145 replies to this topic

[RushmoreAnts]

What type of nest is that?

[madbiologist]

What type of nest is that?

That's the project lol, I've been designing and cutting some acrylic nests!

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[Antkid12]

Nice!

[ANTdrew]

Tutorial!

[madbiologist]

Tutorial!

Haha, you'd need a laser cutter to make them. I'm going to be selling once I have designs finalized and tested.

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[CatsnAnts]

That formicarium looks amazing! It has such a cute design to it, very unique!

[madbiologist]

That formicarium looks amazing! It has such a cute design to it, very unique!

Thank you! I've already got Camponotus americanus moving into a medium version. The large version is still in design, and I'll be getting ants for it later this month hopefully.

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[madbiologist]

7/31/20

 

So, I keep promising a big update within the next few days, and then it

doesn't happen. This time it will be tomorrow, for real! For today, I'm going

to update with a few new ants.

 

For a start, I am in the process of getting a PPQ 526 permit approved for

some Lasius murphyi, which I caught in Michigan during vacation recently.

I also caught a Dolichoderus mariae queen, a Lasius americanus queen,

and a Formica subsericea queen, which I have given away to an antkeeper

in Michigan.

 

Crematogaster cf. lineolata:

My family took a side trip on the way home from Michigan, and I took

the opportunity to collect a bud from a large Crematogaster cf. lineolata supercolony.

They have 3-5k workers, as well as 7 queens! it is between them and

my Tetramorium immigrans for which colony is my largest. I moved them into

a setup with the medium version of my DIY nests, and they seem to be

loving it! Sorry for the picture spam, but there were just too many good

ones to only share a few!

Setup before they were added:

Setup after they were added:

Various queen pictures:

Various colony pictures:

 

Stigmatomma pallipes:

I received a queen and 3 boosted workers from another keeper who wasn't

able to care for them anymore. I'm not sure I will keep these yet, as I do not

know if I am ready to invest the time required for them. 

 

Myrmecina americana:

I also received a small Myrmecina americana colony from him. Definitely

going to be keeping these ones.

 

Pheidole tysoni:

Picked up 3 Pheidole tysoni queens from a southern Ohio keeper, no pictures

since I didn't want to disturb them too much.

[CatsnAnts]

Nice colonies! This year really seems to be the year for Pheidole tysoni!

[madbiologist]

 This year really seems to be the year for Pheidole tysoni!

Oh yeah, I know one person in Ohio who caught hundreds, and another who got 50 in one morning!

[ANTdrew]

Wow. You’re gonna have your hands full with those 7 Crema queens!

[Spazmops]

 

Unfortunately, they're uncommon, so as far as I'm concerned, we don't have them either. Although P. occidentalis is native here, but can be kept anywhere now.

Yeah, I may cave in and buy a small colony/queen this season.

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I have some for sale, if you still want any

[Antkid12]

Nice pics!

[madbiologist]

8/2/20

 

I was too busy doing other ant stuff yesterday to post an update,

but I've got enough time today for one. This is gonna be a LARGE update.

I did not have time to get pictures of most of the Camponotus or

Crematogaster cerasi, but I will try to tommorrow.

 

Aphaenogaster fulva x2:

Both of these colonies are doing well, the larger colony has a large

brood pile, and the smaller colony has a few more workers than last time

I made an update on them. Pics below.

Smaller colony is below, I don't have anything better, since they've burrowed

into the cotton.

 

Aphaenogaster rudis/fulva?? x2:

I'm not too sure these are rudis anymore, going to have to take a

closer look at them. Whatever they are, both colonies seem to be doing well too.

First image is a worker trying to fit too much into her mouth.

2nd colony.

 

Camponotus americanus x2:

Both of these colonies are doing okay. One was moved to a test tube setup,

and will soon be moving into a mini hearth.

Colony 2.

 

Camponotus chromaiodes x2:

The larger colony has a load of small larvae and 100ish workers! The smaller of the two has a good amount of brood.

 

Camponotus novaeborascensis:

These don't have too much brood, but are up to at least 50 workers!

 

Camponotus pennsylvanicus/herculeanus x3:

These are doing well. The large colony which I was worried about

is in the midst of rebounding!

 

Camponotus subbarbatus:

These are doing very well, their tube is running out of water, so I will have to

move them soon. They currently have a nice larvae pile.

 

Crematogaster cerasi:

These have multiplied into at least 100 workers, and probably 500-1000 brood.

I love how aggressive they are!

 

Formica pallidefulva:

This colony has a good amount of brood, and in the interest of not disturbing

them too much, all I have for you is two blurry pictures.

 

Formica subaenescens:

These are in need of a tube change, no pictures right now.

 

Lasius americanus:

She only has a few workers still at the moment.

 

Lasius neoniger x3:

These are mostly doing pretty well, here's some pictures of 2 of them.

