39 replies to this topic

[OiledOlives]

Lasius aphidicola
Videos:
Colony 1:

Colony 2:

Edited by OiledOlives, January 9 2023 - 11:16 AM.

[OiledOlives]

I have moved Colony 1 into a 3d printed AliExpress nest (3 chamber nest). I gave them some Solenopsis brood to see what they would do with it. It seems they only care for the larvae, as they put the pupae in a pile and let them die. Queen still has not laid.

Colony 2 is doing okay. The L. cf. neoniger queen has been laying a lot of eggs and hopefully some eggs from the aphidicola queen are mixed in as well. I am starting to think that the queen may be infertile, as she has not tried to kill the host queen.

[OiledOlives]

I moved Colony 1 back into a tube a while back. Two Solenopsis larvae are still alive and the queen has laid eggs. The first batch shriveled up and died because the workers were not caring for them, but I forced them to be together by restricting them to a small area. 

Colony 2 had a lot of eggs, but they looked to be diminishing. I dropped them into a THA Mini Hearth to see if that would help them. I saw the L. neoniger queen lay some eggs, but a day later, most were gone. I will be separating the two queens later. 

Both colonies desperately need Lasius pupae.

[OiledOlives]

I ended up moving colony 2 out of the Mini Hearth to make space for an occidentalis colony. I will be putting them back in diapause until wild colonies get pupae or someone sends some to me.

[OiledOlives]

I took them out a bit ago and separated the neoniger and aphidicola queens in colony 2. I boosted colony 2 with around 30 L. americanus larvae as well. I caught a Lasius interjectus queen tonight, so I went ahead and introduced her to the 60-70 Lasius americanus hosts I had lying around with vinegar. Around 60% of their larvae has died in the freezer and they've got some weird beetle insects that are crawling around the tube. Gross! The interjectus had a rocky start but after a little bit of shaking, the americanus calmed down and are grooming her. Really hoping she doesn't die.

[OiledOlives]

she died.

I received two Lasius interjectus queens in the mail and introduced them to some claviger I had lying around. One queen is fighting back, the other is acting really docile. The docile one is at the tolerance stage and the other one has killed all three workers I introduced. I've got 300+ hosts so that should be enough for both queens.

[OiledOlives]

One died the next day and the other got to 30+ hosts before I added all the other 100+ workers which killed her.

I found an aphidicola queen on a tree, found an interjectus queen at a blacklight, one at a normal light, and one walking down a path. The blacklight queen has around 30 L. claviger hosts and I'm adding a couple each day. The other three queens are being introduced to L. americanus workers. I might use L. claviger for the interjectus instead and continue using L. americanus for the aphidicola.

[OiledOlives]

They're so pretty!

[azzaaazzzz00]

Whoa, I want some of these...

[OiledOlives]

I have not updated this in a while. The aphidicola queen I found walking on a tree has 3-400 bio eggs, with some turning into larvae. She has around 400 host workers and currently reside in a Mini Hearth. 

The interjectus queen still has around 40 claviger host workers. I gave them some claviger brood in hopes of getting the queen to turn physogastric, which has not yet happened. Once the pupae eclose however, if she is fertile I think she should start getting physo.

[OiledOlives]

Found an aphidicola walking around yesterday. I collected some (around 100-150 pupae), around 5 callows, and 1 worker and gave it to her. 

Edited by OiledOlives, July 21 2022 - 12:32 PM.

[Ants_Dakota]

Found a cf. specu queen walking around yesterday. I collected some (around 100-150 pupae), around 5 callows, and 1 worker and gave it to her.

Please take this from experience, and also in a kind way, but you may want to spend a little more time going into detail about what is going on with your ants(brood, growth,etc) and less of a daily journal style. But most importantly, PICTURES!!! Everyone wants to see your ants! So upload as many images of them as you can!

[OiledOlives]

 

Found a cf. specu queen walking around yesterday. I collected some (around 100-150 pupae), around 5 callows, and 1 worker and gave it to her.

Please take this from experience, and also in a kind way, but you may want to spend a little more time going into detail about what is going on with your ants(brood, growth,etc) and less of a daily journal style. But most importantly, PICTURES!!! Everyone wants to see your ants! So upload as many images of them as you can!

 

Not really much to see. If possible, please private message me with these kind of comments instead of posting in my journal, as I would prefer my journal to be a straightforward group of updates on my advancements in parasites. Thank you in advance for your compliance

Edited by OiledOlives, July 13 2022 - 11:03 AM.

[OiledOlives]

Aphidicola 1:
Larvae are popping up which is pretty awesome


Aphidicola 2:
Queen is getting physo

Interjectus 1:
Still hasn't laid yet


I got another L. interjectus queen at the blacklight last night that I'm trying to introduce to some L. americanus workers.
 

[OiledOlives]

I successfully introduced the second L. interjectus queen to some claviger callows. She died yesterday, probably due to infertility.

The first aphidicola colony is in a new nest and the second queen is extremely physogastric. 

[OiledOlives]

Lasius aphidicola colony 1:



deceased Lasius interjectus queen: 

[OiledOlives]

L. interjectus is in the fridge

L. aphidicola #1 has biological workers and the queen laid a couple hundred more eggs

L. aphidicola #2 has larvae

Pictures of #1 aphidi coming later.

[OiledOlives]

truly

Sent from my IN2015 using Tapatalk

[OiledOlives]

Some more pictures of my two aphidicola colonies. There are quite a few bios now but much less than I expected.

Sent from my IN2015 using Tapatalk

[OiledOlives]

The majority of colony 1 is bio workers now. The pupae in colony 2 is going to eclose any day now.

Sent from my IN2015 using Tapatalk