109 replies to this topic

[AntaholicAnonymous]

This is gonna be the Journal of my Manica Rubida colony.

Don't mind my English and grammar I'm not a native speaker and stupid so don't expect too much. lol

However I managed to get my hands on a manica rubida queen currently residing in a test tube and doing her best at founding her empire.
I will keep a detailed journal and I will upload on YouTube under the same user name as here.

So if you wanna read along and find out how this story will continie you found the right spot.

Edited by AntaholicAnonymous, May 21 2020 - 11:41 AM.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

So this is the very first update.
So far i got my Manica rubida queen who I named bloody Mary due to her colour.

This type of ants is my dream colony since I saw them as a kid on the playground. After years (I'm 20 now) I found out what kind of ants these were and got my hands on a queen.
This queen has so far 5 larvae and she's feeding them a lil cricket as I write this. Now I should mention that this species is semi claustral so she needs food in her founding stage. She's very capable of killing stuff herself but I don't wanna take no chances so I pre kill the food for now. So here I was 30 minutes ago tube in one hand and dead cricket on the table.
I removed the cotton and this beast came charging with open fangs but luckily she stopped at the cricket on the table in front of me and after a quick sting she dragged it in the tube.
That was my first time feeding her and also my first near death experience.

That's about what happened so far but I will keep you posted.

[RushmoreAnts]

Nice! Keep us posted.

 

 

Don't mind my English and grammar I'm not a native speaker and stupid so don't expect too much. lol
 

You could never tell.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Another quick update.
I saw the queen at the cricket and she started twitching pretty hard for a bit. She stopped after a while but now as I checked up on her she's still kinda twitching like 2 or 3 times every couple seconds. I don't know if that is defensive behavior against me or if she might have stung herself cause it almost looked like it.
I tried to make myself as less noticeable to her as possible but it did not lessen.
Something bothered her at that cricket and she's still affected but is caring for the brood in between pacing back and forth in the tube and maybe shaking off whatever has happened there.

Maybe one of you knows what's happening otherwise I'll just wait for tomorrow if she's good or upside down.

[Antennal_Scrobe]

Isn't Manica the one that eats other ants? I remember reading a thing about them saying that we don't know how they get their protein, but that myrmecologists suspect they attack and eat other ants underground.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Isn't Manica the one that eats other ants? I remember reading a thing about them saying that we don't know how they get their protein, but that myrmecologists suspect they attack and eat other ants underground.

No manica are large red ants with a wasp like sting they only kill other ants in their terretory and they are quite strong against other ants. They live mostly in middle Europe and live along creeks or very moist environments. They do love lasius nuptial flight tho cause they carry queens back in masses to fuel their own nuptial flight from what I observed.
They are very active above ground as well.
They just look like a 9mm long fire ant that's why I love them so much

[DDD101DDD]

Another quick update.
I saw the queen at the cricket and she started twitching pretty hard for a bit. She stopped after a while but now as I checked up on her she's still kinda twitching like 2 or 3 times every couple seconds. I don't know if that is defensive behavior against me or if she might have stung herself cause it almost looked like it.
I tried to make myself as less noticeable to her as possible but it did not lessen.
Something bothered her at that cricket and she's still affected but is caring for the brood in between pacing back and forth in the tube and maybe shaking off whatever has happened there.

Maybe one of you knows what's happening otherwise I'll just wait for tomorrow if she's good or upside down.

How was the cricket prepared? Idk if that could be part of the cause, but who knows?

[Kaelwizard]

Isn't Manica the one that eats other ants? I remember reading a thing about them saying that we don't know how they get their protein, but that myrmecologists suspect they attack and eat other ants underground.

No manica are large red ants with a wasp like sting they only kill other ants in their terretory and they are quite strong against other ants. They live mostly in middle Europe and live along creeks or very moist environments. They do love lasius nuptial flight tho cause they carry queens back in masses to fuel their own nuptial flight from what I observed.
They are very active above ground as well.
They just look like a 9mm long fire ant that's why I love them so much

AntWiki says they eat other ants last time I checked. Also, these live in the U.S too, for anyone who wants them.

[NickAnter]

I have seen them in the wild here in California. They are like skinny Pogonomyrmex. Sadly, I missed their flights, as they still had alates in the nest. They had huge colonies, and had made miniature valley from where they had been walking so much in the wet sand.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

As soon as I got up today I went to check if the queen is still alive and it seems like she's completely fine.
Whatever made her twitch yesterday is gone now.

Her 5 larvae are growing at a good pace also and I'll keep feeding her as much protein as she will take so maybe she will lay a cluster of new eggs before her nanitics arrive.

And to reply to what yall are talking about.
I can only say what I observed.
there's a colony of them that I visit on the regular for months now.
They have a ongoing war for territory with myrmica rubra with set frontlines for weeks now but not in big numbers. They go hunting for queens on nuptial flights and carry them back in massive numbers but I have not observed them raiding nests so far. They eat crickets, super worms and pretty much everything they can kill. Of course they will carry back fallen enemies but from what I saw its more of a byproduct from war then their main source of protein.
I read a lot of stuff on them and it's hard to really find common ground among research about them I can only tell you what this one colony showed me of their way of life.
They never stop construction tho you'll always see them building something they are restless ants and I love that.

