21 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

5-19-2013
 
I found this Dorymyrmex insanus queen in Southern California, March 10th 2013, walking along the side of a dirt road.
Original ID thread: http://antfarm.yuku....02#.UZx0_fWL6IA





Four days later she laid about six eggs.

Around May 5th her first two little workers eclosed.

She now has six workers, and a pretty good sized pile of brood.

[dspdrew]

Update 6-4-2013

 

She's up to 15 workers now. I think I better get a formicarium ready for them soon.

[dspdrew]

Update 7-12-2013
 
The colony still has about 15 workers, but also has what looks like about 45 larvae and a few pupae, so I really need to get something setup for them within the next couple weeks.

[dspdrew]

Update 11-20-2013
 
This colony hasn't grown all that fast, but it is up to around 80 workers now and still has a good amount of brood too. They're still in their test tube, but I have put the test tube inside a container to make feeding them a bit easier.
 

 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 2-17-2014
 
This colony has exploded in growth in the last month or two, it is now up to about 500 workers, and has an enormous amount of brood.


 

 

 

 

 

[Crystals]

Wow.  That is a growth explosion.

They look nice and active.

[dspdrew]

I just pieced together some photos of my colony just to show its size and brood.
 

[Matt]

Amazing!

[Crystals]

Wow.  Hard to believe one queen is responsible for all of that.

 

I think you are going to need another test tube shortly. 

[antsinmypants]

What is the red substance in that feeder?

[dspdrew]

Hummingbird nectar.

[dspdrew]

Update 7-15-2014
 
This colony has been slowly declining in population for months now. It looks like it's mainly just an excessive amount of deaths. I have no idea why this would be happening, and I even moved them all into a freshly cleaned container, but they continue to die. Right now the colony is down to about 150 workers. For the longest time I had two test tubes in there because they refused to move out of the old one, and instead just moved into both. Finally the other day I dumped the dry one with the queen and a small amount of brood out into the out world container, and shortly after the workers had all the brood moved into the newer test tube with the rest of their brood. For some reason the queen hasn't gone in the test tube, and instead seems to keep hanging around the same exact spot in the out world. It looks like workers are continually harassing her or trying to get her to go into the tube, I can't really tell which it is, I just know something doesn't seem right.
 
About a week and a half ago, I dug up another Dorymyrmex insanus queen from out in the Mojave Desert next to Phelan, California, where I saw a huge P. rugosus mating flight. This queen is way bigger than any other D. insanus queen I have ever seen, but I'm pretty sure that it is D. insanus. Being that D. insanus is actually more than one species, I guess this makes sense, as this could be different than the ones I found in the lower elevation mountains closer to where I live. Most of these queens, from what I have seen are around 6 mm in length, while this one is about 8.5 mm. So far she has a small pile of eggs, so we'll see what happens with her.
 
Here are some pictures showing the size difference.
 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 7-29-2014
 
The large colony is still continuing to die off. Today I finally forced the queen inside the test tube, and I took it out of the foraging container and just put a cotton plug back into it.

 

As for the new large queen, she only lays a few eggs and then seems to eat them, so I boosted her with some of the left over brood from the other colony.

[dspdrew]

Update 8-14-2014
 
The old colony seems to be doing okay for what is left of it. I think the queen might even be laying more eggs again.

 

The new large queen seemed to have laid more eggs after being boosted, but then died a few days ago. I took most of the boost brood out of her test tube and put it back in with its original colony.

[dspdrew]

Update 10-15-2014
 
The old colony is still shrinking and is now at around 15 workers and brood count of about 50. She must still be laying eggs, but at a very slow rate.

 

About a month and a half ago, I found three more D. insanus queens, which have now just gotten their first workers.

[Tpro4]

Good job, and good luck with them

[dspdrew]

Update 11-9-2014
 
The old colony's queen finally died. I gave all the left over brood to one of the new colonies. I have about five new colonies left, all with a little under 10 workers.

[dspdrew]

Update 7-9-2015

 

For a while now I've been down to just one new colony. Last night I raided that colony for most of its brood to give to all my new D. bicolor queens.

 

While anting in Goffs, California 7-7-2015 right after it rained, I found three more of these on my black light. One of them died already, and one of the remaining is a lot lighter than I'm used to. I decided to keep these because of the one being a lot different than the usual.

[dspdrew]

Update 7-13-2015

 

The last colony I had lost their queen, and the two I recently found in the desert are clearly not fertile, so I let them loose. I'm discontinuing this journal for now.

[Gregory2455]

Update 7-13-2015

 

The last colony I had lost their queen, and the two I recently found in the desert are clearly not fertile, so I let them loose. I'm discontinuing this journal for now.

Bad idea to raid them?