115 replies to this topic

[ashley1505]

I once harvested weaver ants from a tree by cutting off a branch of weaved leaves then placed them in a tank with a small plant (hoping they would move in). In just a few hours, some ants started dying even though they were not hurt in any way, eventually the weaved leaves came apart and there were no queen or larva/eggs, only workers... I decided to bring them all back to their tree so that the rest will reunite w their family again... it still puzzles me why they started dying, I can only imagine it's the stress from being in a new env.

[ANTS_KL]

aha fooled you didn't i? well i have bad and good news. bad news: weaver ded, similimus larva pupated but me think it ded. and pheidole parva and rixosus dying. Good news: everyone else i have are booming in population.

[ANTS_KL]

update:  trap jaw died. now i only have a pheidole parva founding pair, a philidris sp queen, a tetramorium colony and a nylanderia colony. my bca arent doin' good so i won't update on them anymore.

[SYUTEO]

I found something quite peculiar, all the forest species are dying while all the urban species are doing very well. To prevent your Philidris queen from dying, I suggest you to move her to a different place in your house, preferably cooler. The temperature I keep my ants in is 25-28 degrees C.

[ANTS_KL]

I'm back. Nylanderia at around 150 workers. Yay! Tetra at maybe 90+? Yay! And my Pheidole have like 16 nanitics somehow. Yay!

Sent from my CPH2201 using Tapatalk

[SYUTEO]

That's great! Hope the others are doing well too.

[ANTS_KL]

E
I have finally decided to stop slacking off and update again. My ants are doing great! The Nylanderia are at 250+ and Tetra at around 100+. My P. parva have around 25-30 workers and a major pupa. I have a new Trap Jaw who is really prolific and laying lots of eggs. I also got a couple new queens yesterday which are Camponotus parius, Colobopsis vitrea, a pair of Pseudolasius streesemani and a Hypoponera lumpurensis. My Camponotus and Colobopsis queens haven't shed their wings so I'm kinda just praying at this point. And my Pseudolasius are founding together since they are polygynous to some degree from what I've heard. Hypoponera is in fact eating so fingers crossed I get workers. It was actually a Polyrhachis species nuptial flight yesterday but I couldn't get any queens since I ran out of containers

[ANTdrew]

Nylandria are so cool. Nice work.

[SYUTEO]

Glad you finally got your Camponotus! Good luck with her and all of your other queens and colonies!

Edited by SYUTEO, October 24 2021 - 5:56 AM.

[ANTS_KL]

Sucks to be me I guess. Because I kinda forgot to mention that the Hypoponera was saved from some bca and now she's kinda... dead. It seems the formic acid has kicked in...

[SYUTEO]

One of my Solenopsis geminata queen's is recued from an Odontoponera denticulata worker, many of them had their gasters seperated from the rest of their bodies. She recovered, hopefully your Hypoponera queen will recover too.

[ANTS_KL]

One of my Solenopsis geminata queen's is recued from an Odontoponera denticulata worker, many of them had their gasters seperated from the rest of their bodies. She recovered, hopefully your Hypoponera queen will recover too.

she might recover but i doubt it. She is still moving-ish so i guess that's a good sign

[ANTS_KL]

A M    L U C K
OMG GUYS YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED YESTERDAY AT NIGHT! It was 2-3 hours after a heavy rain and around 7 p.m. in Malaysia. I went to my grandaunts house (my favorite anting place) with my mom and turned on the brightest lights outside the house. There was a white wall close to them so I knew I would find at least one queen. And as I was looking around I saw Nylanderia and Pheidole queens flying around mating. Few mins later, I turned around to see a Pheidole queen twice the size of Pheidole parva queens. She flew over to the wall and more followed. After a while I started seeing some of them shed their wings so I managed to scoop up 10 of them! And as I was getting ready to leave, I saw a queen of my dream species fly past me. IRIDOMYRMEX ANCEPS!! I watched her fly about and eventually she mated and shed her wings. Captured. I then went on to spot another Iridomyrmex dealate and Solenopsis geminata dealate. I captured a total of 13 queens! Now I suspect the Pheidole are Pheidole longipes but I don't really know about Malaysia's Pheidole species. I am very very happy now     I will get pics as soon as I can use my phone. Wish me luck on founding 3 amazing ant species!

