145 replies to this topic

[Thunder_Birds]

That's probably why they like to be crammed into there I guess

[madbiologist]

Is sticks on the ground considered arboreal?

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Edited by madbiologist, March 16 2020 - 4:55 PM.

[Thunder_Birds]

I have no idea what that means...

[RushmoreAnts]

Arboreal refers to animals that live in trees.

[Thunder_Birds]

Oh ok, thanks man!

[TennesseeAnts]

Is sticks on the ground considered arboreal?
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Is sticks on the ground considered arboreal?
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No. It has to be above the ground. But sometimes colonies get knocked down by squirrels or storms.

[madbiologist]

Is sticks on the ground considered arboreal?
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Is sticks on the ground considered arboreal?
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No. It has to be above the ground. But sometimes colonies get knocked down by squirrels or storms.

All the ones I have caught were in the hollow cores of rotting sticks on the ground.

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[RushmoreAnts]

Then either a really bad storm recently passed through your area, or the species you are describing is not arboreal.

Edited by AntsDakota, March 17 2020 - 5:00 AM.

[madbiologist]

No real update today, just wanted to share some pictures of my super physogastric Camponotus pennsylvanicus queen. She just keeps laying even though she only has 2 workers. I'm wondering how long she can keep this up.

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[Thunder_Birds]

Sweet! She looks like a wealthy queen, that's great. 

Edited by Thunder_Birds, March 17 2020 - 9:30 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

 

 

Is sticks on the ground considered arboreal?
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Is sticks on the ground considered arboreal?
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

No. It has to be above the ground. But sometimes colonies get knocked down by squirrels or storms.

All the ones I have caught were in the hollow cores of rotting sticks on the ground.

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Yea, but remember, they are semi arboreal and can live on the surface too. Unlike strictly arboreal ants like Colobopsis or Cephalotes.

[ForestDragon]

is she the one I gave you XD? man i should heat my ants... but target aint giving me the big bucks anymore

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

I got my heating pad from PetsMart...

[madbiologist]

is she the one I gave you XD? man i should heat my ants... but target aint giving me the big bucks anymore

Yeah, no clue how, but she just keeps laying.

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Edited by madbiologist, March 19 2020 - 5:14 PM.

[madbiologist]

3/19/20

Pictured:

My Tetramorium immigrans are still refusing to move, but they've got plenty of brood growing.

My Camponotus pennsylvanicus number 1 didn't want to pose for pictures, so the best picture I have is terrible. In other news, they have their first pupa of the season!

On the other end, my Camponotus chromaiodes in the tube were very happy to pose, and I've got some good pictures of them, however, they still only have small larvae.

The Camponotus subbarbatus 1 are still laying eggs, and now have one large larvae, who is likely to pupate soon.

My Crematogaster sp have several pupae now, and it seems that I've underestimated the amount of brood they have!

Not pictured:

My Camponotus chromaiodes in the mini hearth also have their first pupae, and their queen is beginning to swell up, hopefully with eggs!

My Camponotus novaeborascensis have the rest of their larvae growing, and their pupae are getting darker by the day.

The Camponotus herculeanus queen's gaster has also began growing, I'm hoping she will begin to lay soon.

My Formica subanescens are still laying, and their egg pile just keeps growing!

My Formica pallidefulva aren't doing too well in their current mini hearth, so I think I will be moving them back into a test tube. Mini hearths just aren't working for me when it comes to Formica, sadly.

The wild caught Myrmica colony has begun to dwindle in queens. 2 of the 5 have died, and I suspect this will be their end.

My Lasius americanus have recently had some tube flooding issues, for no apparent reason. I think they've lost most, if not all of their brood, and a worker or two, yet they refuse to move to the cleaner, not flooding tube.

The rest of my Tapinoma sessile have up and left. I've followed Otter's instructions and put a tube out for them with some honey in the hope that they come back.


Edit: I've ran out of images, thanks Tapatalk, so I'm linking a Reddit post with the subbarbatus and Crematogaster.
Double edit: it's actually just an imgur link, so you see the images.


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Edited by madbiologist, March 19 2020 - 5:39 PM.

[ForestDragon]

I love that subb colony ME WANT

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

you did the of good grammering in the sentence of last words two ForestDragon

[RushmoreAnts]

i concur do

[madbiologist]

4/3/20

It's been awhile since my last update, mostly since I've been waiting for a few things to change, most of which have, so it's time to get back into it! I've got pictures of nearly every colony today, so I hope you guys enjoy this one!

I have come to the conclusion that my Camponotus subbarbatus colony 2 is a satellite nest, so I will be releasing them once it's warm enough if eggs do not appear soon.

My Camponotus cf. herculeanus still haven't begun to lay, but their larvae are developing nicely, and I hope they will soon. It looks like a few more majors are on the way! By the way, I've changed it to cf. since some people believe they are multiple other species, and so I'm going to grab a worker soon to go through a key with and fully wrap this up.


