11 replies to this topic

[NicholasP]

Insert awkward SHH moment here.

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Edited by NicholasP, May 29 2023 - 11:44 AM.

[NicholasP]

Unfortunate news today... All latipes queens have died. I'll be logging the whole process in my pdf for latipes care I'm making but hopefully I can get some more to try again. It's a really nice day today so maybe I'll get lucky.

[AntsCali098]

Bummer, that species looks so cool.

[NicholasP]

They are very cool. It's unfortunate they're so sensitive to not having workers though.

[NicholasP]

Alright guys we're back and at it again. I caught 6 latipes queens yesterday so I'll be performing some test and studies on them myself. And I'll be relaying all information to you guys.

 

But one thing I can tell you guys is that I'm never gonna give them up, never gonna let them down, never gonna turn around and, desert them. Ok, no that's not thing I'll be telling you guys. I've observed that sand is needed desperately if latipes get their introductions in test tubes. L. latipes I've observed have the worst grip of any ant species I've ever kept and the only type of nest that I had some remote amount of sucess with was a nest sand coated with hydrostone. Very similar to a leafcutter nest just sandcoated for grip purposes and to make it pretty.

 

Also, I've done the standard with latipes of 10 workers to start them out with. But 30 minutes to an hour later I introduce 50-65 workers more and so then they get really swarmed. I've observed that they seem to get accepted much faster that way than with just a few workers at a time. I still have to keep testing these things I just said but it looks hopeful latipes might turn out to be a fairly easier species than any of us have thought but they need the research of how to found them first.

Edited by NicholasP, September 2 2022 - 7:25 AM.

[AntsCali098]

What habitat do you catch these in? I am interested in keeping them. I assume it would be the same type of habitat in CA.

[NicholasP]

So, while I can't explain the habitat very well because all my ants are caught in my neighborhoo by houses. I can try to explain what it's like habitatwise. Every house has a grass front lawn and backyard filled with grass. Basically, everything is grass. But behind my house there's a swamp that floods during spring and fall and tons of frogs and Camponotus nearcticus in the swamp. Behind the house there's a powerline and then house behind that powerline. Along the border of the powerline and the swamp there's TONS of ants. Lasius americanus, Acanthomyops species, Dolichoderus, Temnothorax ambiguus in grass reeds, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, Camponotus subbarbatus... Every species you could imagine, and I consider myself lucky for that. But on the grass fields of the front lawns and backyards bordering the swamp there tends to be Lasius brevicornis and I believe Lasius latipes take off either from the swamp or on the border of the swamp by the backyards. So, there's a huge mix of trees, grass, and nice open area. I'll try and find out where the latipes queens take off from to give you a more in depth look into what environment to find them in but that's all I can say since I'm not sure where they come from besides the swamp.

[AntsCali098]

So, while I can't explain the habitat very well because all my ants are caught in my neighborhoo by houses. I can try to explain what it's like habitatwise. Every house has a grass front lawn and backyard filled with grass. Basically, everything is grass. But behind my house there's a swamp that floods during spring and fall and tons of frogs and Camponotus nearcticus in the swamp. Behind the house there's a powerline and then house behind that powerline. Along the border of the powerline and the swamp there's TONS of ants. Lasius americanus, Acanthomyops species, Dolichoderus, Temnothorax ambiguus in grass reeds, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, Camponotus subbarbatus... Every species you could imagine, and I consider myself lucky for that. But on the grass fields of the front lawns and backyards bordering the swamp there tends to be Lasius brevicornis and I believe Lasius latipes take off either from the swamp or on the border of the swamp by the backyards. So, there's a huge mix of trees, grass, and nice open area. I'll try and find out where the latipes queens take off from to give you a more in depth look into what environment to find them in but that's all I can say since I'm not sure where they come from besides the swamp.

Lucky, you live in an ant paradise lol. Thanks for the info

[NicholasP]

Unfortunately, these queens all died. But I hope to recontinue this journal next year. Until then, keep loving your ants guys!

[Ant-nig321]

Wait when you caught the hosts,did you just dump them in the test tube with the queen?

[NicholasP]

Wait when you caught the hosts,did you just dump them in the test tube with the queen?

No. But as Lasius latipes use a swarm method to get accepted which is when they purposefully get workers to swarm on them, I decided to do 5 hosts to start the queens out and then a few minutes later some more, and more. And they were fine with the workers. It's that the queens were just too dumb to stay in the nest. They kept wandering out of the nest and stayed outside. So next year I have a better solution to this problem, and I will be making a maze that the queens will struggle to get out of because the queens wandering is what got them killed as the workers tried to feed them, but they kept wandering.

[BDantsalberta]

That is a great idea! Latipes and other thin bodied parasitic queens like thin tunnels so if there is a worker that just doesn't care and wants to kill her, they can go down a narrow tunnel and lose them.