EDIT: I just did some digging. The Pheidole aren't Pheidole longipes but they still look cool!

Edited by ANTS_KL, October 25 2021 - 3:24 PM.

[SYUTEO]

Congrats!

 

Also what do the Pheidole look like? Maybe I can try to give you an ID.

[ANTS_KL]

Congrats!

 

Also what do the Pheidole look like? Maybe I can try to give you an ID.

Looks like a 9mm long version of C. diversa. A little like mini Pheidole rhea. Also there are at least 5 species that look like that in Malaysia. I'll try to dig around antweb and antwiki.

[SYUTEO]

 

Congrats!

 

Also what do the Pheidole look like? Maybe I can try to give you an ID.

Looks like a 9mm long version of C. diversa. A little like mini Pheidole rhea. Also there are at least 5 species that look like that in Malaysia. I'll try to dig around antweb and antwiki.

 

Does she look like P. comata or P. montana?

[ANTS_KL]

 

 

Congrats!

 

Also what do the Pheidole look like? Maybe I can try to give you an ID.

Looks like a 9mm long version of C. diversa. A little like mini Pheidole rhea. Also there are at least 5 species that look like that in Malaysia. I'll try to dig around antweb and antwiki.

 

Does she look like P. comata or P. montana?

 

I can't find queen specimens on the database but I'm assuming she is P. comata due to her blackish brown coloration. Thanks!

Edited by ANTS_KL, October 25 2021 - 10:02 PM.

[ANTS_KL]

UPDATE
The new queens have eggs!! My old colonies are doing very well and my Trap-jaw almost has larvae! I actually experimented with the Pheidole and made a 1 queen setup, 2 queen setup, 3 queen setup, and 4 queen setup. All 10 of the queens are very healthy and their brood piles are quite large for just a few days after I obtained them! The Iridomyrmex have laid small batches of eggs too! The second queen was kinda skinny so I gave her a drop of stingless bee honey and I'm glad she liked it. Solenopsis queen has also laid. I counted around 14-16 eggs.

[ANTS_KL]

THE RETURN (1 month later bcs I got lazy again!)

Hello, I am back! With good and bad news to share! (bad news comes first)

Odontomachus queen lost all her larvae due to failed pupating and stuff but she can start over so I'm not very concerned
The single Pheidole cf. comata queen failed founding and I will keep her just in case
Pseudolasius killed her sister and did not lay eggs
Pheidole parva got sick or something
Camponotus parius unmated

Good news:

New Dinomyrmex gigas queen! (1 egg)
New Ghost Ant colony! (I'm not that pleased but its good news I guess?)
New Oecophylla smaragdina queen! (no eggs but I'm hoping she succeeds)
The rest of the Pheidole and the Solenopsis geminata have nanitics!
Iridomyrmex nanitics in a week or 2!

that's all for this update, and uhhh I'll post pics when I'm not lazy to move the images from my phone to my computer!
Cya!

Edited by ANTS_KL, November 21 2021 - 5:01 PM.

[ANTS_KL]

UPDATE
Pheidole cf. comata, Solenopsis geminata and Iridomyrmex anceps are doing very well! I am passing my Solenopsis geminata colony to my neighbor soon so I'll have to say goodbye...
Odontomachus has no brood I hope she can restart
Meanwhile the old colonies are doing very well! I don't even have to update on any of them as they have been the same for very long now.
Oecophylla queen is fine. She is alive but no brood. Hoping to find more!
Pseudolasius is alive and might get larvae soon!!
Dinomyrmex gigas and Ghost ants sadly passed away...
And lastly, a new addition! Monomorium floricola! This is a very interesting species as they are commonly found nesting in tree branches and collect nectar from flowers as sustenance. So far they take the honey and mealworm I have provided so I'm hoping this goes well!