94 replies to this topic

[PaigeX]

I saw in the ant photography thread that you got some Carebara... any updates coming soon? I'd love to hear about them.

 

Oh sure! I've just been so busy and sick I haven't done much writing down on the colonies.
I'll have to do some counts and pictures later. But the carebara is really growing in size. 

[PaigeX]

Long overdue Update.
Been getting rid of/selling/releasing any thing I can't keep housing.

Here is the update list on what I have left. Down sized a lot after selling many test tube queens.
 

Polyrhachis vermiculosa: Queen A - now has 25w.
Also released the large Polyrhachis vermiculosa colony. Now I only have the queen I raised. Her colony has grown well and are doing great. Thinking of putting them into a small bigantkeeping nest. No brood boosting done.

 

Polyrhachis ammon: Queen A: 30w      Queen C: 20w

Both colonies have been brood boosted with some brood from outside wild colonies. The extra numbers has really helped them get going. Didn't do mass brood boosting. Only did small amounts once a month.

 

Polyrhachis daemeli: Queen no.5: 8w
Only queen I have left. Sold the rest. Was brood boosted with a few larvae from a queen that died. Doing very well and I'm happy with them.

 

Polyrhachis rufifemur: Queen 1: 8w       Queen 2: 5w
Doing fantastic. Really love watching them grow. No brood boosting done to any of the two.

 

Polyrhachis hookeri: Only queen I have, has 3 workers. Will be selling her at a later date. she's doing fine, its just I have two colonies of them and don't need her.

Both other colonies are doing great. Both now fill out 2 test tubes and i'll have to add another one to each soon.

 

Polyrhachis tubifera: Queen 1: 3w

Sold/gaveaway the other queen. she had one worker and brood.

 

Polyrhachis aurea: Queen 1: Has 1 worker and brood. Very slow but doing ok.

 

Poly with no ID Queen: Had 1 worker but queen killed it. Extremely slow to grow. Has brood and a cocoon.

 

Rhytidoponera sp. Renamed to Rhytidoponera chalybaea Queen now has 5 workers with more on the way. very happy with her.

 

Colobopsis macrocephala: Queen 1: 14w        Queen 2: 13w
Both colonies are doing great!

 

Dolichoderus scrobiculatus: Queen 1: 28w          Queen 2:9w

First queen is doing amazing. she has grown 28w so far and a few die off from old age. 2nd queen I found with 1-2 workers. Doing welll too.
Both queens stopped laying for a few weeks even on heat in winter but have since started to lay again.

 

Tetramorium sjostedti queen still only has brood. No workers yet.

 

Two other spare Polyrhachis ammon colonies I will be selling later one. Queen A: 16w          Queen B: 26w

 

Other than these girls I also have a 2 queen Iridomyrmex bicknelli starting colony. They are doing well and are more of an experiment. I want to see how big they grow. Not sure if I will sell them at a later date or make something for them to dig in.

 

Collected a small Tetramorium fuscipes colony. Doing very well and had like 4-6 queens at collection.
 

Carebara sp - Mostlikely Carebara cornigera: Colony growing very fast Doing so well.

 

Pheidole sp colony staying at a steady pace.

 

Stigmacros sp colony doing alright. Needs a new test tube.

 

Cardiocondyla sp colony doing so well. In a bigantkeeping small nest. I had two of these colonies that I put together, They then became one colony. They keep inbreeding and I now can't count how many queens they have.

 

Monomorium sp still doing great. Very small kind. Still only takes up 1-1.5cm worth of a 13mm x 100mm test tube. 

 

Crematogaster queenslandica colony doing well. Still has its 3 queens. 

 

Opisthopsis pictus colony. Renamed to Opisthopsis pictus ssp. lepidus. Doing fantastic. Now fills out two test tubes.

 

Camponotus humilior have around 35-40 workers now. Will be selling them soon.

 

Myrmecia nigrocincta still no extra workers yet. even with substrate the brood fails to spin a cocoon. However this time one failed but is still alive and developing. Might get a worker to hatch without it ever spining a cocoon.

 

I will Make another post and post the quick pictures I took of some of my ants. If any ants were not said in the list above it means I have: got rid of them by selling/releasing.

 

[PaigeX]

Do note: The pictures I took were late at night and not the best. Been too busy to get better ones.

 

Ant shelf set up right now.

 

Polyrhachis vermiculosa Queen 1 small colony.

 

Polyrhachis ammon Queen A colony. I think they love the heat cable a little too much xD

 

Polyrhachis tubifera

 

Dolichoderus scrobiculatus Queen 1 colony. Split in two. One side the queen is at the other side the brood is under the heat cable.

 

Dolichoderus scrobiculatus Queen 2 colony.

[PaigeX]

One of the Colobopsis macrocephala colonies. Queen ran out of the picture lol.

 

Crematogaster queenslandica colony.

 

Carebara sp colony.

 

Monomorium sp colony.

 

Cardiocondyla sp colony.

 

Polyrhachis aurea.

[PaigeX]

Unknown poly.

 

Tetramorium sjostedti.

 

Tetramorium fuscipes. bad looking picture sorry about that.

 

One of the two Polyrhachis hookeri colonies.

 

Opisthopsis pictus ssp. lepidus colony.

[Leptomyrmx]

Awesome! The Carebara are so cool!

Also, I'm really interested in the Tetramorium sjostedti. Not much is known about them. The pictus are cool too.

[PaigeX]

Awesome! The Carebara are so cool!

Also, I'm really interested in the Tetramorium sjostedti. Not much is known about them. The pictus are cool too.

Yea same here. I had bought two Tetramorium sjostedti queens but one died. This one however is still alive and has some brood but she is very slow. So I'm not sure how it will go with her yet.
I also really do enjoy watching the Carebara, They are so small and cute, then they have their majors which are legit 3-5x their size and hoard sugar.

[JCRHJM]

That is quite the collection, how big is the carebara queen? 

[PaigeX]

That is quite the collection, how big is the carebara queen? 

she is around 4-5mm long. she looks huge compared to her workers haha 

[PaigeX]

Hey there, I know I havent updated this in so long but I thought I would just as a time line thing. 2 Years on and I've got a better setup going now. I've got 39 sp in my collection and I'm slowly getting them onto 3D printed nests.
I've also got 3D printed test tube holders with mini outworlds. 
 

Had a hard year this flight season with caring for over 200 Semi-claustral Polyrhachis queens as well as ones some friends found and asked me to care for.

 

Some pictures of my set up and I will also include my list of ants I'm keeping.

 

Here is the queen founding set up. Just a lot of draws and queens in tubes. Thankfully i only needed to use 4 of the 6 file boxes this season. I'm now down to just 2 file boxes with all draws full.

 

List of sp I'm keeping as of this post, if it has a number next to it, it means the number of colonies, if its Q followed by a number, it means a founding Queen:

 

Polyrhachis ammon - 3

Polyrhachis hookeri - 2

Polyrhachis tubifera - 1

Polyrhachis vermiculosa - 1

Polyrhachis rufifemur - 2

Polyrhachis femorata - 1

Polyrhachis cupreata - 2

Polyrhachis daemeli - 1

Polyrhachis phryne - 1

Polyrhachis ornata - 1

Polyrhachis pilosa - 1

Polyrhachis senilis - 1

Polyrhachis lydiae - 2

Polyrhachis aurea - 2

Polyrhachis foreli - 2

Polyrhachis erato - 2

Polyrhachis clio - 1

Polyrhachis cleopatra or hermione - 1Q founding

Polyrhachis  sp - Subgenus Campomyrma - 2Q founding

Polyrhachis  sp - 1Q founding

Myrmecia chrysogaster - 2

Myrmecia urens - 2Q Both founding

Crematogaster queenslandica - 1

Dolichoderus scrobiculatus - 2

Colobopsis macrocephala - 1

Tetramorium sjostedti - 1

Meranoplus minor - 1

Rhytidoponera victoriae - 1

Rhytidoponera aspera - 1Q

Podomyrma maculiventris - 1

Calomyrmex albopilosus - 2

Epopostruma curiosa - 1Q

Carebara sp - Mostlikely Carebara cornigera - 3

Pheidole sp - 3

Cardiocondyla sp - 1

Froggattella Kirbii - 1

Camponotus sp - 1

Colobopsis gasseri - 2Q - One founding and one with a worker.

Camponotus suffusus ssp. bendigensis - 1Q

 

 

 

[PaigeX]

Also if your wondering why i don't have some sp any more, Some I've sold or passed onto someone else, some released back on my land or have died for unknown reasons.

[ANTdrew]

Please keep updating this journal. Such cool species!

[Ernteameise]

I am also curious to see more.

[Virginian_ants]

I'll love to see more they are really exotic species (for me). And they are really pretty.

[PaigeX]

Some are getting new nests soon. Will post more pictures of them another time.