7 replies to this topic

[yibsi]

(4-22-21) So recently I found a Ponera Pennsylvanica Queen, (first photo) I put her in a test tube set up as always and then got to researching on her. Now Ponera Pennsylvanica are cryptic and mainly nest underground, their mature colonies only have around 130-150 workers, while they mostly stay underground they do send around 1 worker at a time to the surface to forage for food. They mainly eat springtails and other very small insects. I’ve heard that they greatly benefit from a naturalistic set up, as they can hunt the springtails themselves there. So I’ve gotten a 10 gallon aquarium and plan on making it a terrarium for her once she has her first generation, and if she doesn’t make it then I’ll give it to my camponotus colony. I’ve noticed she had a hard time climbing on the glass of her tube and plan to add some dirt once I feed her something. I’ve decided to keep her in her tube and not give her an outworld even though she’s semi-claustral because of the fact in the wild they mainly stay underground and feed on spring tails.

I want to make sure she can get some workers to help her before throwing her into a tank and never seeing her again.

So after reading on her I went to go get her some springtails from another terrarium I had and feed them to her. However I greatly underestimated how hard it was to catch springtails with a pair of tweezers. So after around an hour of trying I gave up, and decided to just give her a bit of crushed up insect. (The juices from a cricket leg) and a bit of honey as seen in the second photo. I noticed that in the time it took me struggling to catch springtails she had taken bits of cotton and strewn them across her test tube so that she could walk across the glass MUCH easier. I was happy as this meant that I didn’t have to add dirt to solve this issue and possibly risk mold. After around 45 minutes she still hadn’t touched either the juice of cricket leg or the honey drop. In fact she seemed to have an aversion to the honey, which seemed very odd, but again this is my first cryptic and I knew that some things would be different. So I decided to give up for now and wipe away the honey and cricket and try again tomorrow as it was getting late, when at the last second I noticed that after I wiped up the honey and cricket juice she began to have a sip of honey once a very tiny bit of it had reached her cotton web. So I immediately took a photo (third photo) then let her enjoy her meal in darkness.

If any ant keepers with more experience with cryptics and more specifically ponera have any advise, please let me know, as I am very new to cryptic ant keeping.

I will try to update regularly and in the beginning around once a week maybe even sooner.

That’s it for now!

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Edited by yibsi, May 27 2021 - 5:38 AM.

[ZTYguy]

Cool! I would just let her be and try and buy a culture of springtails to feed her. That would make it easier on you and her.

 

*edit: you can find them at rainbow mealworms or Josh’s frogs.

Edited by ZTYguy, April 22 2021 - 6:12 PM.

[M_Ants]

I have a little experience keeping Hypoponera so here's my advice. Definitely get the springtails like ZTYguy said. Give her plenty. Also ditch the test tube. You won't have much luck with it. A hydrostone petri dish setup will work much better. Also if you put them in that ten gallon you will never see them again. Keep in mind this is all my opinion and based off my experiences. 

[MinigunL5]

I just caught a colony of these gals recently. So first of all, the species is Ponera pennsylvanica, not pennsylvanicus like the Camponotus species. You probably won't need to buy springtails for them. They're not very picky when compared to other cryptics. Mine have eaten fruit flies and a termite. Yours is a lone queen though so might be a pickier. I suggest you try different foods and see if she'll accept them before you buy springtails. It might help to giver her a little bit of sand or dirt to cover the bottom of the tube so you can make sure she's comfortable. Also, if you put them in a dirt set-up I won't see them much. They're cryptic, so they won't really forage above ground, and, they're small and blend in with soil, making them hard to see.

[Kaelwizard]

I only find them foraging underneath rocks and debris, never on the surface so be aware of that. I would personally ditch the test tube, it looks way too big for her anyway. Also looks extremely wet. My queen that I had briefly would eat most insects I gave her, but her best reaction was for a springtail, which she chased down and killed as soon as she noticed it.

[yibsi]

(Update 4-23-21) Ok so, after hearing your guys advice and researching some more on her I bought some Petri dishes for her. They will arrive in a few days, for now though I wanted to add some dirt for her so she could feel more at home. So I went outside and to grab dirt for her around the same location as where I had found her, while doing so I managed to find a P. Pennsylvanica worker ant, now I read that these guys do accept workers and brood as well. Also the fact that I found the queen in roughly the same spot as this worker meant that they might have even come from the same colony. I also read that these gals don’t tend to do well in the founding stage in captivity without some workers. So I captured the new worker and then gathered some dirt. Here is a photo of the worker and the queen (first photo) the stuff in the background is some of the dirt. They both touched antenna and were not fighting and they actually stayed relatively next to each other, which told me they had accepted each other. Then I added the rest of the dirt. Once I was done I noticed a very tiny earthworm (second photo) the thing had to be a few days old as it was tiny.

I’ve read that these guys do eat earthworms from time to time, but I still was going to take him out, however the queen and worker both stung the worm to death and began to feed, this made me happy as I now know they do have a good bit of protein in their gastors. After they killed it the two began to burrow into the dirt together and you can just barely see the workers head now (third photo).

After that I put them back in the darkness so they could eat in piece.

Also here’s a bonus photo of my camponotus Pennsylvanicus colony (fourth photo) the brood are positioned near the exit cotton ball (most likely because that’s where my heating cable is) and the leg and white thing in the middle are remnants from their last meal. Also that’s not mold back by their test tube it’s a bit of dirt I added for them when it was just the queen.

(Edit: grammar)

Well that’s all for now!

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Edited by yibsi, April 23 2021 - 11:43 AM.

[MinigunL5]

I only find them foraging underneath rocks and debris, never on the surface so be aware of that. I would personally ditch the test tube, it looks way too big for her anyway. Also looks extremely wet. My queen that I had briefly would eat most insects I gave her, but her best reaction was for a springtail, which she chased down and killed as soon as she noticed it.

I think if there's something for them to grip on, they'll do fine in test tubes.

[ponerinecat]

 

I only find them foraging underneath rocks and debris, never on the surface so be aware of that. I would personally ditch the test tube, it looks way too big for her anyway. Also looks extremely wet. My queen that I had briefly would eat most insects I gave her, but her best reaction was for a springtail, which she chased down and killed as soon as she noticed it.

I think if there's something for them to grip on, they'll do fine in test tubes.

 

They'll try to burrow into the cotton. This is fine with a small colony, but once they get larger the tube can end up flooding and ants may get trapped in the water reservoir. My Hypoponera punctatissima were doing fine and had laid eggs but flooded the tube and got 20 or so workers stuck in the reservoir. They had plenty of substrate to mess around with as well, just couldn't resist the humidity.