12 replies to this topic

[Manitobant]

As the weather gets colder and the 2020 anting season comes to a close, I wanted to make a thread detailing our biggest discoveries, catches, and overall highlights of this season. I will start:


This season has been quite successful. I managed to catch around 150 queens this year, from common species such as formica subsericea to rare species like lasius subglaber. As for discoveries, i managed to find what i believe to be a colony of the slave making temnothorax pilagens, which has never been recorded in manitoba before.

Edited by Manitobant, September 27 2020 - 1:07 PM.

[ANTdrew]

How is Formica subsericea a trash species?
Anyway, my highlights were:
-starting blacklighting and finding tons of Pheidole bicarinata queens
-Coming across several huge Monomorium mating swarms
-Starting a Nylanderia vividula colony that has been incredibly fun.
-Creating an awesome set up for my Crematogaster with a Nucleus, shelves, tubing, and a huge outworld.
-Making $710 selling colonies, most of which are very successful still.
Not sure how I would have dealt with this sh*tty year without ants and my garden.

Edited by ANTdrew, September 27 2020 - 11:12 AM.

[B_rad0806]

Heres mine: Catching almost 50 Myrmecocystus queens in the desert after thinking they won't fly for the year. That may have been the greatest moment I've ever had in ant keeping. 

[NickAnter]

Getting a mated Solenopsis truncorum queen

-Getting my Nylanderia colony to female alates!

-Found Myrmecophile beetles in a Formica perpilosa colony!

Nothing else. It was a dud year for me in terms of finding many new queens. Last year, we had a ton of flights, but I lacked experience, so most of my ants died.

 

Oh, and I did see a male Stigmatomma in the sierras.

[TennesseeAnts]

For me:

1. Successfully keeping a colony of Neivamyrmex nigrescens
2. Being somewhat successful with Trachymyrmex
3. Finding tons of Pheidole
4. Making around 7 new state records!

[KitsAntVa]

Here’s mine
Starting off ant keeping with 12 colony’s and basically starting a little shop for making nests and selling ants.

Also starting off the year of ant keeping catching 5/6 of the pheidole species in virginia.

Edited by KitsAntVa, September 28 2020 - 4:11 AM.

[TechAnt]

Finding something that are not Argentine Ants in my area. I never even caught a single queen of anything this year. Hopefully I can catch some Crematogaster as a colony has moved in right down the street.

Edited by TechAnt, September 27 2020 - 5:11 PM.

[dspdrew]

Worst summer-time anting season I've seen in my 8 years of doing this.

[CheetoLord02]

2020 has been the greatest year for me so far, just in general. Although admittedly most of that can be attributed to ants:

My species list more than tripled, going from 42 total to now 134 total.
I moved to the best place in the country for anting
I helped discover over 30 undocumented species total for 3 different states
I raised a colony of Solenopsis ocellata, which has never been done before
I captured and am currently having success with a Neivamyrmex opacithorax colony
Having success with 3 different genera of fungus growers (Atta journal coming soon?)
I have accumulated a 2:1 rep:post ratio here on Formiculture
I visited 6 states that I had never been to before
I turned 18 and graduated high school!
My ant ID skills improved tremendously

But, the biggest thing for me is that I built up relationships with my best friends to entirely new levels. I joined AnthonyP163, Mdrogun, and others on numerous anting trips throughout the year, all the while discovering undocumented species, expanding our species lists, and having an absolute blast. Even after leaving them behind in the midwest, we still maintain the best friendship that I've personally ever had. Furthermore, after moving halfway across the country to an entirely new state, I was able to meet so many new antkeepers thanks to the internet, and have now assembled an entirely new network of Arizona antkeepers to share my experience with. They've given me excuses to travel all over the state and catch flights from all over, helping me expand my portfolio significantly.

I really couldn't have gotten to where I am today without the help of the Formiculture and Discord antkeeping communities. Had I not gotten into these online groups, I have a feeling that I would have just dropped antkeeping like most of my other hobbies. But instead here I am, speaking as an experienced member of the community, hopefully pursuing a career in entomology in the future. So truly, thank you, everybody who has helped me get this far.

The 2020 season here in AZ is far from over, so here's to whatever the rest of 2020 has to offer! 

Edited by CheetoLord02, October 4 2020 - 5:59 AM.

[Ants_Dakota]

For me, it was getting a lot of help for AntsDakota. the website is so much closer to being published, and we have a lot of people who are going to sell formicaiurms on it. Thanks everyone for your support!

[Scherme]

My ants aren't dead yet! 

 

Everything I have caught this year is still alive. 

 

I have had a growing colony for several months straight A win for me!

[ANTdrew]

How is Formica subsericea a trash species?
Anyway, my highlights were:
-starting blacklighting and finding tons of Pheidole bicarinata queens
-Coming across several huge Monomorium mating swarms
-Starting a Nylanderia vividula colony that has been incredibly fun.
-Creating an awesome set up for my Crematogaster with a Nucleus, shelves, tubing, and a huge outworld.
-Making $710 selling colonies, most of which are very successful still.
Not sure how I would have dealt with this sh*tty year without ants and my garden.

Adding to mine: I *finally* found a dealate Lasius neoniger queen today after several years of trying. So pumped!

[DDD101DDD]

My ants didn't die yet.

Saw a Formica rufa group raid while looking for Trachymyrmex(never found any sadly).

Lasius got over 100 workers in 1 year.

Found a Crematogaster queen.

 

Not that much happened.

Edited by DDD101DDD, September 28 2020 - 1:01 PM.