68 replies to this topic

[NickAnter]

All but 3 of the Acanthomyops queens are in hibernation now. I was able to steal some pupae, so I was able to get them all over the 20 worker threshold. As long as they don't mangle any more pupae. All the queens that had no more pupae to eclose, and were at or above 20 workers are in hibernation.

[NickAnter]

Yay for growing larvae!

 

 

Yay for good Acanthomyops pictures!

 

, , , ,

 

Only one more pupa to go, and the duo will go in hibernation. I really hope they can get workers, as I wish to be able to describe the species properly.

[ANTdrew]

Excellent photos.

[NickAnter]

Anyway, I put them in hibernation a while ago.

I took one Acanthomyops out a minute ago, the one with the most workers so that I'm not too worried about the whole losing workers and being reliant on my large L. americanus colony for pupa, which are currently in hibernation, and have a while to go before they get pupae.

 

On February 1rst, or when my outworlds arrive, I will start taking more stuff out. I'm really hoping that everything goes smoothly with these acanthomyops and they are able to found with a small amount of host workers. I'm still so mad that so many of the ones I intended to use died.

[NicholasP]

Are type of acanthomyops are they?

Edited by NicholasP, January 17 2022 - 2:40 PM.

[NickAnter]

Are type of acanthomyops are they?

Well, Ill take this to mean, "What type of Acanthomyops are they"

 

In which case, I don't know. They could be a claviger variant, very out of place coloradensis, or an undescribed species. Once they hopefully get workers, and one inevitably dies, Ill try to key it out.

 

Speaking of the "colony", they sure seem active, they are eating and everything, so hopefully eggs are soon to come.

[NickAnter]

Well, we have eggs!!!!

 

Hopefully, they won't eat them or anything else stupid.

 

I have also taken the Chosen Chthonolasius out of hibernation, and they seem to be doing well. In a couple days, when I'm done with finals, I will take everything out of hibernation, which of course includes all the other Acanthomyops queens in there. I hope that they will be as fruitful as the colony I have just taken out so far.

[antsriondel]

Well, we have eggs!!!!

 

Hopefully, they won't eat them or anything else stupid.

 

I have also taken the Chosen Chthonolasius out of hibernation, and they seem to be doing well. In a couple days, when I'm done with finals, I will take everything out of hibernation, which of course includes all the other Acanthomyops queens in there. I hope that they will be as fruitful as the colony I have just taken out so far.

awesome!!!!

[NickAnter]

I got a slightly hard-to-see-the-eggs picture of the eggs, since they kinda panic and go nuts when they are in the light. Anyway, here it is.

 

 

I also took video of the aphidicola and their larvae, which are currently munching on fruit fly bits.

 

 

I cannot wait for workers!

 

Also, in other news, I took my large Lasius americanus colony out of hibernation today, and they are already super active, so that means tomorrow I'll probably take all the remaining Acanthomyops out.

Edited by NickAnter, January 27 2022 - 9:41 PM.

[NickAnter]

I have taken all but one Acanthomyops queen out.

Here are some pictures:

As you can see, the queen with eggs has laid more of them. I think they have around 30 now, which is pretty nice. I can't wait until they all turn into larvae.

I have been feeding the aphidicola more fruit flies, and will continue to do so, since they never seem to refuse them. Even "colonies" without brood seem to always accept them.

I'm also curious to see the size differences, if any, between the nanitics of my Lasius cf. brevicornis, the aphidicola, and the Acanthomyops.

[NickAnter]

That egg pile has since gotten even larger. Taking pictures is still difficult, they keep freaking out and running everywhere.

 

The aphidicola's larvae are growing well, and it should only be a matter of time before pupae appear, and then workers.

 

No others have laid eggs yet.

 

In the meantime, enjoy a video of a polygynous dark-form "colony":

[NickAnter]

We have great news!!!

The Acanthomyops queen has a larva!!

I'll make sure to feed them a lot more now.

[ANTdrew]

Awesome!

[NickAnter]

The aphidicola queen has laid some more eggs! I expect more to come, she has been getting fatter.

 

None of the other queens have laid eggs yet, but that is to be expected I suppose.

 

I have also taken out that last Acanthomyops, which ended up with 13 host workers. I don't think I'm going to bother with adding more, I'll just see how it goes.

 

In terms of the Acanthomyops with eggs, I had apparently not fed them sugar water in a bit, as when I did yesterday, they went insane, and 3/4 of their workforce went into the outworld and crowded around the sugar water droplet. Every single worker is now completely filled up with sugar water. I fed all the others as well, both sugar water and more fruit flies.

 

I will be feeding those without eggs more mealworms, as I am wondering if the queens need more liquid protein to lay eggs.

