17 replies to this topic

[Antcatcherpro3]

I found these ants in my yard because I have a lot of colony's of them there. They are the most common ant in my whole yard, they are one of my favorites also. In the past year, I've found at least 5 colonies of them all over my yard. I've kept a few also, but set them back free. The colony I'm keeping has at least 100 workers now, and 1 queen (I'm assuming they only have 1 queen, as if I try to mix the queens, 1 of them ends up dying). Tons of brood also. I didn't think they survived hibernation, but they did and they are healthy. Unfortunately, I won't be taking pics of the queen because they are living in a jar filled with dirt. I put this colum in the middle so they couldn't dig all the way in the middle. I wanted at least some view of them. I will be posting pics of the workers. They don't have any alates yet. Today they ate a hole in a mealworm I gave them. And drank a whole 4 small drops of sugar water. I will be using the liquid feeder soon. As far as I know, these ants eat a lot! I will be posting pics soon.

[Antcatcherpro3]

(They started from a single queen.)

[Dino]

Do you know what type of ant they are?

[Dino]

Oh sorry just read the title 

[antsandmore]

Do you know what type of ant they are?

Nylanderia parvula 

it's in the title. also AntCathcherPro, the species name is lowercase, and only the genus name is capitalized from what I've seen and heard on this forum.

[Antcatcherpro3]

huh

[Antcatcherpro3]

update:They have found some way to escape. There is a lid on the ant farm, but I found 2 workers on the top of it. I applyed fluon to the sides so hopefully that worked.

I will get pics soon.

[Antcatcherpro3]

I caught another one of these colonies in my yard yesterday. I don't really know if I'm keeping them or not. I might release them into a different part of my yard. We were digging up the garden, because the boards were rotted and we were putting in new ones. I knew I would find ants there. My other colony is getting bigger everyday. I fed them half a popsicle stick, and a cricket leg which they both devoured.

Edited by Antcatcherpro3, April 11 2021 - 3:25 AM.

[Antcatcherpro3]

Just so everyone knows that I got the ID right. It can't be Nylanderia deceptrix because, "Nylanderia deceptrix has not been observed to produce a worker caste (we observed no features among the thousands of N. parvula workers examined that would indicate N. deceptrix workers were present; i.e. all conformed to the expected worker morphology of N. parvula)" and there are only 2 species of Nylanderia in MA according to antwiki. So It is Nylanderia parvula.

[Kaelwizard]

Okay... Could we see pictures of them? I really want some Nylanderia.

Oh yeah, you should probably state your source for that quote.

Edited by Kaelwizard, April 11 2021 - 5:27 AM.

[Antcatcherpro3]

Sure, I get some pics and post them.

Also, do you know when Nylanderia have their nuptial flights?

[Dino]

I don't know the date but this post has a list of ant species and when they fly you can check for Nylanderia

https://www.formicul...ngmating-chart/

[Kaelwizard]

Sure, I get some pics and post them.

Also, do you know when Nylanderia have their nuptial flights?

I don’t know honestly.

[Antcatcherpro3]

Ok..... I have no idea what happened, but the when I went to take pics of the new colony, the queen was teared apart into like 3 peices. So now this journal will be about my bigger colony...

[Antcatcherpro3]

I will still post pics though. My bigger colony is doing very well. And their story goes back at least a year. Their colony is around 50-70 workers. When I first found them, they were inside a shell buried in my garden. They eat a lot. The jar of dirt that they live has never molded. I thought they were gonners over hibernation, but they were actually very alive when I took them out. There are tons of millipedes, springtails, and other creatures living in the dirt that keeps mold from growing They had problems with flooding, but got over that too. They are truly one of my favorite colonies. They have gone through a lot.

[Antcatcherpro3]

And based off the chart, Nylanderia fly from around late spring, to mid summer.

[Dino]

The queen was ripped apart 

Do you have any idea how and why it happened?

[Antcatcherpro3]

No.....

The queen was ripped apart 

Do you have any idea how and why it happened?