45 replies to this topic

[Antkeeper01]

Update? did this colony die?

[CheetoLord02]

I know everybody's been wanting an update, but you probably won't be too happy with me for this. A few months ago I had let the nest get too dry and all of the workers died. Thankfully the queen survived, and I got her moved into a test tube, but I kinda just threw her on the backburner for a while and only fed her enough to stay alive and not raise any new brood. She laid eggs a few times, but never past that. Feeding daily in a test tube is a nightmare, and stresses the queen out super unnecessarily. 

So, to try and give this queen a chance again, I decided to experiment with a type of setup I've seen used a fair bit, specifically in the Asian antkeeping community with their Ponerines. Some of you will probably recognize it:
 

 

It's essentially just a dirt setup with an artificial chamber, but the creation of a chamber seems to encourage the queen not to dig, and she's gotten settled quite nicely in there and laid 3 new eggs. I even see her foraging once in a while, and have been offering fruit flies accordingly. Hopefully this setup will allow her to refound, and if so we can get this colony going again. I'm still not a huge fan of the primitive ants like these and may end up selling them down the line, but for now she's still here and kicking.

[CheetoLord02]

Unfortunately the old queen died on me when I went out of state for a few weeks. Luckily I have since caught 2 new O. clarus queens, and will be raising them. One has 3 eggs and one has none, so not much to show at the moment, but I'll add some pics once they get significant progress going.

[FloridaAnts]

Update?

Odontomachus ruginodis males flew last night in Florida, any flights in AZ?

Edited by FloridaAnts, May 28 2022 - 2:45 PM.

[CheetoLord02]

Major flights in AZ won't be happening for another 4 weeks minimum, or whenever our summer monsoon season starts.

The O. clarus in this journal died, although I now have O. desertorum that I could possibly consider reviving this journal for.

[FloridaAnts]

All Odontomachus are the same for me, as for my local species, they all look the same. O. Relictus, ruginodis, Brunneus.