would not want to chew thru over the hole they created, and vowed to get my hot glue gun, and seal the hole later that day. I forgot to do this, and the next day, stumbled out of bed and went fishing with my parents for a few hours, it being July 4th and all, and came back to my ant desk once again covered in hundreds upon hundreds of workers. This time however, cleanup was a bit easier, as they had made trails, and mostly went for sugar water, and underneath the formicarium my Camponotus maritimus are in. I got most of them up, and sealed the hole with hot glue. As of yet, they have not chewed through the hot glue. I'm hoping beyond hope they never do.

 

They are at around 800 workers now with an uncountable amount of brood. They will be back over 1k in a week based on their pupa pile.

 

And right before I posted this, I checked on them, and bumped a cotton plug. 50+ workers escaped.

[ANTdrew]

You should use silicone. I bet they will eventually chew through the hot glue.

[FloridaAnts]

I have been. I put them all in a large tube.

With all plemeotrophic ants, I have never succeeded to get workers. What happens with me, is one dies and I assume the other dies from the bacteria or death comtamination

[NickAnter]

Well, when I was camping they escaped again. They were limited in their escaping abilities however, because they were going through the tiny gap in the lid of their outworld that I had forgotten to tape over for camping, since they hadn't been going near it due to the fluon. Naturally, while I was gone they were able to scale the fluon. A little over 150 workers were roaming on my desk, and I got most of them returned, and I re-applied the fluon barrier, and I will continue to do so regularly now to prevent any issues. I gave them 6 sunflower seeds to keep them busy for a while too.

 

And 2 new additions to the journal!

I caught 2 Solenopsis validiuscula queens while camping, and one has a rather morbid piece of jewlery; a dead Solenopsis worker hanging onto her leg. I might try to remove it tomorrow, I'm not sure though, as I would hate to injure the queen. Both were found as dealates underneath objects, one, a traffic cone, and the other, a rock. They are very fat right now, so I'm hoping for eggs soon. It will be nice to have (hopefully they don't take after my Temnothorax) hibernating thief ants for a change so I can get a break from them.

 

Also, the truncorum are infertile.