18 replies to this topic

[mmcguffi]

I wasn't sure I was going to make this journal, but here I am. This will likely be a pretty sparse journal, but I would like to have it for my own keepsake. I learned a ton about Atta texana this past year and I eventually plan to write a separate, informative post with what I have learned about Atta texana, but I'm not sure when I will get around to making that post.

 

May 2, 2021

This is when I caught my alates and dealates:

 

A portion of the Atta I collected

 

Set up in groups of ~3. I ended up releasing all of the alates that did not shed their wings (on a mature Atta colony in my neighborhood), only to learn mere hours later that many of those were likely fertile and I needed to rip their wings off to induce fungal pellet dropping and egg laying.

 

Close up with a tiny bit of fungus on the right; I "fungus boosted" all the colonies

 

May 11, 2021

This group ("Colony A", 3 queens) I boosted with a much larger portion of fungus that still had ~50+ workers, including majors. They accepted the queens after ~10 min. You can see a small Attaphila cockroach on the abdomen of one of the queens. These are thought to be symbiotic or at least commensal.

 

 

May 14, 2021

I had many deaths in all, >50% mortality. Also, many queen were not fertile. This particular queen had a very interesting fungal infection that has a bit of a Santa-y vibe

 

 

May 29, 2021

This is a group of infertile queens, but the picture shows the characteristic "fungal disc" that all my queens made. It's constructed from trophic eggs that the fungus colonizes and ants keep their eggs/brood on top. How the fungus distinguishes between the 2 egg types (since they are both in contact) is beyond me, but I find it fascinating.

 

June 13, 2021

This is "Colony A" again (heavily boosted with fungus/workers), and you can see they have started actively foraging for leaves and building up their fungus for the first time. They don't forage/build their gardens unless there are mature larvae/pupae.

 

July 4, 2021

"Colony A" again -- this was after I had come back from a weeklong trip and I noticed they did not forage for anything while I was gone. I collected some fresh knockout rose petals, sun dried them, and placed them in their outworld. They immediately took to this as you can see. I thought this was interesting since the same thing was already available to them. Somehow those rose petals must have been non-optimal

 

Aug 15, 2021

All the dust has now settled. I lost many queens to pathogens, and the vast majority of survivors were infertile. I have 2 colonies -- one with 3 queens and one with 2 queens.

 

Colony A -- 3 queens (heavily boosted)

 

Colony B -- 2 queens (boosted with a tiny portion of fungus)

Edited by mmcguffi, March 18 2022 - 8:48 AM.

[Kaelwizard]

Good luck with the surviving queens/colonies. That fungal infection gave me a Santa vibe as well for some reason. It seemed to affect her joints mainly?

[mmcguffi]

Good luck with the surviving queens/colonies. That fungal infection gave me a Santa vibe as well for some reason. It seemed to affect her joints mainly?

 

Thanks! It seems like they have stabilized and are now thriving, but I'm going to hold onto both colonies for at least a few more months just in case. I ultimately only want one, so Ill likely sell off the other at some point

 

To my eye, it seems like the fungal infection was systemic throughout the whole body and only escaped at joints, openings, etc. I tried to figure out what species of fungus it was, but came up empty handed. Sort of reminded me of cordyceps, though it didn't fruit so that could be way off base

[mmcguffi]

I ended up trading my 3 queen colony and kept my 2 queen colony, which is doing quite well. They have completely filled one of the chambers I made for them and have not yet moved any fungus into the new chamber I hooked up a couple weeks ago. If they don't move any fungus in in a couple more weeks, Ill probably manually move the garden to a larger chamber

Edited by mmcguffi, March 18 2022 - 8:47 AM.

[NicholasP]

Did you catch these Atta in Austin, Texas?

[mmcguffi]

Did you catch these Atta in Austin, Texas?

 

Yep!

[ANTdrew]

Amazing colony and setup!

[aznphenom]

Did you make those containers? What is the last snap cap container for?

[mmcguffi]

Did you make those containers? What is the last snap cap container for?

I did -- I largely based on this paper (Figs. 5 - 7): https://www.research...rmicinae_Attini

 

The snap cap container on the left is their trash -- in retrospect it is pretty small. I have to empty it once a week or more

[aznphenom]

I was going to ask if you started off with any single queens but looks like you started them all off with at least pairs. Did you ever merged them together? Maybe into 4s? or maybe 2 containers losing a queen or two then merging them together?

[mmcguffi]

I was going to ask if you started off with any single queens but looks like you started them all off with at least pairs. Did you ever merged them together? Maybe into 4s? or maybe 2 containers losing a queen or two then merging them together?

 

I don't think all my queens were pictured actually -- most were in groups of 3, but I had everything from 1-5 queens. If I remember correctly all single queens as well as queens in larger groups died -- however -- I did remix queens (successfully) as some died off, so I can't be completely sure. You might have different luck though -- it's possible the queens could be hostile to new queens being introduced after they have settled

 

Garrett (antsemporium) has anecdotal evidence that suggests founding polygynously increases success, and Ulrich Mueller also has similar anecdotal/unpublished results. It seems like 3 seems to be the sweet spot in terms of founding number -- maybe Garrett can chime in if he sees this but I recall that he had a ton of mortality last year with keep in queens in larger groups. There seems to be more pathogen spread or something

[aznphenom]

I think I ran into a new problem. My plaster isn’t absorbing new water. It’s been 3 weeks since the original watering and I noticed some dry spots so I added water and it’s been 48 hours and the water is pooled on a side of each corner and sadly, one colony lost their whole fungus garden so I had to give new a piece of from another. I have since added sand to absorb the access water. Wonder if this is a known thing was plaster or just my particular plaster. I think I am using hydrocal

[mmcguffi]

if you have a cm or so of plaster and the container is sealed well, you probably shouldn't have to add any water during founding -- it sounds like the paster is probably still saturated. Excess water really does kill the fungus rapidly

 

All that said, it unfortunately might not matter. Since it's been a few weeks out from the flight, you should clearly be able to see larvae if they are fertile -- A. texana eclose (lots of) nanitics within 4-6 weeks. Sadly all the A. texana I collected this year appear to be infertile, but that's what I expected -- only a small minority of what I collected last year were fertile and that seems to be par for the course

[aznphenom]

if you have a cm or so of plaster and the container is sealed well, you probably shouldn't have to add any water during founding -- it sounds like the paster is probably still saturated. Excess water really does kill the fungus rapidly
 
All that said, it unfortunately might not matter. Since it's been a few weeks out from the flight, you should clearly be able to see larvae if they are fertile -- A. texana eclose (lots of) nanitics within 4-6 weeks. Sadly all the A. texana I collected this year appear to be infertile, but that's what I expected -- only a small minority of what I collected last year were fertile and that seems to be par for the course

Oh, so all alates will lay eggs but very few are actually fertile? Interesting. Well, here to hoping I have at least one.

[mmcguffi]

Yep, all my groups of dealates have oodles and oodles of eggs, but no visible development

[aznphenom]

Oh no. Not what I wanted to hear. Thought I was actually very lucky. Well, I’m gonna leave them all alone for another 2 weeks and hopefully my next update will be of workers or pupae

[aznphenom]

Yep, all my groups of dealates have oodles and oodles of eggs, but no visible development

Heard back from the person that told me about the spot. Said it’s common there if I caught them by the light. Wish they told me that before. I would have gone deeper into the woods

[Culture321]

Any Queens this year?

[bmb1bee]

Any Queens this year?

This isn’t even a sales page, leave these questions in the marketplace sub forum.