17 replies to this topic

[SleepyAsianAnter]

I've been thinking about starting one of these for a while, because I'm fairly new to this hobby. Now in quarantine, I'm kinda bored so I guess I'll actually start now. So I started off by purchasing a Camponotus Fragilis queen from jeffpbalderston, and he was kind enough to throw in 2 P. Imparis and a Tapinoma Sessile colony. After that, I purchased 8 C. Clarithorax and C. Hyatti from JenC (I haven't ID'd them yet so I'm not sure). Yesterday, my family and I went over to Eagle Mountain Railroad, an abandoned railroad near Joshua Tree. There, I managed to catch 4 P. Californicus.

Total Count:
1 C. Fragilis

8 C. Clarithorax or Hyatti (or a mixture)

1 Tapinoma Sessile

2 P. Imparis

4 P. Californicus

 

I set up the P. Californicus in 2 tubs n tubes set ups, with 3 in 1 and 1 in the 2nd. 

 

They don't seem to be taking to the fruit flies I gave them, but they like the chia seeds.

 

Here is my Fraggle

 

I'm not going to take pictures of the P. Imparis, cause everyone says they get really nervous, so here's a pic of my T. Sessile colony. 

 

Now a disclaimer: Mistakes WILL be made, I've only been in this hobby for like less than a month. If you see I made a mistake, tell me ASAP.

 

I will try my best to update every Sunday or whenever anything important happens.

[TheAntGuy]

The P. Californicus will likely do better in a dirt box setup. Most Pogonomyrmex will

[SleepyAsianAnter]

The P. Californicus will likely do better in a dirt box setup. Most Pogonomyrmex will

 

A dirt box like one of Drew's? No test tube?

[JenC]

Test tubes are fine for p.calis.

[ForestDragon]

keep the enclosure for the Tapinoma Sessile SEALED AND FLUONED, they are some of the most escape artist ants I have ever encountered also, they produce alates that inbreed, they create more queens for the colony as time goes on

[SleepyAsianAnter]

So I have good news and bad news, the bad news is that on of my P. Calis died, but it was kind of expected, because they did seem to be fighting. The two that are left in the box are getting along fine. The good news is that my C. Fragilis queen, which came with 1 worker, 1 egg, and 1 larvae, now has 1 worker, 8 eggs, and 1 pupae. It must've pupated overnight because the day before, it was still a larvae. I also have my 8 clari/hyatti queens set up in a heating box (pictures can be found below). I'm pretty sure one of them is unfertilized as it is the only one without eggs, and her gaster is small and skinny compared to the others. OldManTrashCan was very kind and gave me a 2-queen colony of Aphaenogaster (30-40 workers), though species is still to be ID'd, I set them up in an CheetoLord02 inspired formicarium/nest (thanks for the great idea btw), the link to his/her nest design can be found here --> https://www.formicul...ttle +diy +nest .

 

My Aphaenogaster colony and their set up

 

 

 

 

Here is my heating setup, the cable is snaked underneath the sand

 

 

 

 

Lastly, here is my C. Fragilis Pupae

 

 

 

[FSTP]

your C. fragilis is so cute!

[Temperateants]

 

The P. Californicus will likely do better in a dirt box setup. Most Pogonomyrmex will

 

A dirt box like one of Drew's? No test tube?

 

I just realized there are 2 Drews on this forum.

[SleepyAsianAnter]

Looks like a second P. Cali has died, it was limping around on 3 legs, and front two legs weren't working for some reason. I guess they aren't poly after all. The two remaining ones both have small brood piles, so that's something to be happy about. 

[B_rad0806]

well they aren't poly...

[NickAnter]

Actually, they can be.

[RushmoreAnts]

I wish occidentalis were..........

[SleepyAsianAnter]

Not much to update. Following the death of my third P. Cali, I began experimenting with ultracal, and ended up creating a test tube insert. I designed it for semi-claustral queens, so there would be a foraging area and a nesting area in 1 tube. There seems to be a problem with the humidity, however, and the sand within the foraging area is clumped together, the 1 P. Cali I put in there was quick to move her eggs into the nesting chamber, but then she started gathering the moist sand into small clumps and bring them into the nesting chamber with her, pictures can be found below. 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news the rest of my colonies seem to be doing well, Fragilis pupae still has not been opened.
 

