85 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Update 2-18-2018
 
Unfortunately a while back, while waiting for the colony I was transferring to a larger Dirt Box to move in, they were so stubborn that they just stayed in their old nest until it dried out and they all died.

 

Now I'm left with just the original colony, which is actually doing really well. I counted around 175 workers, and they now have TONS of tiny new larvae. It looks like it snowed for about an inch and a half of one chamber. I would take a picture, but it's just way too hard to see it on camera, especially in the really old plastic Dirt Box they are in.

[dspdrew]

Update 3-15-2018
 
Good news and bad news. First of all the orange and black colony does not seem to be producing anymore. It's been months since I have seen any brood. The good news is I might have just found a bunch more of these queens. I found 22 of the queens with the red head, purple thorax, and yellow gaster out in Whitewater on 3-13-2018. They were actually digging their nests in the rain. I'm assuming they are either M. mimicus, or this orange and black species that I have not yet ID'd.
 
All the Dirt Boxes without the little colored labels have these new queens in them.
 

 
 
Some of these queens started digging their nests in less than a minute after dropping them in. It was pretty amazing.
 
Two days have passed, and most of them are still digging. They're digging more than any queens I've ever had.
 

 

[sgheaton]

"Pics or it didn't happen." Come on, Drew... It's not your first day on the internet.. 

 

Do you still have your green eyed crickets? Between them, the orange-blackos, and your new 22 Spanish Republic Queens, you've got quite the color pallet going. 

[dspdrew]

"Pics or it didn't happen." Come on, Drew... It's not your first day on the internet.. 

 

Do you still have your green eyed crickets? Between them, the orange-blackos, and your new 22 Spanish Republic Queens, you've got quite the color pallet going. 

 

There's your pics. ^ ^

[YsTheAnt]

Woah! That's a ton of dirt boxes! Mine has layed egg(s?)in her tube, any ideas on how to safely move it into a dirt box?

Edited by YsTheAnt, March 17 2018 - 9:50 AM.

[AntsCalifornia]

Just dump her in. Make sure to take all the eggs out too, but wait to put them in until she is settled a bit so she doesn't eat them. 

[dspdrew]

When I move queens into a Dirt Box and they already have brood, I use an applicator bottle or wash to squirt water into the bottom hole to carve out a little chamber. I then put the queen and large brood inside the chamber, and then stick the small brood to the plug with a little moisture, and put the plug back in.

[YsTheAnt]

Ok, I managed to get everything in

[dspdrew]

Update 3-26-2018
 
So far all but one of these new queens are alive and well. They all have laid eggs too. One queen I traded with someone, and another has developed some sort of tumor-looking thing on the side of its thorax, possibly caused by a parasite.

 

 

You can follow what happens with this thing on this separate thread I posted about it here (http://www.formicult...ueen-with-tumor).


 

[Leo]

That is nasty...

[dspdrew]

Update 5-15-2018
 
About one week ago, the new queens from Whitewater, CA got their first workers, and they are all the orange and black species like I suspected since I saw a lot of those colonies active while these were flying. I'm pretty happy because I really wanted more of these; my larger colony hasn't produced anything in months.

[gcsnelling]

Any news on the mystery growth?

[dspdrew]

Any news on the mystery growth?

 

It hasn't really changed, except shriveled a little more. I think it might be dead.

[gcsnelling]

Bummer

[AntsCalifornia]

Now that you got a dead one, can you take pictures and ID it?

[dspdrew]

Update 8-7-2018
 
The large orange and black colony living in the giant vase formicarium still hasn't produced any more brood.
 
I decided to keep four of the new colonies, and they seem to be doing well. One has about 35 workers, two have 25 workers, and the last has 15.
 
About two months ago, I gave some of these colonies brood from a different species of Myrmecocystus, as I have done many times before, and for the first time ever, one of those colonies not only accepted the brood, but kept it until it eclosed. That colony ended up with two workers from a completely different species. These pictures are horrible, but you can clearly see two different species living together in the same formicarium. Unlike the ones in this journal, these are mostly black with red heads, and much larger in size.
 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 12-8-2018
 
The large orange and black colony in the vase setup is dying off because the queen still hasn't laid anymore eggs.

 

Since the new orange and black colonies were doing so well, I sold one of them. I now have two colonies still in small Dirt Boxes, both with over 50 workers, and one colony in a large Dirt Box with over 50 workers as well.

 

The original dark colored colony is doing great still. They now have about 300 workers and 6 small repletes.

[NickAnter]

What caused them to fly, in Trabuco?  Rain, heat?  Also, did they fly in decent numbers?

[dspdrew]

Update 5-21-2020
 
It's been a long time since I updated this journal, so I might not be completely sure as to where some of the colonies went.
 
About a month ago, I found a bunch more of these dark queens with the yellow gasters. These were found in the Lancaster area after some rain went through. They have the highest contrast of colors that I have seen in these queens; the gasters were fairly bright, and the thorax was very dark. I put them in however many Dirt Box setups I had vacant at the time, and sold the rest. Once they have workers, I'll try keying them out to see if they might be something else.
 

 
 
I still have the dark colored colony in the old prototype version of my large Dirt Box. It's hard to count the workers in those setups, but I'm pretty sure it's probably still in the hundreds like it was in the last update.
 
Here's some pictures of them now.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Here's a pretty good shot of the queen, which you can see if very brightly colored for having such dark workers. It's so strange.
 

 
 
Here's all their newest brood. They continue to produce quite a bit.
 

 
 
The orange and black colony is gone now. The queen eventually died after not producing anything for a very long time.
 
Of the two newer orange and black colonies (actually they were more of an orangish red and black), I'm not completely sure what happened to one of them, but the other one I moved into a fresh new giant Vase setup.
 
As part of my normal moving process, I dumped the Dirt Box out into a large bin and spread everything out. I dropped a test tube setup in there, and about a day later, most of the ants and all of the brood were in the tube. I then set the tube on the surface of the new Vase setup.
 

 
 
It didn't take them long at all to start digging their nest. Here is what the entrance looks like now.
 

 
 
Here's some pictures of the colony feeding.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ANTdrew]

These dirt set ups are so cool! Still hoping you’ll make more for sale. Can you explain how hydration works in the vase? Is it just water seeping into hydrostone below?