7 replies to this topic

[Straywolf94]

I collected about 35 queens a few days after their mating flight in San Diego.  I've been wanting to start a new polygynous colony with dirt-less setup where I can more easily observe the queens, egg pile, larvae and such.  The 2018 colony is great but is lacking in that aspect since you cannot see into the dirt nest.  I bought a Palladium nest from THA to start the colony.  I tried to dab the thoraxes with some white nontoxic paint to help identify queens from workers later on.  But they were able to clean it off after a few days.

 

Day 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Straywolf94, May 29 2022 - 9:39 PM.

[Straywolf94]

Day 2

 

We have eggs!  Can you find them?

 

 

Edited by Straywolf94, August 1 2021 - 6:37 PM.

[Straywolf94]

Day 4

 

Egg pile getting bigger!

 

 

[Straywolf94]

Day 7

 

Even more eggs!  We also have 3 dead queens.  Colony is down to 32 queens.

 

 

 

 

[Straywolf94]

10 Month update:

 

Pogonomyrmex have finally started cranking out new brood with spring in full tilt.   No additional queen deaths that I have noticed.  They're pretty packed in the current Palladium formicarium and there are a ton of springtails or booklice in there due to the trash and humidity.  So I decided to move them to the XL Labyrinth which I've been planning for a while.  I connected the nests, and removed the nest chamber lid in the Palladium to get them to move.  It took about 3 days for the move to complete and now the Palladium is abandoned and they are happily relocated into the XL Labyrinth.  I love this new nest since it has an awesome topside view of the Pogonomyrmex with museum glass.  This is one thing I could not do in my dirt setup, though the dirt formicarium is still successful and strong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Straywolf94, May 29 2022 - 9:36 PM.

[ZTYguy]

Very cool. This season I’d like to try out a large colony of these. Maybe I won’t do 35 queens but I’ll do a large number anyways, that is such an impressive colony you got there and keep up the good work.

[ANTdrew]

I henceforth dub you the Potentate of Pogonomyrmex.

[DaAnt]

Update?