Edited by SleepyAsianAnter, May 17 2020 - 7:45 AM.

[ANTdrew]

That’s super cool!

[SleepyAsianAnter]

Weekly update 

My biggest two bits of news is that

1: I purchased some more queens from Vern530 (great seller btw), 4 vicinus queens, 2 black variety and 2 orange variety, and 1 quericola queen. All 5 have a nice pile of brood and larvae. 

2: To celebrate the finish of my first AP test, I made a tiny founding chamber, due to lack of mesh, I decided to try something else to provide moisture (this chamber was much harder to make than I thought, hardest part being the cutting of acrylic)

 

My P. Cali Queen that I put in the test tube insert last time has a small pile of eggs, she seems to be doing ok. The other P. Cali hasn't been doing much lately, she has access to seeds and food, but she seems to have eaten her eggs, so I won't disturb her for a while

 

Unfortunately, my C. Fragilis's 1 worker died, I was watching her run around during my AP test and she was dead a few hours later, the temp I kept them at was around 85 degrees F so I think she was just an old nanitic. The C. Fragilis's 1 pupa has not opened yet, it has been 2 weeks. 

 

One of the C. Hyattis I got from JenC a few weeks back has gotten her first pupa, the C. Claris and C. Hyattis all have varying amounts of brood, and one of the Clari larva should pupate any day now. 

 

My aphaenogaster are doing fine so far, they've been eating about 1 mealworm a week, with honey whenever they feel like it.3

 

My P. Imparis are just being P. Imparis, literally doing absolutely nothing, I just checked on the for the first time in 2 weeks and they still have nothing. I assumed they would lay before estivation but maybe they missed the deadline .

 

Pictures:

 

My C. Hyatti guarding over her brood, the pupa is in the back

 

 

 

My first attempt at a founding chamber, the test tube in the back has cotton that will let the ant drink from it, a tube also leads to the top which is an outworld, I still need to iron out some kinks in the watering system as the cotton is letting water out a bit too fast

Edited by SleepyAsianAnter, May 24 2020 - 11:52 AM.

[SleepyAsianAnter]

After some recommendations on discord, I have decided that I will be splitting this journal and making new ones by species, those I will update on an "event occurring" basis. This will take place next week.

 

My fraggle pupa finally opened and I have a cute nanitic walking around, right after that, another larva pupated, so I am expecting another worker in a few weeks.

 

My vicinus queens mostly just have larvae, except for one black vicinus, who had a larva pupate yesterday, and another larva pupate today. I placed one of my orange Vicinus within my founding chamber, I hope she does well. 

 

My quericola is doing good so far, some of her eggs have turned into larvae

 

My Clari/Hyatti queens are doing great! Almost all of them have 1 or 2 pupae, I think one even has three! I will be trying to sell most of these colonies after they pass nanitic stage.

 

P. Imparis is being useless as usual, I thought I had saw a single egg in one of the queen's mouth, but I lost track of it (probably eaten)

 

P. Calis are not doing so good, I may call of the test tube experiment because all seeds I put in there start molding. Both of them have some eggs, but I figure this may be a species that I don't want to keep, I grabbed some samples from a local trail and they have been identified as P. Subnitidus (most likely), this is great news because almost all the ants in my area are argentines, and I have no interest in those.

 

My aphaenogaster colony has just been ID'd as A. occidentalis on discord. They seem to be doing good, a pile of brood and a few pupae. 

 

Pics:

 

 

Edited by SleepyAsianAnter, May 31 2020 - 3:26 PM.

[RushmoreAnts]

Your first attempt makes my most recent attempt (out of several) look like crap. If there’s one thing I’m terrible at, it’s arts and crafts, including making formicariums.

[SleepyAsianAnter]

Your first attempt makes my most recent attempt (out of several) look like crap. If there’s one thing I’m terrible at, it’s arts and crafts, including making formicariums.

 

Lol thanks, there's still a lot of problems I need to fix that aren't shown, hopefully I can refine the process!