10 replies to this topic

[TheAntGuy]

06/02/2021 (dd/mm/yyyy)

 

I caught 5 queens of what I believe to be Myrmecocystus ewarti in the desert on two separate trips in the last week. I spent 6 hours looking yesterday, and another 3 hours looking on tuesday night. I have placed all 5 queens in test tubes with fine desert quartz sand, which is my usual procedure for honeypot queens. They are being kept in the dark and heated currently at about 80 Fahrenheit. I gave them all a small drop of sunburst last night and don't plan to bother them for at least 3 weeks.

 

The queens are around 8mm long.

 

Queen:

 

 

Observations:

- The entire area I found them at was extremely rocky, anything from coarse gravel to hundred pound or more boulders were abundant.

- All 5 queens were found in small claustral chambers between 4-12 inches deep, I believe they flew Tuesday morning or Monday night.

- I found several nests of what I believe to also be Myrmecocystus ewarti, they were all quite small craters, about 8-12 inches in diameter. There was one colony that seemed to have four of these craters within about a 5 foot radius.

- Every single nest entrance had small red/brown pellets scattered on the crater, no other species had these on their nests in the area, and I was not able to find a source of these anywhere in the desert. The pellets are about the same size as the workers, 4-5mm, some being smaller.

 

Pellets:

 

 

 

 

 

[ReignofRage]

Those pellets look like dried up rodent droppings, maybe mouse droppings. I've heard of ants eating animal fecese but I don't know why only they would have them.

Edited by Reign_Of_Rage, February 6 2021 - 6:18 PM.

[cocdeshijie]

OwO big eye pots

[Zeiss]

Those pellets are interesting.  It would be nice to observe a colony overnight to see what they do.

[NickAnter]

Look like rodent droppings to me. Maybe the colony uses them to deter other rodents from coming to their nests? Since they might think it is the burrow of another?

[antsandmore]

lol. bringing pellets home, only to find them rodent droppings. nice, I've never seen this species journal before. Good luck!!!

[dspdrew]

Pretty sure this queen is in the Endiodioctes subgenus. Not sure how it can be M. ewarti

[TheAntGuy]

I've yet to key it out, I tried for jaw pictures but my lighting situation is making it impossible to accurately count the teeth. I'm awaiting a new lighting setup in the mail soon, so I'll be able to key them out soon. The area I found them I explored extensively, and found no endiodioctes colonies that could reasonably be the same species. Also, the area I caught them in has previous records of M. ewarti.

[TheAntGuy]

24/05/2021 (dd/mm/yyyy)

 

I forgot to update this, I haven't totally confirmed the species, but I think its fair to assume these are indeed ewarti. I got some pictures of the teeth and I count 8, which makes it myrmecocystus subgenus. Considering its size, location of collection, and the nests I found, Myrmecocystus ewarti is the only species that makes sense.

 

Pic of teeth (look at right jaw):

 

Another update, I am down to 3 queens, they weren't doing anything and I tried several ways to make them lay, including moving to new tubes, feeding, moving into mini hearth, etc.

A few days ago I took some cocoons from my M. mexicanus colony and gave 1-2 to each M. ewarti queen, my hope is that they will accept the workers, and the workers might take care of the brood. The queens have all been laying eggs and some even got to larvae at some point, but they always eat it. I will likely update in a week or so when the cocoons hatch.

[ReignofRage]

Maybe going back and collecting workers to give them would be beneficial, for them eating the larvae you could try feeding the queens again.

[TheAntGuy]

04/08/2021 (dd/mm/yyyy)

 

Bad news and good news

 

          I am down to one queen. However about 2 months ago I decided since nothing had changed, something needed to change. I went into my Myrmecocystus mexicanus colony and stole 4 cocoons, had given each of the 3 remaining queens a cocoon and one had 2. Well the other 2 queens died during that period, and i gave all 4 cocoons to one queen. 3 of the cocoons were left to die, but she finally eclosed one. This was the first step in what I believe to be my master plan. Here is what my current theory stands as: I had gone to collect these queens about 36 hours after they flew, and the area was extremely rocky and near impossible to dig in. I saw dozens of chambers while I was out, about 95% were already closed off and while I tried to dig them up, the rocks just made it completely infeasible with the shovel I had being the only tool I could use at the time. all 5 queens I had caught were still digging. This makes me think that I was already behind before I started, as I likely ended up getting fertile yet unfit queens. The longer they take to dig their chambers, the weaker they get and the less likely their survival is, naturally selecting for the faster diggers. Essentially all the queens I got were weak and didn't try to care for their brood.

         This is where my plan comes in. After I had figured all this out, I immediately began thinking of solutions to try and get my 3 remaining queens a second chance. This is when I came up with the idea to boost them with mexicanus brood, as they are in the same subgenus so in my mind it had a decent chance of being successful. Well this seems to have been a good decision, as at the very least I am sure that had I not done that, all 3 queens would have ended up dying instead of just 2. The mexicanus worker is acting totally normal and there is absolutely no aggression whatsoever. I believe my theory was correct as well because the queen has laid brood and the worker is caring for it . I will be getting pictures in the morning but the "colony" has about 8 small larvae, which honestly should be pupating soon as I expect ewarti nanitics to be no bigger than 2mm. I'll keep this updated and I think I can expect workers in about a month's time. I am incredibly excited as this is one of my favorite species and the path to getting a colony of them has been, well, less than straightforward.

          I should mention that in no way is this my last opportunity to keep them and I already plan to go back to get more next spring, hopefully catching their flight even. I'd love more people to keep these because I think they are actually one of the coolest species of honeypot, especially since as far as I know, nobody has gotten them to workers yet. I believe Nurbs caught a queen without knowing it a few years ago but from what I know it never made it to workers, and I think it was only one queen. If I get some colonies going next season, expect to find them on my shop, may even give some away if I get enough