354 replies to this topic

[NicholasP]

Lots of mass deaths in almost every colony due to me being away for nearly two weeks. The worst one is probably the Anochetus colony, all their brood except for some eggs and small larvae and nearly half of the workers have died. Luckily the queen survived and let's all hope they'll make a quick recovery.

I'm very sorry about that. Hopefully you find more queens though.

[ANTS_KL]

Why not catch the queens instead. Dummy

Hem hem hem... And now for my grand speech against what you just said... I used to defend you but once I saw your disrespectful comments everything changed. You only have a few months of experience while he has years of experience. Just because Ants Canada did something doesn't mean that it should be done. Like him mixing 7 Camponotus colonies together without many precautions in place if anything went wrong. Pharaoh ants are known to sometimes carry salmonella, staphylococcus, and clostridium. If they were to breach the setup, they have a much easier time at getting into his other colonies without him noticing since they'd probably be closer to his native species which probably wouldn't stand a chance against a big colony of Monomorium pharaonis. Also, you have never kept a single invasive species that you have listed in your journals. Telling someone who has years of experience what to do and especially in a rude manner is not a smart idea as you are having problems keeping your current ants alive.. I want to say nice things about you but your recent comments aren't being nice.

He may just be getting cocky because of said nice comments.

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Gnamptogenys has three pupae and she laid a few more eggs.

O. simillimus has 9 workers.

Both Anochetus colonies are doing nicely and both have newly hatched larvae.

Good luck with ur Gnampto

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[SYUTEO]

O. simillimus has a failed pupation  , hopefully it won't happen again.

 

Trichomyrmex laid more eggs.

[ANTS_KL]

O. simillimus has a failed pupation  , hopefully it won't happen again.

 

Trichomyrmex laid more eggs.

I wonder why trap-jaws have failed pupations so often...

[ANTS_KL]

Hey SYUTEO! Just wanted to update you on something. Gnamptogenys seems to have been resorted and the ones in Malaysia have been moved to Holcoponera and Stictoponera. If you can roughly ID the genus you should update your ant lists! 

[SYUTEO]

Hey SYUTEO! Just wanted to update you on something. Gnamptogenys seems to have been resorted and the ones in Malaysia have been moved to Holcoponera and Stictoponera. If you can roughly ID the genus you should update your ant lists! 

Hmm, interesting. I will update the post, she is most likely Stictoponera since the only Holcoponera sp in Malaysia doesn't resemble her. Thanks for letting me know!

Edited by SYUTEO, March 10 2022 - 2:51 AM.

[SYUTEO]

Look who's finally here! 

And here are the trap jaws, even though you can only see two or three workers in this picture, there are actually eight in the colony (one died ) , they're just hiding. Also they have a new pupa! (not visible in pic because at the time of this pic was taken the larva haven't completed spinning it's cocoon yet)

Also for some reason my Odontomachus HATE high humidity, whenever the humidity gets higher the larvae will fail to pupate but when the humidity gets lower the larvae will successfully pupate.

[ANTS_KL]

Look who's finally here! 

And here are the trap jaws, even though you can only see two or three workers in this picture, there are actually eight in the colony (one died ) , they're just hiding. Also they have a new pupa! (not visible in pic because at the time of this pic was taken the larva haven't completed spinning it's cocoon yet)

Also for some reason my Odontomachus HATE high humidity, whenever the humidity gets higher the larvae will fail to pupate but when the humidity gets lower the larvae will successfully pupate.

Maybe because the wet soil sticks to the pupa, workers can't remove it all ant the larva suffocates. Dry soil probably makes it easier for the workers to remove. Also, congrats on the Gnamptogenys!

[SYUTEO]

 

Look who's finally here! 

And here are the trap jaws, even though you can only see two or three workers in this picture, there are actually eight in the colony (one died ) , they're just hiding. Also they have a new pupa! (not visible in pic because at the time of this pic was taken the larva haven't completed spinning it's cocoon yet)

Also for some reason my Odontomachus HATE high humidity, whenever the humidity gets higher the larvae will fail to pupate but when the humidity gets lower the larvae will successfully pupate.

Maybe because the wet soil sticks to the pupa, workers can't remove it all ant the larva suffocates. Dry soil probably makes it easier for the workers to remove. Also, congrats on the Gnamptogenys!

 

The nanitic took three months to develop.

 

And I might have caught a Cardiocondyla queen.

[ANTS_KL]

 

 

Look who's finally here! 

And here are the trap jaws, even though you can only see two or three workers in this picture, there are actually eight in the colony (one died ) , they're just hiding. Also they have a new pupa! (not visible in pic because at the time of this pic was taken the larva haven't completed spinning it's cocoon yet)

Also for some reason my Odontomachus HATE high humidity, whenever the humidity gets higher the larvae will fail to pupate but when the humidity gets lower the larvae will successfully pupate.

Maybe because the wet soil sticks to the pupa, workers can't remove it all ant the larva suffocates. Dry soil probably makes it easier for the workers to remove. Also, congrats on the Gnamptogenys!

 

The nanitic took three months to develop.