Biggest colony.

2nd biggest colony.

 

Lasius aphidicola x4:

So, its been awhile for these colonies. The reason I didn't post an

update yesterday was because I was busy getting these some more pupae.

One colony (40 pupae 10 workers) has had their pupae for a few days now,

and the other colonies got theirs yesterday. The largest has 100

or so pupae, and the other two have around 25 pupae. 3 of the 4 colonies

have had eggs for at least a week, if not two, meaning that if all goes well,

I should have biological workers in early October!

Largest colony. (Most pupae aren't in the image)

2nd largest colony.

Smaller colony 1.

Colony with no eggs. Sadly, she is the most beautiful queen in my opinion.

 

Tapinoma sessile x2:

The first colony seems to have had a reduction of size heading into winter,

picture below.

 

Temnothorax curvispinosus:

Down to one worker and the queen, but lots of larvae.

Going to be forcing a move any day now.

 

Tetramorium immigrans:

This colony is doing great, they are at 3-5 thousand workers!

Please ignore the mess, its their own fault.

Here is them in "defend the nest" mode.

 

 

[ForestDragon]

wow why are you so better at this than me

[madbiologist]

wow why are you so better at this than me

Says the guy with 50 formica queens lol.

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[madbiologist]

8/12/20

 

So I took just a few ant pictures yesterday... 

 

Aphaenogaster sp.

Moved them into one of my founding nests.

 

C. novaeborascensis

 

C. cf. pilosa

 

Formica sp.

 

L. aphidicola 1

Larvae!!!

 

L. aphidicola 2

 

L. aphidicola 3

Larvae!!!

 

L. aphidicola 4

Confirmed to have eggs!

 

L. neoniger 2

 

M. americana

 

P. tysoni

 

T. curvispinosus 2

Reached nanitics yesterday with about 15 queens.

 

T. immigrans

I noticed what appears to be an intercaste in one of my founding colonies.

Interestingly, she has a fulva-like coloration to her gaster.

[Kaelwizard]

I feel like Tetramorium get intercastes a ton.

[madbiologist]

2/4/21

 

Well, long time no see. I've been tied up between work, school, sports, and Buckeye Myrmecology, so I haven't had any time to update this journal. However, my ants have been doing great in the meantime! Most have gone into and back out of hibernation, although there's a few who haven't yet, or may not at all (I'll mention if so). I've also been improving my photography a lot, and some new extension tubes just arrived a few days ago, which should help my abysmal depth of field. Did my best to include most colonies in this update, but they still aren't all there, and you may see them pop up later. Lots of pictures to share, so I hope it was worth the wait!

 

 

Lasius aphidicola

Back in mid November, after many pupae were eaten, I finally managed to get colony #2 to eclose biological workers! They're up to 8 now, with approximately 15 larvae getting big. They've shown no signs of wanting to hibernate, so I've had them up all winter. I haven't gotten good pictures of the biological workers yet with my camera, so I've uploaded one from my phone. The ones afterward are with the DSLR(some of which are older than others). Colony #1 came out of diapause on the 18th of January, and has a few growing larvae. Colony #3 is still in hibernation, they're coming out this month. Colony #4 unfortunately lost all of the host workers, and the queen perished.

 

 

Camponotus chromaiodes #1

This colony stopped producing pretty early, and so they went into hibernation early too. I took them out in mid-December, and they now have 15-20 pupae from their overwintered larvae that are soon to eclose. The queen has also laid a massive batch of 50-100 eggs, so I expect them to skyrocket through 500 workers this year, considering that's only the post-hibernation egg batch! I don't have any recent DSLR pictures of them, so the egg picture is with my phone. I do have some pre-hibernation pictures though!

 

 

Camponotus chromaiodes #2

This colony was a victim of nest testing, and lost most of their workers in the process. Luckily, they are on the rebound, and they've got a good batch of overwintered larvae to help! Here's a recent DSLR photo of the queen.

 

 

Camponotus herculeanus #1

This is the original herculeanus colony I caught back in may of 2019, and they came out of hibernation on January 18th. They've already got a massive major larva, and the queen started laying eggs a few days ago! I've been enjoying watching them hunt fruit flies to feed their overwintered larvae   .

 

 

Camponotus herculeanus #2

This is a queen I caught in May of 2019, believing her to be the fabled "red-legged pennsylvanicus," but it is now clear to me that she is another herculeanus. They went into hibernation fairly late, so they will be coming out with their overwintered larvae in mid-February. Here's some photos I took before I put them in!

 

 

Camponotus americanus

Both of these recently came out of hibernation. Only one overwintered larvae, and that's the colony I have photos of.

 

 

Camponotus castaneus

This colony recently came out of diapause as well. Unfortunately, one worker died soon after, so they are down to two. However, they should be okay, since they have 3 overwintered larvae, one of which is only a week or two from pupating. I expect the queen to lay once that larvae pupates, or maybe once the other two do. Photo time!

