14 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

10-12-2013
 
I found this Brachymyrmex sp. queen wandering around under the bright florescent lights of a gas station in Indio, California, on September 13th 2013.
Original ID thread: https://www.formicul...rnia-9-14-2013/
 

 

 

 
It started laying eggs within a couple days and so far has a nice pile of brood with really, really tiny cocoons.
 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 10-19-2013
 
She just had her first two nanitic workers eclose today.
 

 

[wook]

They are very nice, but I wouldn't keep them.... lol

[Crystals]

They are very nice, but I wouldn't keep them.... lol

Not all ants can be aggressive biters.    And some of us prefer a couple of more laid back colonies, especially if there are escapees and other people in the household.

[wook]

Not all ants can be aggressive biters.    And some of us prefer a couple of more laid back colonies, especially if there are escapees and other people in the household.

Hahahahaha, today I found queen of Messor structor, I believe you would love them.

[dspdrew]

Update 3-18-2014

 

This colony has grown to about 40 workers now. I had to move them to a new test tube because he original was starting to dry out. I moved them using one of my test tube transfer/foraging containers. I had a light directly on them, and the new test tube was covered. They didn't move until the cotton completely dried out, which took about a month.

[dspdrew]

Update 7-12-2014

 

Over the last few months the workers slowly died off while the queen wasn't laying any new eggs. Pretty soon she was down to just two workers, when I finally just released her.

[Gregory2455]

How large is the queen?

[dspdrew]

5mm

[Gregory2455]

Is there any species that the queen looks like this or like Tapinoma sessile, but is only 3mm?

They look similar to these, but almost identical to Tapinoma sessile. They are too small to get a remotley 

OK picture of them so I do not put an ID thread but I really wanna know what they are. I caught them mating,

so they are definetly fertile. The males are only 1/3 of the queen's size!

[dspdrew]

Not anything I know about.

[dspdrew]

Update 8-8-2014

 

I just found two more of these queens around 7-27-2014. One I found in Trabuco Canyon, California, and the other I found up at Little Thomas Mountain in the San Jacinto Mountains. I decided to put both together in the same test tube, and so far they are getting along just find, and already have a small pile of eggs.

[dspdrew]

Update 8-31-2014
 
These two new queens have a few workers now.
 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 11-26-2014
 
Last week I moved these into a foraging container. They are up to about 35 workers now. Yesterday I gave them a liquid feeder full of hummingbird nectar, and they all filled up pretty good.
 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 3-16-2015

 

The colony slowly died off, ending with both queens dead.