91 replies to this topic

[ForestDragon]

HEAR YE HEAR YE I AM STARTING A JOURNAL THAT I WILL NOT DITCH
 

so, before this upcoming anting season(Midwest people) I have actually done hibernation successfully! only one or two deaths!!! A Lasius parasite (no shame) and a Leptothorax (MEGA RIP) so yeah, i am gonna take my crematogaster, my Aphaenogaster tennesseensis(god i hope i spelled that right) and my Lasius out of hibernation on February 15th 2020, (i'm keeping dates close) and my Camponotus will be taken out on march 15th 2020. I will have absolutely 0 pictures as i am technologically impaired, I have a flip phone, MY CALCULATOR IS MORE ADVANCED THAN MY PHONE so sad. so no pics but i will give accurate descriptions. All my cryptics died before hibernation (except my Leptothorax) I am excited for my Camponotus as i can use them for more of a display colony and such, same with my Crematogaster but i will be studying my ants thoroughly with behavior and getting a really good camera to film them and a separate camera for photographs, (i'm the next Alexander wild y'all). this year will be really good 

Edited by ForestDragon, May 15 2020 - 6:46 AM.

[ForestDragon]

Lost an A. Tennesseensis queen today

[ForestDragon]

I also ordered 2 mini hearths for my Camponotus and formica and some genesis tube inserts for some of my tube colonies, this is gonna b great, i got the mini hearths from the ready to ship portion, and i also got some cool colors, light blue and malachite, I'm prolly gonna move a formica colony and Camponotus colony

[ForestDragon]

pheidole queen died, probably a while ago, found her body in 3 pieces in the vivarium she was in

[ForestDragon]

Fed all colonies with workers, a bit of protein from a mealworm sliver was good and i hope eggs come soon, what is yall's feeding schedule for small colonies? i hope my formica lays within the next few days i will probably heat with a small electric blanket i have, i want fast(er) growth

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

I feed all my colonies one day a week (but the amount of food depeneds on colony size)

[ForestDragon]

 

so my camponotus queen LAYED 3 EGGIES! I "borrowed" my sisters I-pad(she let me) and i took some pics and yay she layed eggs, my formica subsericea refuse to settle down in the genesis tube insert from THA any movement makes them freak and my crematogaster hasnt layed eggs so i hope for the best my formica incerta hasnt layed eggs yet but i can tell she will soon, her gaster is filled with protein and is a lil bit bigger thatn it was THIS YEARS GONNA BE GREAT. PEACE OUT

Edited by ForestDragon, February 13 2020 - 3:57 PM.

[ForestDragon]

sorry the pic is small, idk how to make it bigger

[ForestDragon]

everyone has eggs! except for one Camponotus pennsylvanicus(she kept getting to larvae last year than eating them) and a formica subsericea colony with 5 workers, she refuses to settle down they hate the test tube insert and live in between the insert and the cotton, i should replace it and give it to another queen

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

if it works for her, then I would leave it, but that's just me

[ForestDragon]

OK SO i recieved the host workers for my Aphaenogaster Tennesseensis queen and introduced 5. here is the fun part, the queen is showing incredible behaviors, the host workers are rather defensive towards her and bite a lot when she tries to interact, what I've noticed is when one gets near her she faces sideways, crowches down and waves her gaster back and forth, not up but downward, and when the workers attack her gaster she rubs it all over them when they climb on it and try to bite, I'm hypothesising that this is a way to transfer pheromones back and forth so she can get into the colony and mimic the workers or put her scent on the workers, and what she has done now is she has dominated a worker and is carrying it, and when another worker tries to interact with the worker being carried the queen uses her antennae and the worker being carried folds her antennae in, i think the queen is trying to assert herself into the colony using pheromones, and dominating a worker and using it as a decoy to mask herself around other workers. ITS INCREDIBLE

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

OK SO i recieved the host workers for my Aphaenogaster Tennesseensis queen and introduced 5. here is the fun part, the queen is showing incredible behaviors, the host workers are rather defensive towards her and bite a lot when she tries to interact, what I've noticed is when one gets near her she faces sideways, crowches down and waves her gaster back and forth, not up but downward, and when the workers attack her gaster she rubs it all over them when they climb on it and try to bite, I'm hypothesising that this is a way to transfer pheromones back and forth so she can get into the colony and mimic the workers or put her scent on the workers, and what she has done now is she has dominated a worker and is carrying it, and when another worker tries to interact with the worker being carried the queen uses her antennae and the worker being carried folds her antennae in, i think the queen is trying to assert herself into the colony using pheromones, and dominating a worker and using it as a decoy to mask herself around other workers. ITS INCREDIBLE

wow. You don't typically see parasitic queens 'taming' a colony's workers in captivity. Defiantly intriguing 