[NickAnter]

Lasius aphidicola: Rapidly growing larvae, I expect pupae in a couple of days. The eggs pile is increasing as well, so I will try to keep feeding them more.

 

Acanthomyops 1: The egg pile is staying about the same now, and I can't see the larva, but I'm sure it's in there somewhere. The egg stage in Lasius is always a bit long I suppose.

 

Acanthomyops 2: Second queen I pulled out of hibernation. She laid a small pile of eggs! She is still fairly thin, so I imagine I will need to feed her more to get more eggs, but some is still pretty great.

 

Acanthomyops Pair 1: Eggs!! These don't even have an outworld, so they have gotten slightly less food, but clearly, they are doing quite well. I will now increase their food rations.

 

Acanthomyops Pair 2: No change. I expect eggs soon though, the queens are getting slightly fatter.

 

Poor Queen: No change. I'll keep feeding them, I'm sure she will lay eggs eventually.

[NickAnter]

There are now 4 aphidicola pupae!

 

Every single Acanthomyops has now laid eggs, even the queen that I just took out. I find it pretty incredible how consistent and productive this species seems to be.

Here is an older aphidicola video:

Here are some pictures:

And the lone queen holding her few eggs that I didn't even see until a few minutes ago:

 

All in all, I must say that these have been some of the most rewarding ants I have ever kept.

Edited by NickAnter, February 18 2022 - 3:06 PM.

[NickAnter]

These have all been doing pretty great!

 

The aphidicola have  15 pupae, and with only one larva remaining. Their egg pile is still massive, however, it seems that they feed a lot of those eggs to growing larvae as they go. I am going to move them into a THA Lair soon, likely before they get workers, since eggs and pupae are the easiest to transfer, at least with Lasius since they are so organized with their egg piles.

Pictures:

I know it doesnt look like 15 in the pictures, but there are some buried in the cotton. Trust me, I counted.

 

The Amazing Acanthomyops queen has a ton of larvae now, here is a picture:

 

The light colored duo is so far doing the worst out of all the Acanthomyops. They only have 10 eggs or less, and they queens have never gotten fat.

 

The lone, poor queen is doing fantastic. She is super plump right now, and has already laid almost 30 eggs. She is also, by the way, of the dark variant.

Some pictures:

 

The dark duo are doing fairly well. They have around 30 eggs, and have remained that way for a little while now. I expect that more eggs are to come.

[ANTdrew]

Wow. You’re crushing it with these weird ants!

[NickAnter]

Thanks! They really aren't too different than any other small colony, except for the whole parasitic queen thing.

 

And it turns out the aphidicola were hiding three larvae, as there are 4 larvae that are still remaining.

 

And I never updated the single dark queen with normal amount of workers, so here: They have the second largest amount of eggs, and the queen is somewhat plump, so I expect more eggs to come. She was the second to lay eggs I believe after the first one that I took out of hibernation, so she should get larvae pretty soon, and may already have some very small ones, since they never remove the eggs from the cotton for some reason.

[NickAnter]

Great news!

 

The Acanthomyops have a pupa!!! They have very few eggs left, and probably have around 35 larvae. As is usual in Lasius it seems, most are used for food, even if non-egg food is available... Once they get all their larvae pupated, I'll move them into a THA Lair. Interestingly, the pupa is smaller than that of the aphidicola, which is the opposite of what I was expecting. Perhaps hibernation, and simply existing for much longer led the aphidicola larvae to grow bigger.

 

I moved the aphidicola into a THA lair. Roughly half of that massive egg pile is now larvae, with lots more eggs to go. There is one pupa I see that looks like it's almost assuredly a male sadly, so I guess we'll see. I hope that is the only one, and not the reason why their larvae are larger. They are about the size of the larvae in my americanus colony, so I'm hoping not (speaking of them, they have like 700-800 eggs and hundreds of pupae, I should probably make an update ). The lair seems to be a good fit for them, and it seems will last them for at least the rest of the year. I'm really happy with the formicarium, since it has two water towers, and Lasius love humidity.

 

The Poor Queen has laid more eggs, and is still fat. I expect them to get to a similar point as the queen with pupae, clearly they are the two best queens.

 

The other queens are just humming along, with some eggs seeming to be starting to hatch.

 

In other news, I'm now even more confident the Acanthomyops are not californicus. The fifth tooth, when counting from the mouth outwards, is extremely small in this species, whereas in californicus it is quite prominent. In terms of the teeth, it is rather close to claviger, but the antennae seem quite a bit too long, and the heads less wide. Sadly I cannot find images of coloradensis queens to see if that could be. I suppose another option is some type of hybrid, or an undescribed species.

 

That's it for now! My guess is that the aphidicola getting workers will be the next update. Or maybe I'll take some pictures.