125 replies to this topic

[M_Ants]

3 cocoons. Only 5ish days till workers!

[ponerinecat]

anyway how do you tell the difference between ponera and hyponera?

The official differentiation requires examination of the underside of the petiole, Ponera have a clearish window near the front as well as a spike projecting out the back while Hypoponera lack those and have a simple underside.

[M_Ants]

Now at 4 cocoons since yesterday. 

[M_Ants]

I am going to need a better way to feed these soon. Should I add some sort of outworld or do I need to find a new way to dump booklice into the nest? Right now I just remove the lid and add booklice while keeping an eye on the queen. As soon as she has workers that won't work.

Edited by M_Ants, October 27 2020 - 11:54 AM.

[ponerinecat]

I am going to need a better way to feed these soon. Should I add some sort of outworld or do I need to find a new way to dump booklice into the nest? Right now I just remove the lid and add booklice while keeping an eye on the queen. As soon as she has workers that won't work.

I've thought of an automatic cryptic feeder, where you suspend a food item culture over an open outworld with a small funnel  pointed at the outworld below. Enough prey will fall down to feed the colony automatically, while the majority stay in the container to continue the culture. If the colony needs more food, then add more funnels or enlarge the one already there. The culture itself would have multiple layers or "floors" of cardboard or wood, so that only prey that wanders down to the bottom of the container would fall into the outworld. Funnel would have to be metal or some other slippery surface. I haven't tested it yet, but you should be able to try it out relatively easily. I think you could also enlarge it and change the prey item for normal ant colonies, like Camponotus or tetras.

Also, hypos are perfectly fine foraging in an open space so a normal ant outworld would work fine. 

[Ants_Dakota]

 

I am going to need a better way to feed these soon. Should I add some sort of outworld or do I need to find a new way to dump booklice into the nest? Right now I just remove the lid and add booklice while keeping an eye on the queen. As soon as she has workers that won't work.

I've thought of an automatic cryptic feeder, where you suspend a food item culture over an open outworld with a small funnel  pointed at the outworld below. Enough prey will fall down to feed the colony automatically, while the majority stay in the container to continue the culture. If the colony needs more food, then add more funnels or enlarge the one already there. The culture itself would have multiple layers or "floors" of cardboard or wood, so that only prey that wanders down to the bottom of the container would fall into the outworld. Funnel would have to be metal or some other slippery surface. I haven't tested it yet, but you should be able to try it out relatively easily. I think you could also enlarge it and change the prey item for normal ant colonies, like Camponotus or tetras.

Also, hypos are perfectly fine foraging in an open space so a normal ant outworld would work fine. 

 

you could sell that! 

So assuming you have booklice it's fairly easy I think. I found the booklice in the test tube of one of my V. andrei. Anyhow, I'm no expert. I just have a plastic container that I throw stuff in. I don't know if they eat seeds but I threw some in because they were in a test tube with V. andrei which eat seeds. They crawl all over the seeds but that doesn't really mean anything. I throw dried up dead insects like crickets and dubias in there. I recently added some pieces of twig. I don't have any substrate. Occasionally I squirt a little water on something like the wood because they need water and they eat mold I think. However, I put a like a drop. They don't need much and like it dry. When I want to feed the Hypos I grab a piece of something inside and tap some into the Hypos setup. The Hypos setup is just a square box with hyrdrostone. I have a sprinkler part that is basically just a tube the goes in through the side into the hydrostone. I attached a tube to it and poked a hole in the tube. To hydrate the Hypos setup I squirt water into the tube and it soaks into the hydrostone. Hope this helps.

where do you get those black stoppers and plugs in the first pic?

[M_Ants]

Sprinkler parts from Home Depot. 

[M_Ants]

 

I am going to need a better way to feed these soon. Should I add some sort of outworld or do I need to find a new way to dump booklice into the nest? Right now I just remove the lid and add booklice while keeping an eye on the queen. As soon as she has workers that won't work.

I've thought of an automatic cryptic feeder, where you suspend a food item culture over an open outworld with a small funnel  pointed at the outworld below. Enough prey will fall down to feed the colony automatically, while the majority stay in the container to continue the culture. If the colony needs more food, then add more funnels or enlarge the one already there. The culture itself would have multiple layers or "floors" of cardboard or wood, so that only prey that wanders down to the bottom of the container would fall into the outworld. Funnel would have to be metal or some other slippery surface. I haven't tested it yet, but you should be able to try it out relatively easily. I think you could also enlarge it and change the prey item for normal ant colonies, like Camponotus or tetras.

Also, hypos are perfectly fine foraging in an open space so a normal ant outworld would work fine. 

 

I thought about doing this before except not the multiple floors part that's smart.  

[M_Ants]

These are taking much longer than I expected. The waiting is killing me. 

[M_Ants]

5 golden cocoons. 4 new eggs 3 larvae 2.... just kidding. But I actually have 5 cocoons now. On a more serious note how do I get my queen id. Specifically what angles would be most helpful. They're probably just opacior right?

Edited by M_Ants, November 1 2020 - 2:43 PM.

[M_Ants]

Please tell me I didn't just raise this to have a bunch of males. The first cocoon is empty. I think it's a male. I'm so mad right now.

Edited by M_Ants, November 3 2020 - 4:13 PM.

[Antkeeper01]

yeah

the same kind of thing happened to me except I've never seen pheidole i raised a queen for a full 2 months before giving up hope she would get larvae and until about a month ago she was alive'

[ponerinecat]

No, no, that's just a callow. Lacks the deformed body and tiny antennal scapes males have. As for ID, a side shot of the petiole is all I need.

[M_Ants]

Yay! Thank goodness I was scared.

Edited by M_Ants, November 3 2020 - 4:33 PM.

[M_Ants]

2nd cocoon should eclose tomorrow or Friday. The nanitic is starting to turn a little black but only on her abdomen. The rest of her is a golden brown. 

No, no, that's just a callow. Lacks the deformed body and tiny antennal scapes males have. As for ID, a side shot of the petiole is all I need.

How's this?

[M_Ants]

Worker number 2 was right on time. 

[Swirlysnowflake]

asdfghjkl i’m so jellyyyyy I've always wanted to keep this species

[M_Ants]

Catching/keeping them has been way easier than expected. They just showed up on the blacklight at my house. I bet you could get some next year. 

Edited by M_Ants, November 5 2020 - 4:09 PM.

[ponerinecat]

I believe this is H. opaciceps.

[M_Ants]

Oh cool. Never heard of opaciceps but I'll take your word for it.