[ForestDragon]

 

OK SO i recieved the host workers for my Aphaenogaster Tennesseensis queen and introduced 5. here is the fun part, the queen is showing incredible behaviors, the host workers are rather defensive towards her and bite a lot when she tries to interact, what I've noticed is when one gets near her she faces sideways, crowches down and waves her gaster back and forth, not up but downward, and when the workers attack her gaster she rubs it all over them when they climb on it and try to bite, I'm hypothesising that this is a way to transfer pheromones back and forth so she can get into the colony and mimic the workers or put her scent on the workers, and what she has done now is she has dominated a worker and is carrying it, and when another worker tries to interact with the worker being carried the queen uses her antennae and the worker being carried folds her antennae in, i think the queen is trying to assert herself into the colony using pheromones, and dominating a worker and using it as a decoy to mask herself around other workers. ITS INCREDIBLE

wow. You don't typically see parasitic queens 'taming' a colony's workers in captivity. Defiantly intriguing 

 

and its hard to observe in the wild cuz they are y'know... underground

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

Yeah

[ForestDragon]

Some more interesting behavior from the Aphaenogaster tennesseensis queen, she is riding a worker, like attached to the petiole with her jaws she is curled up riding on top, she is 100% alive as every once and a while she comes off, i introduced more host workers as the 5 accepted her and i believe she is doing this as a defense mechanism to protect herself from unknown workers, the workers are showing no aggression in this state and the worker she is riding is just going along with it. THIS IS ONE WEIRD ANT

[TennesseeAnts]

Some more interesting behavior from the Aphaenogaster tennesseensis queen, she is riding a worker, like attached to the petiole with her jaws she is curled up riding on top, she is 100% alive as every once and a while she comes off, i introduced more host workers as the 5 accepted her and i believe she is doing this as a defense mechanism to protect herself from unknown workers, the workers are showing no aggression in this state and the worker she is riding is just going along with it. THIS IS ONE WEIRD ANT

I've seen my queens doing this too. But she won't "ride" the worker, but rather manhandle it around by the petiole. My guess would be this is a dominance display, to let the workers know that she is their new queen. I've seen A. tennesseensis queens go berserk on workers that won't "tame" and just rip them apart.

[ForestDragon]

 

Some more interesting behavior from the Aphaenogaster tennesseensis queen, she is riding a worker, like attached to the petiole with her jaws she is curled up riding on top, she is 100% alive as every once and a while she comes off, i introduced more host workers as the 5 accepted her and i believe she is doing this as a defense mechanism to protect herself from unknown workers, the workers are showing no aggression in this state and the worker she is riding is just going along with it. THIS IS ONE WEIRD ANT

I've seen my queens doing this too. But she won't "ride" the worker, but rather manhandle it around by the petiole. My guess would be this is a dominance display, to let the workers know that she is their new queen. I've seen A. tennesseensis queens go berserk on workers that won't "tame" and just rip them apart.

 

I mean yeah dominance probably, and when there is danger a worker picks her up and she curls up and they drag her around till they calm down and know she's safe, and then they let her go its so weird

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

That is just messed up. It's like nature made it's own Karen ant... I would suppose at this point that she has successfully inserted her dominance in her colony, but I'm not into parasitic ants that much... 

[ForestDragon]

https://imgur.com/gallery/pUlKCfw

as you can see the workers are carrying her, she is VERY MUCH ALIVE and the workers are for some reason carrying her because they fear the light and vibrations and she is stubborn and she does not listen to them

https://imgur.com/gallery/pwrWqFa

https://imgur.com/gallery/9UXarlk

just a little photodump

[ForestDragon]

So i got the queen with the main brunt of the host workers and she's fine, the workers don't show much interest in food unless it is still squirming. ripping apart a baby mealworm is fun. camponotus in the mini hearth has more eggs(around 15-20) formica subsericea has no eggs still but the queens full of mealworm guts so it should be soon. crematogaster still has eggs(hoping larvae within a week or 2) formica pallidefulva has more eggs (6-8) so this years going good. also my Camponotus that i caught in july that never got workers have eggs so hopefully it works out. lasius has NO EGGS WHY GOSH DARNIT JUST LAY EGGS