 

And I might have caught a Cardiocondyla queen.

 

Can you send some images in Google Chat?

[SYUTEO]

 

 

 

Look who's finally here! 

And here are the trap jaws, even though you can only see two or three workers in this picture, there are actually eight in the colony (one died ) , they're just hiding. Also they have a new pupa! (not visible in pic because at the time of this pic was taken the larva haven't completed spinning it's cocoon yet)

Also for some reason my Odontomachus HATE high humidity, whenever the humidity gets higher the larvae will fail to pupate but when the humidity gets lower the larvae will successfully pupate.

Maybe because the wet soil sticks to the pupa, workers can't remove it all ant the larva suffocates. Dry soil probably makes it easier for the workers to remove. Also, congrats on the Gnamptogenys!

 

The nanitic took three months to develop.

 

And I might have caught a Cardiocondyla queen.

 

Can you send some images in Google Chat?

 

Alright, I sent them.

[SYUTEO]

Cardiocondyla laid about five eggs.

[SYUTEO]

Odontomachus kept failing to pupate.

 

Gnamptogenys (Stictoponera) has 3 workers.

[NicholasP]

Odontomachus kept failing to pupate.

 

Gnamptogenys (Stictoponera) has 3 workers.

Odontomachus suck at pupating for some reason in captivity. I wonder if it's the same problem in the wild. If it is the same problem in the will then I'm very surprised Odontomachus haven't gone extinct yet.

[SYUTEO]

Cardiocondyla has larvae.

 

Odontomachus has mites.

[SYUTEO]

Cardiocondyla has more larvae and pupae should be coming very soon.

 

Gnamptogenys (Stictoponera) has 4 workers, a new pupa and a lot of new larvae.

[SYUTEO]

Can't remember if I ever updated you about this but I gave the Fire ants an outworld.

 

T. cf mayri queen gave me an April fools joke by playing dead.

 

Cardiocondyla has a nanitic!

Anochetus sp1 has recovered from their previous loss, here's them feeding on a roach. I also managed to get the queen on camera by accident. Find her if you can   . And I know that it's not a good picture but that's the best I could get.

M. monomorium has grown a LOT, just look at their brood pile! And yeah, they're still living in their old tube, I'm trying to move them but they don't want to.

And now for some sad news , my oldest colony (Camponotus parius) has started to only produce males and the amount of brood and workers have gone down quite a lot so I suspected that the queen might have passed away, whether it's from old age, from something I did wrong or something else I don't know. Queen ants in Malaysia and many other tropical ants don't live as long as in temperate climates. The oldest captive queen of C. parius I know lived up to 4 years but I heard they can live up to 15 years! Mine lived for 2 years and 6 months so I think I might have done something wrong or something else happened, possibly the mites (if she really did pass away). Here's the last picture of her I found from about 8-10 months ago (she sometimes comes out to the outworld but very rarely) :

[NicholasP]

Can't remember if I ever updated you about this but I gave the Fire ants an outworld.

 

T. cf mayri queen gave me an April fools joke by playing dead.

 

Cardiocondyla has a nanitic!

Anochetus sp1 has recovered from their previous loss, here's them feeding on a roach. I also managed to get the queen on camera by accident. Find her if you can   . And I know that it's not a good picture but that's the best I could get.

M. monomorium has grown a LOT, just look at their brood pile! And yeah, they're still living in their old tube, I'm trying to move them but they don't want to.

And now for some sad news , my oldest colony (Camponotus parius) has started to only produce males and the amount of brood and workers have gone down quite a lot so I suspected that the queen might have passed away, whether it's from old age, from something I did wrong or something else I don't know. Queen ants in Malaysia and many other tropical ants don't live as long as in temperate climates. The oldest captive queen of C. parius I know lived up to 4 years but I heard they can live up to 15 years! Mine lived for 2 years and 6 months so I think I might have done something wrong or something else happened, possibly the mites (if she really did pass away). Here's the last picture of her I found from about 8-10 months ago (she sometimes comes out to the outworld but very rarely) :

It's also possible that they've reached the certain number of workers needed to produce alates. Because, all ant species when they hit the number of workers needed for alates will continue to make workers but 1-2 months before nuptial flights of that species they turn almost all of their brood production into alate production. So I wouldn't be worried just yet. On the contrary I'd be overjoyed since not many people raise ants to mature colony size! Well done!

[SYUTEO]

The fire ants have gotten their first proper major! And from what I can see in their tube, there are more coming!

 

Cardiocondyla has their third worker

 

Gnamptogenys (Stictoponera) has 5 workers, 3 pupae, and plenty of eggs and larvae.

 

Edit: Wow I just realized I'm posting this very late, what am I doing?!

Edited by SYUTEO, April 10 2022 - 7:15 AM.

[ANTS_KL]

The fire ants have gotten their first proper major! And from what I can see in their tube, there are more coming!

 

Cardiocondyla has their third worker

 

Gnamptogenys (Stictoponera) has 5 workers, 3 pupae, and plenty of eggs and larvae.

 

Edit: Wow I just realized I'm posting this very late, what am I doing?!

I was out anting at 12 PM lol