17 replies to this topic

[kellakk]

2-25-15

 

I dug up a single queen after I witnessed a flight in Chino Hills.  The queen was likely from a flight either February 23 or February 24, as it rained on February 23.  I set her up in an agar-base test tube.

 

Edited by kellakk, June 10 2015 - 9:55 PM.

[kellakk]

3-6-15

 

I dug up some more D. insanus queens in Chino Hills State Park at the same time as I caught the D. bicolor wandering around.  In total I ended up with 9 more queens, but I left plenty more since I wasn't all that keen on getting a colony of this species.  They were all set up individually in agar-base test tubes.

 

Edited by kellakk, March 16 2015 - 10:46 PM.

[kellakk]

3-17-15

 

2 of the queens died.  The rest settled in and laid eggs, and the February queen now has a single larva.

[kellakk]

3-21-15

 

More larvae hatched, and this time I took pictures.

 

[Foogoo]

How is the agar holding up? I made some and left them out as a test (without ants) and they all seem to mold within a few days.

[kellakk]

Some of them get infected by a bacterium or a fungus, but most of them are still fine.  The microbes don't seem to bother the ants.

[kellakk]

4-6-15

 

The first queen I caught now has 4 pupae, a few larvae of various sizes, and some eggs.  The other queens have eggs also, but I didn't want to disturb them to check for larvae.

 

[kellakk]

4-22-15

 

Some of these colonies have nanitics now.

[Chromerust]

One thing I noticed about this ant is the brood developed pretty slow unless you keep them really hot. At room temperatures it can take two months to get the first workers.

[Foogoo]

How hot are we talking? I've been afraid to use the heat lamp ever since I think I roasted my Camponotus.

[kellakk]

I'm guessing in the 80s to low 90s would be safe.

[Chromerust]

Yeah at least 88-90

[Foogoo]

How have your agar setups been doing? And holy cow, this species develops slow. My sole surviving queen from March or April is still waiting for her first nanitic to eclose.

[kellakk]

The agar setups work ok, but once they start to dry out it's hard to remove them without removing the ants too.  So far they've been lasting just long enough for the nanitics to eclose. The workers dig up the agar until there's not much left.

 

Really, your D. insanus haven't had nanitics yet? I still have mine from February that now has about 5 workers, but 2 of the queens from March also have 1 or 2 workers with them now.  I really should update all my journals...

Edited by kellakk, May 28 2015 - 2:29 PM.

[Foogoo]

Well I also removed the heat so they're chilling at about 77 degrees in the house. The heat lamp was too risky as a slight misposition will bake them, which is what I think happened to my Camponotus and possibly P. rugosus.

[kellakk]

6-10-15

 

I ended up with 3 healthy colonies.  One is still in agar (it's shrunken to almost nothing now), another I moved to a standard test tube+cotton setup, and another got sold.  The colony in agar has 8 workers, 10 larvae, and about 5 pupae.

[dspdrew]

Ever since my really big colony of these died, I haven't been able to get any new colonies to grow much.

[kellakk]

I'm hoping mine reach that huge worker population that yours did.  So far I haven't had any problems with them.