43 replies to this topic

[futurebird]

Azteca should be on this list, at least the species that are associated with Cecropia trees. You'd basically have to keep a whole tree just to keep the ants with it. And Azteca colonies get massive; probably on-par with or larger than Liometopum.

For some reason I think Azteca alfari are really cool.

Imagine living in a city that grew all around you, a green world designed to meet your every need.



I love them.

[ANTS_KL]

 

 

I'm going to say Acropyga because similar to what Manitobant said about Melissotarsus, Acropyga ants tend to root aphids for honeydew as their main source of food. And Allomerus because they make traps on extremely spiky plants to catch prey.

acropyga can be kept in a dirt setup with plants for their aphids I'm pretty sure. Also the allomerus and the pseudomyrmex OP mentioned would probably do fine outside of their plant, as other genera like azteca or philidris do well in artificial nests.

 

 
Wow acropyga are now my new obsession. This video about them is so good. 

 
Acropyga, lives underground their whole lives and farms mealybugs to survive. That's interesting but lots of ants farm other insects for honeydew--
 
What makes this incredible is that when the queens of acropyga leave to mate and start new colonies they *select* a single mealybug to take with them to start their new colony.
This means ants invented a kind of unconscious selective breeding.
 
 
 
Think about the evolutionary pressures! The mealybugs are going to evolve to be the most "selectable" ... the queens will evolve better selection skills.
This has gone on so long neither the ants nor their herds can live on their own anymore.
 
But, to be an ant colony that never needs to risk going above ground for food... never revealing the location of your colony ... that's a huge advantage!
I wonder what other hidden ants remain still undiscovered?
 
John LaPolla shows in the video how this has been going on for TWENTY MILLION years!

 

I'm rlly late on this but i just thought of something. anyone know green beans?? we could grow those in a sandwich dirt setup and keep acropyga!! ill definitely try this idea if i find a queen

[11.11.00]

Eciton army ants should be up there. 

California Academy of Sciences had a team of myrmecologists (the same team behind antweb), a rainforest dome with a diameter close to 100 feet complete with a pirahna river, and a massive budget and the colony still died within half a year. 

 

On asian blogs, they say the large pheidoles (sinica, ocellata, smythiesii) can be hard to keep alive as well as cerapachys as they need low temps and high humidity in the case of the pheidole which is hard to get right in asian cities. And for cerapachys, they seem to need low enough temperatures so they will reproduce

Edited by 11.11.00, August 19 2021 - 7:29 PM.

[Leo]

cerapachys are a pain to keep alive

[11.11.00]

I guess tetraponera rufonigra can be added. The difficulty isn't keeping them alive, but keeping them contained. They get large colonies and are good climbers as well as a painful sting. If their sting is a 10, I"d say pogonomyrmex is a 2-4 depending on the species.

 

If you get stung, you'll seriously consider pouring a whole gallon of bleach down the colony.

[futurebird]

My Pogonomyrmex have never stung me and I'm terrified of when it will happen... but I'm really careful. I will skip rufonigra. I don't mind ants that pinch, but no thank you to getting stung. 

[SYUTEO]

I guess tetraponera rufonigra can be added. The difficulty isn't keeping them alive, but keeping them contained. They get large colonies and are good climbers as well as a painful sting. If their sting is a 10, I"d say pogonomyrmex is a 2-4 depending on the species.

 

If you get stung, you'll seriously consider pouring a whole gallon of bleach down the colony.

Tetraponera queens are actually considered to be rare even though colonies are still abundant because they don't fly after rain and instead fly on the most random days so encountering a fertile queen is highly unlikely. T. rufonigra nuptial flights also happen only once or twice in a year in one area and they also don't fly exactly one year after the previous one to find a queen, you will have to be extremely lucky. Even if you did somehow managed to catch a queen, she might still not make it as they are very hard to raise from a queen. Even worse, egg to worker takes two months! So you will have to feed her every single day in those two months until the workers finally arrive. You can obviously put a large tray or any other flat container that's big enough and fill it with oil or water mixed with a little dish soap so they will never end up escaping. So the next time you consider pouring bleach on to them, think again.

[Leo]

I guess tetraponera rufonigra can be added. The difficulty isn't keeping them alive, but keeping them contained. They get large colonies and are good climbers as well as a painful sting. If their sting is a 10, I"d say pogonomyrmex is a 2-4 depending on the species.

 

If you get stung, you'll seriously consider pouring a whole gallon of bleach down the colony.

 its not that bad imo

[Leptomyrmx]

I'm working on a dirt setup for Acropyga, just in case I ever find a queen. I'll plant some mustard plants in there, apparently the attract root aphids. I've actually seen these ants before, I lifted up a rock and saw 2 workers just looking really confused by this 'light' stuff, lol.

 

Impossible to keep... well, I suppose Camponotus inflatus since they're illegal to keep-

[DDD101DDD]

I'm working on a dirt setup for Acropyga, just in case I ever find a queen. I'll plant some mustard plants in there, apparently the attract root aphids. I've actually seen these ants before, I lifted up a rock and saw 2 workers just looking really confused by this 'light' stuff, lol.

 

Impossible to keep... well, I suppose Camponotus inflatus since they're illegal to keep-

Illegal doesn't mean impossible to be fair.

[Chickalo]

Besides the obvious army ants, i have a few:

1. Subfamily proceratiinae, which need super high humidity and only eat spider eggs, something most antkeepers cannot obtain in large quantities.

2. Melissotarsus, which only nest in live trees and exclusively tend scale insects.

It'd be interesting if both

A.  People bred spiders for the sole purpose of collecting some of the eggs, freezing them or something, and shipping them to Ant-Keepers with proceratiinae, or them breeding them themselves, successfully making a Spider Egg Farm lol, though the hobby would need to grow considerably more for that to happen.