 

 

Formica pallidefulva sp.1

This is one of my first colonies, the pallidefulva colony I've had since I began antkeeping in August of 2018. They've struggled along as I improved, and finally began to get some numbers last season. They're down to about 20 workers, since some died in hibernation. They came out on the 18th, so I expect eggs soon. They moved way too quickly for me to get decent photos last time I tried, so you'll have to make do with pictures of the next colony for now.

 

 

Formica pallidefulva sp.2

I got this colony from someone back in August or September, and they went into diapause with two queens and two workers. One worker didn't wake up when I took them out on the 18th, so it's just one worker remaining now. They should lay eggs soon as well, likely at a similar time to the first colony. I'm certain this is a different species to my older colony, due to morphological differences in the queens.

 

 

Formica argentea x4

All of these founding colonies (from Forest) came out of hibernation on the 18th. All but one has laid eggs over the past week, and I'm expecting lots of growth from them this year! They don't have many workers yet, only 2-5, but all the eggs they've laid should change that. I'm quickly falling in love with their reddish legs and green-tinted bodies!

 

 

Crematogaster cerasi

This colony, founded in July/August of 2019, has grown rapidly, filling up one of my nests before they even went into diapause! There were some big worker losses over hibernation, but they've still got approximately 300 workers and are quickly raising their overwintered larvae. Not many pictures of them to share, so I'll put some of a queen I caught last year down below too. The first picture is them in the nest in October, with mountains of brood.

 

 

Crematogaster cf. lineolata

This colony also had a bit of a rough hibernation, and I believe they lost two of their 7 queens during it. However, they have mountains upon mountains of overwintered larvae to help them get back up to speed. All of their pictures are from before they went into hibernation, and you can see the larvae waiting to go!

 

 

Tetramorium immigrans

This colony never went into hibernation, and I've been ramping up their food intake to help them grow a bit more. No pictures to share, but they've got lots of brood, and are growing fast! Currently, the whole colony has crammed themselves into a 20mm test tube that's quickly running out of water, so they'll be in need of a new setup fairly soon.

 

 

Solenopsis molesta #2

A new colony here, this colony founded in a group of approximately 25 queens, with 17-18 remaining. I expect all of these remaining queens to survive, as they haven't culled one in months. They never hibernated, and have been slowly but steadily increasing their worker count from 2 all the way up to the ~100 they have now. The queens are sitting on a massive pile of brood, and the colony size is only going to increase exponentially here. Solenopsis molesta has been studied fairly well, so I've been able to calculate their max size based off of the the amount of workers it is estimated that one queen can keep up over time, and it's a staggering estimate. Assuming this colony doesn't inbreed, which they likely will, their max size is anywhere between 34,000 and 78,000 workers. So it seems I have my work cut out for me! (These pictures are from the 12th of January, and their size has increased 10 fold since then!)

 

 

Temnothorax curvispinosus

I founded this colony from twenty-something queens last year, and 4 are still remaining. I suspected that number would drop to three, since one queen is occasionally bullied by workers, but I haven't seen much bullying towards her recently, so maybe not. They've got around 20 workers, and lots of larvae slowly pupating. They haven't hibernated yet, or shown any signs of wanting to, but I believe they will at some point. One interesting quirk of Temnothorax is that they will pheromonally suppress larvae to prevent them from pupating all at once. I'm not sure why they do this, but the affects on this colony's larvae have been pretty evident, as many have been larvae for months, and some are only just beginning to pupate again.

 

 

Myrmecina americana

These came out of diapause on the 18th, and have been slowly raising their overwintered larvae ever since. With after taking pictures of them, I am sure of something I has suspected for a long time: their queen is an ergatogyne. She was born in her mother colony without wings, mated with a male (possibly even from the same colony), and either went off to found on her own, or the colony split through fission, much like Neivamyrmex do. I suspect the former, as she doesn't have approximately half of a mature colony, although she could have split off with very few workers.

 

 

Pheidole tysoni #1

This colony was founded over the summer, and has been struggling ever since. It is possible the queen is only partially mated, since the last batch of larvae developed to be larger than the workers and were then eaten. I've got a little hope, as the queen has laid a new batch of eggs, some of which are developing into larvae. If it is a repeat of last time, I fear the worst. The two remaining workers likely won't be able to last much longer than raising this batch of brood, if they survive even that. Pictured below is the final batch of larvae in December, before they were eaten. I have also added pictures I took of an infertile queen.

 

 

[TennesseeAnts]

Wow, great update!

 

Also, for the Formica pallidefulva-group colony (2nd one), consider F. incerta, as I believe they might just be the dark, Northern color variant. 

Edited by TennesseeAnts, February 4 2021 - 10:10 AM.