[Kaelwizard]

As soon as I got up today I went to check if the queen is still alive and it seems like she's completely fine.
Whatever made her twitch yesterday is gone now.

Her 5 larvae are growing at a good pace also and I'll keep feeding her as much protein as she will take so maybe she will lay a cluster of new eggs before her nanitics arrive.

And to reply to what yall are talking about.
I can only say what I observed.
there's a colony of them that I visit on the regular for months now.
They have a ongoing war for territory with myrmica rubra with set frontlines for weeks now but not in big numbers. They go hunting for queens on nuptial flights and carry them back in massive numbers but I have not observed them raiding nests so far. They eat crickets, super worms and pretty much everything they can kill. Of course they will carry back fallen enemies but from what I saw its more of a byproduct from war then their main source of protein.
I read a lot of stuff on them and it's hard to really find common ground among research about them I can only tell you what this one colony showed me of their way of life.
They never stop construction tho you'll always see them building something they are restless ants and I love that.

Wow! That is very interesting!

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Thanks and by the way my plan worked.
She already hollowed out 2 little crickets and after I gave her a new one (the 3rd) she layed 3 more eggs about 30 minutes later.

She's gonna be housed in a massive natural tank I already made I gonna post pictures soon.

I have some test workers from another nest in to see if humidity fits their needs cause they are very sensitive to that.

Fortunately they love it and they like to build up against the glass so even tho it's soil I can see what's going on under ground as well and due to my mix of soil it doesn't stain the glass so I have clear view.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

The queen is handling business and the brood is developing.

I wanna tell a little story from a couple months ago.
So i had a massive lasius colony for about three years and I thought it was about time they face some challenges just to see how they would defend their ant tank.
Now I know that many won't agree on what I did and I felt bad believe me but it was a particularly boring day and sometimes you just do things.

So I've been watching this giant manica colony for weeks at this point and I was wondering how the lasius could fend off like 5 of em.
So i went on and gave the manica colony 5 Super worms and Apple slices in trade of 5 of their best Frontline soldiers (aka. regular workers).

So i placed the shotglass I had them in in the tank and they got out and started killing lasius workers instantly.
It wasn't long before hundreds of troops were deployed but the manica managed to avoid the main backup as this was quite a large tank.

They are now on an open field with lasius trying to grab their legs but they are too strong to really pin down with less than 7 to 10 workers.
So they went on to kill about a total of 13 or 15 workers til I removed them from the enclosure.

2 dead manica and around 15 lasius.
I released the rest back to their mix the next day and the lasius decided to put their bodies up at roots that looked like dead trees lol.

That just showed me how efficient manica were in killing one ant after another by just grab, sting and dump.
Cause yall were talking about them hunting ants and I think as other food sources are scarce at times I could definetly see them digging out brood chambers of other ants.

You should see how quick they dig out tunnels they are sprinting around with big chunks of soil.

Tho that experiment was cruel it was one of the factors why I now have a manica queen and she definetly carries that temperament.
So i think her name bloody Mary definetly fits her.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

So I'm giving her a small cricket every day for now so she can produce on the maximum pace and I'm a little impatient so I bought a heating mat for her and I hope I won't cook her with it but it's getting colder were I live.
She seems to need more humidity cause she's pulling out cotton and moves the larvae as deep into it as possible so I hope the added evaporation will help out with that as well.
If nothing happens in between I'll post the next update when we see some pupae

[DDD101DDD]

If it's getting colder, hibernation could be close. Heating your ants won't stop this, and not hibernating your ants properly could kill them I think.

[DDD101DDD]

Well, it depends on where you live for hibernation.

[ForestDragon]

To me they look like skinny myrmica/aphaenogaster

[AntaholicAnonymous]

They look like myrmica but they are way bigger. They are vary in size a little but they are up to a centimeter.

Hibernation is coming soon (I'm in austria) I just heat her so the nanitics can arrive to assist her after hibernation.

This will be their first and last fridge hibernation cause Ill have them in a massive (4,11-1,7 in feet) (1,5-0,5 in meters) natural ant tank so that's not gonna fit lol.

I like it fairly cold in my place tho so it should be fine my lasius did good and I had them for 3 years.

I'm not a fan of acrylic or ytong they love digging so I got them pounds upon pounds of substrate to do so.

You'll see in future videos

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Gotta hit you with a real quick update.

I decided to move her into a new test tube it's multiple times the size and more moist and not moldy.

So I was expecting well maybe she'll move in by tomorrow.

Nah didn't even take a minute.
She saw and instantly sprinted the larvae over no secound guessing like most queens.
She has 2 modes rest and full on charge ballistic mode and I saw these ants behaving like this.
When they have a mission they don't casually carry out the task they rush everything head on.

Very entertaining to watch them they are always up to something.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I just checked up on her like every day and it seems like we have the first pupae.
Not the cocoons but the open air fetus ones.
I'm excited cause I've never seen those develop and it looks cool.

The three eggs she layed a couple days ago disappeared somehow maybe she wasn't satisfied with the supplies given BUT I gave her a new cricket 30 mins ago and she layed 10 eggs so looks like we are getting 5 nanitics within a week or two and 10 new are on their way.

Ant keeping to me is a bit like resource management games like age of empires just way slower and in real life. lol

So satisfying every time I look in the tube and see some progress.