Hello All,
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I have a thread with some questions in the general forum but figure this might get more attention here.
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I am currently living in Peru, and like everyone else we are stuck in quarantine...much more strict here than anywhere else. But over the last couple weeks I've managed to find 2 Atta sexdens queens from last Novembers flights.
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Colony 1 has a fungus garden the about the size of a tennis ball, and has produced it's first soldiers. They currently live in an icecream bucket filled with sand, charcoal, and soil surrounded by a water moat to keep them from roaming all over the room. I basically dug them a starter chamber, dumped everyone in, and then covered the chamber with a plastic tupper lid and some soil. I've had them for several weeks now, and I think the garden has grown by at least a third since I collected them. When the weather is warm they get leaves, of everything I've tried aroid leaves(probably Syngonium sp,) is their favorite. They will also take paper moistened with sweat or urine.
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Colony 2 is a queen, a few dozen workers, and a fungus garden the size of a smooshed grape. They are living in a plastic deli container with a petri dish ontop, and all this is inside another plastic container filled with sand to maintain humidity. I hope to maintain this colony so I can watch the queen for as long as possible. I've had them for a few days and they have fixed up their fungus garden. I've tried putting little bits of aroid leaves and toilet paper moistened with urine around the fungus gardens, but so far they seem content working with what they've got and have put the offerings aside.
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I've attached a photo of the first colony, since today I replaced the foggy plastic lid they had built their garden under with a clearerpetri dish window.
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