My Tetramorium immigrans are hungry as ever, and I've moved them into a mini hearth. Here's some pictures of their brood wall.


My Camponotus subbarbatus colony 1 has 2 pupae, plenty of brood, and will have more pupae soon!


My mini hearth Camponotus chromaiodes are poised to explode! Just look at all their brood! They've got an egg pile with more than 50 eggs in the back too!
http://imgur.com/gallery/mmZTwvd

My Camponotus novaeborascensis have had all their pupae eclose except for the major, who we are still waiting on. Sadly, they've gummed up the mini hearth glass, so I'm going to have to replace it before I take pictures.

The Crematogaster have been given and ID of cerasi! I finally got a worker underneath the microscope, and I will leave you guys a picture of it. The have also had most of their huge pupae pile eclose this past week, so they are now at 30ish workers and a large egg pile!
http://imgur.com/gallery/2zywatp

The Formica subanescens have a pupa and some more larvae/eggs. I've never seen ants as skittish as Formica before.
http://imgur.com/gallery/CJevzxi

I've moved my Formica pallidefulva out of their mini hearth, mostly because they weren't doing well in it, and a little because I wanted to finally show you all some pictures of them. Only 3 days after the move, and they've already got a small egg clump!
http://imgur.com/gallery/MXNpJR0

Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony 1 is doing as well as all my Camponotus, with a nice brood pile and some pupae.
http://imgur.com/gallery/hryOaMB

Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony 2 has a very large brood pile for their size, and I'm expecting a pupa to eclose any day now!
http://imgur.com/gallery/JLgk49j

My tubed Camponotus chromaiodes are nearly as poised to explode as their mini hearth counterparts, with a lot of eggs, and plenty of pupae!
http://imgur.com/gallery/IPKGAfA

Lasius americanus founding colony has been having some mold issues, so I've had to move them to a new tube. Unfortunately, they lost most of their brood to the mold and flooding. However, they've already started laying again!
http://imgur.com/gallery/Q080wiZ

My Lasius aphidicola are still alive, and I've caught them a satellite nest of a Lasius species, with plenty of brood. Once it develops into pupae and callows, I should be able to introduce them.

I've been waiting ages and staking out nests waiting for Prenolepis imparis to fly, and while I saw many alates take off when it finally happened, I only caught one queen. Well, it's better than nothing at least!

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[madbiologist]

4/22/20

My Camponotus herculeanus colony is doing well. Still no eggs, but I'm hoping they will be laying soonish. I have also been messing around with a camera and some extension tubes recently, sadly no pictures of this colony, because I accidentally deleted the file with their picture.

Satellite subbarbatus nest is still just chilling, not much to really say there.

My Tetramorium immigrans colony is getting ready to explode, and since I didn't delete the file for them, here's some pictures!
http://imgur.com/gallery/xg6Jvgb

http://imgur.com/gallery/Tv78QRj

My Camponotus subbarbatus have also been doing well, and have 4 pupae now! I hadn't realized just how many majors they have (4) until recently either!
http://imgur.com/gallery/GI42prR

http://imgur.com/gallery/Kfw9q6Z

My mini hearth Camponotus chromaiodes have had most of their workers eclose, and still have a massive brood patch. They're trying to break 250 workers this year!
http://imgur.com/gallery/F19mUIs

http://imgur.com/gallery/sigahG4

The Camponotus novaeborascensis major finally eclosed, here's some pics!
http://imgur.com/gallery/3BPpCW0

http://imgur.com/gallery/J7cMKV1

http://imgur.com/gallery/LklEPY7

http://imgur.com/gallery/FakPpsE

Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony 2 has had 2 workers from the massive pile eclose so far, with many more to come. Pennsylvanicus seem to darken up extremely quickly, I never saw any lighter workers.

Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony 1 has a mediocre amount of brood, the queen didn't lay early enough for the brood to be the same after their workers eclosed.

My Crematogaster cerasi queen has gone and laid between 50 and 80 eggs, which have now begun to turn into larvae. I'm really in love with how fast these grow.
http://imgur.com/gallery/gsVH2yX

Camponotus chromaiodes in the tube have a good pile of eggs and larvae. Have a fun queen picture.
http://imgur.com/gallery/OY4CgXO

I haven't seen the worker in the dwindling 3 queen myrmica colony recently, but for the life of me I can't find a corpse. I'll be releasing these as soon as it is warm enough.

Only 22 days after the first eggs, my Formica pallidefulva now have 3 pupae! I'm astounded at how fast their brood has grown!

My Lasius americanus brood pile is slowly growing still.

I have 2 new colonies since the last update, a Camponotus pennsylvanicus satellite colony rescued from a rotting cardboard box, and a Tapinoma sessile colony. Maybe I'll keep the Tapinoma contained this time, who knows. The satellite colony will be used for brood boosting, and attempted queen introduction later this year.


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Edited by madbiologist, April 22 2020 - 8:01 PM.