B.  Same thing with scale insects, wild caught and then placed onto, like, bonsai, with a setup like AntsCanada, let them breed, and remove some and ship them to said Ant-Keeper.  Also, would it be possible to keep them in, like, a greenhouse or something?

 

Also, if there was enough space, like MASSIVE space, keeping Army Ants could happen, the main problem is the intake they need, it would require masses of insects to keep them fed.

[Leptomyrmx]

 

I'm working on a dirt setup for Acropyga, just in case I ever find a queen. I'll plant some mustard plants in there, apparently the attract root aphids. I've actually seen these ants before, I lifted up a rock and saw 2 workers just looking really confused by this 'light' stuff, lol.

 

Impossible to keep... well, I suppose Camponotus inflatus since they're illegal to keep-

Illegal doesn't mean impossible to be fair.

 

I guess so. : P

 

They're impossible to legally keep though?

So they're impossible in one way...

But that would make every species 'impossible' to keep, because, you can't keep ants without feeding them...

I hope that's not off topic-

 

Haidomyrmecines are also impossible to keep because they're extinct B )

unless we brought them back from the dead-

I'd totally kee- dang they aren't found in Australia...

[Idontexist]

I would have to add Atta cephalotes to this for the sole reason of having absolutely massive colonies, numbering in the millions. They are impossible to contain long term unless you have a full entomology lab where you can keep such a huge setup, and keep up with their insane demands for food.

god damnit. Those guys are native here in campeche mexico and i wanted a queen.

[antsriondel]

 And Azteca colonies get massive; probably on-par with or larger than Liometopum.

how big do liometopum get????

Edited by antsriondel, January 5 2022 - 5:15 PM.

[Antkeeper01]

 

 And Azteca colonies get massive; probably on-par with or larger than Liometopum.

how big do liometopum get????

 

like 90,000 according to antwiki(at least one sp does)

Edited by Antkeeper01, January 5 2022 - 6:05 PM.

[PaigeX]

I'm working on a dirt setup for Acropyga, just in case I ever find a queen. I'll plant some mustard plants in there, apparently the attract root aphids. I've actually seen these ants before, I lifted up a rock and saw 2 workers just looking really confused by this 'light' stuff, lol.

 

Impossible to keep... well, I suppose Camponotus inflatus since they're illegal to keep-

Never knew! How do you know they are illegal? I've looked at so many gov sites to know more about ants and where you can/can't collect queens and can't find anything about ants other than fire ants. I would love it if you could share any links to places with this info.

[Leptomyrmx]

 

I'm working on a dirt setup for Acropyga, just in case I ever find a queen. I'll plant some mustard plants in there, apparently the attract root aphids. I've actually seen these ants before, I lifted up a rock and saw 2 workers just looking really confused by this 'light' stuff, lol.

 

Impossible to keep... well, I suppose Camponotus inflatus since they're illegal to keep-

Never knew! How do you know they are illegal? I've looked at so many gov sites to know more about ants and where you can/can't collect queens and can't find anything about ants other than fire ants. I would love it if you could share any links to places with this info.

 

I couldn't find any direct sources, but a few people on Formiculture said so. There's luckily a Melophorus species with massive honeypot-repletes, most Leptomyrmex species, and I read in a paper from 1915 there's also one Carebara honeypot species, it didn't say the exact one. And that's just in Australia.

Link to Camponotus inflatus info:
Australian Honeypot Nuptials? - General (Australia) - Ants & Myrmecology Forum (formiculture.com)

[PaigeX]

 

 

I'm working on a dirt setup for Acropyga, just in case I ever find a queen. I'll plant some mustard plants in there, apparently the attract root aphids. I've actually seen these ants before, I lifted up a rock and saw 2 workers just looking really confused by this 'light' stuff, lol.

 

Impossible to keep... well, I suppose Camponotus inflatus since they're illegal to keep-

Never knew! How do you know they are illegal? I've looked at so many gov sites to know more about ants and where you can/can't collect queens and can't find anything about ants other than fire ants. I would love it if you could share any links to places with this info.

 

I couldn't find any direct sources, but a few people on Formiculture said so. There's luckily a Melophorus species with massive honeypot-repletes, most Leptomyrmex species, and I read in a paper from 1915 there's also one Carebara honeypot species, it didn't say the exact one. And that's just in Australia.

Link to Camponotus inflatus info:
Australian Honeypot Nuptials? - General (Australia) - Ants & Myrmecology Forum (formiculture.com)

 

I found a few things online that are more like, you need a traditional owner to source these ants.
Seems more like they are claimed by the native aboriginals and you need their permission to collect.
https://www.sbs.com....e-ever-tasted  

 

https://en.wikipedia...ki/Honeypot_ant
Read part of: In human culture

Edited by PaigeX, January 7 2022 - 6:46 AM.

[ANTS_KL]

Reviving this thread. Thaumatomyrmex? I don't see why anyone would want to farm Polyxenida just to keep Thaumatomyrmex. The fact that they have ergatoid queens makes it harder to determine if you got a queen from a colony or not. Or Aneuretus, simply because we know little to none about their lifestyle and what their queens look like, though this would change if they were studied a lot more.

[Arthroverts]

Reviving this thread. Thaumatomyrmex? I don't see why anyone would want to farm Polyxenida just to keep Thaumatomyrmex. The fact that they have ergatoid queens makes it harder to determine if you got a queen from a colony or not. Or Aneuretus, simply because we know little to none about their lifestyle and what their queens look like, though this would change if they were studied a lot more.

Good luck finding someone who has actually gotten and then raised a second or third generation of polyxenids in captivity, that might be more difficult than the ants themselves, ha ha.

 

Thanks,

 

Arthroverts