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[GreekAnts]

This is a journal for the aphaenogaster epirotes colony that I keep, note this journal will not be updated often because nothing special happens with this colony anyway, that's why I call them "the boring ants" 
I bought this colony before 2-2,5 weeks and the colony is almost a year old I think and it has 10 workers and some eggs.. they are just sitting there and eat a little, nothing special to see or keep.
Here some photos:














Edit: Today (15/9/2021) I take back the "boring ants" for now on they are a special colony for me and I think they are interesting and amazing! I was stupid of thinking/telling that.

Edited by GreekAnts, September 22 2021 - 3:24 AM.

[GreekAnts]

It turns out I fell in love with them, I changed their test tube setup, sorry I forgot to update it here, it was a easy process, I just turned the old test tube upside down and tapped and they fell on a plastic container with barrier I placed, then I grabbed them very carefully with a cotton and I placed them in the new test tube, first the queen then the 9 workers and last the 10th worker that carried the eggs in its mouth, it was amazing to see the last worker evacuate the nest with the eggs in its mouth and do everything for their safety,I felt pretty bad in that moment but no ants were damaged and they got a new clean nest without mold or growing chia inside,This ants seem to be pretty brave and they don't get stressed easily so everything went great, now some days later with some feeding we got our first larvae (early stages) and some eggs that going to be larvae! 
I am so happy for this colony and they are one of my favourites!!! here some pictures:

[Shazza]

Following!!!

[GreekAnts]

Some new photos, the larvae seem to have grown a bit:

[GreekAnts]

Today a local ant keeper gave me a second colony, I think they might be same sp but I am not sure, I will include them in this journal too.
here some pics:



 

[GreekAnts]

Hello,I hope everyone had a good day, I wanted to update this journal again so here a small update for the 2 colonies:

Colony 1. Aphaenogaster cf Epirotes:
The colony seem to doing very good and their big larvae developed to early pupa stages, some eggs developed to early larvae stages too, the brood seem to develop fast but I think the queen might take some brakes around the year, so that would explain why she is not producing a lot of eggs fast like some other species do (for example the messors).
 




Colony 2. Aphaenogaster sp (might be epirotes too):
The colony seem to doing very good and has more brood than the other aphaenogaster colony, they seem to stress a little when I check on them but I think they will be used to it after some time.



Aphaenogasters (at least the sp's I got) seem to be really interesting, they might be slow but I like it because I will enjoy their early stages for a longer time,also they are not aggressive and I can feed them inside the test tube.They don't forage outside yet but I can look on them however I want without them stress so much, yea my second colony seem to stress a little but my first colony don't stress at all! they are amazing ants and are one of my favourites!!!! I hope you enjoyed this update!!!

Edited by GreekAnts, September 27 2021 - 9:13 AM.

[GreekAnts]

Today I fed the colony 1 (Aphaenogaster epirotes) a fly, here some photos: (sorry for the first ones, I didn't had good light)





here the queen feed a larvae

and one photo from the second colony: (I will feed them later)

Edited by GreekAnts, October 6 2021 - 5:11 AM.

[GreekAnts]

A video of my Aphaenogaster epirotes colony catching a live mosquito:
https://drive.google...iew?usp=sharing

It shows it as a icon of a picture for a reason but its a video from google drive.
Ok fixed it!
 

Edited by GreekAnts, October 11 2021 - 3:16 PM.

[GreekAnts]

The colonies are doing great, more brood and they eat a lot, they are still active and brood is waiting to hatch.
Colony 1:




Colony 2:

[GreekAnts]

Both colonies are doing great, they eat a lot of protein (meal worms and mealworm beetles) and they have a lot of brood, they are still active and I enjoy watching them!!
The only problem with most aphaenogasters if not with all is that they are really dirty ants, my second colony manage to make a fresh test tube setup super dirty in 1-2 months and for a reason most of the water evaporated too so I had to change their setup by the same method that works on them, carefully taping them to the new test tube, I know I could just connect the 2 tubes and wait but I have tried it before and because these ants are super stabborn my only choice was these, it took them some days to calm down and get used to the new nest but it was worth it and everything went well, my first colony have the same problem but their tube is still decent and not that bad,my only problem is that the glass is cloudy so its hard to photograph them but I will wait a little longer before change their setup again.
Here some pics:
colony 1:




As you can see the test tube is cloudy and makes it harder to photograph them.
colony 2: