63 replies to this topic

[OiledOlives]

This journal will be for all of my random colonies that aren't cool.

Formica cf. subsericea
I collected this queen along with some other Serviformica in July.  As of 1/14, they have around 10 workers and are in a small rock nest. I had just moved them to this nest after taking them out of diapause.

Formica cf. incerta
This queen currently has exactly 10 workers and are in a test tube. Three eggs as of 1/14.

Camponotus castaneus
I collected around 40 queens during their flights at the end of May. Most queens had a difficult time founding and what I did with them went into a different journal. Six queens did well after boosting. I now have two colonies with ~8 workers and one with 5 and with a winged queen.

Tapinoma sessile
I collected this colony under a dirt bag at the end of June. They have 8 queens and several hundred workers.

Camponotus chromaiodes
I only caught three fertile queens this year.I ended up combining them when they had nanitics, but got really really bored of oligogyny and decided to just lump them together (which ended up with two queens dying). I added in more workers from outside that I had found hibernating, but this made them lose most of their small larvae. They were housed in a MiniHybrid, but it got infected with grain mites so I moved them out and are now in a DIY formicarium. They currently have 30 or so workers. 

Pheidole bicarinata:
I bought this colony from AleeGuy with around 15 workers and a major. They quickly grew to around 25 until my dog ate half of them. I moved them to a Miniformisquarium, but this caused all of their callows to dry out. After a couple months, I eventually realized that they were drying out, but not after two generations of workers had died. I have very low hopes for this colony.

Prenolepis imparis
I got this colony from AleeGuy as well. They originally had 3 queens and 40 workers. They culled two of the queens a little later. They still have pupae, so they aren't even in hibernation yet. I moved them to a DIY cave style nest and are doing decent now. 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis
I recieved two queens from Commander308 on Discord around August (really nice guy, would recommend). One queen had a large larvae and the other queen was half drowned. I then moved both into new setups. Both founded fine without sand. Both were heated and had aluminum foil around them to block out light (I typically don't do this for most species, but it does kind of make them do better.) One colony quickly got 4 workers until I moved them into a MiniFormisquarium. They then did badly and have not recovered, and neither has the other one. One is a single queen and the other has one worker. Fortunately, I got another colony of occidentalis, this time from Cheeto. I moved them into a miniformisquarium after getting them. They did fine until, well, they didn't. They are currently at 4 workers, 1 larger larvae, and a small batch of eggs. The next time I buy this species, I will probably purchase the 20+ worker option from THA.

Colobopsis obliqua
These ants are so boring that I almost forgot to include them on the list. I currently have a 12 queen colony that was supposed to do really good, but ended up losing a majority of their workers and all of their brood during moving. They currently reside in a bamboo tube. I have another colony that has 3 queens and 5 workers and ~20 larvae.

Edited by OiledOlives, October 19 2022 - 7:02 AM.

[OiledOlives]

Camponotus chromaiodes:
Came out diapause with two small larvae. The queen has laid several eggs, and will (hopefully) lay a much larger batch. 

Formica cf. subsericea:
Queen has finally laid. They have not really been hunting the fruit flies in their outworld and have left a mealworm part inside of their nest.

Formica pallidefulva group:
This colony has been taking proteins and sugars very well. I hope they will do very well this year (200 worker goal?)

Colobopsis obliqua:
Brought these ants out of diapause. 12 queen 2 worker colony has dropped down to 7 queens due to dehydration and death. 3q colony doing very well, however. Hopefully the heat will help their major larvae develop faster. 

[OiledOlives]

Formica fusca and pallidefulva group colonies: Both are doing fine in their current setups with a nice batch of eggs. I expect them to double in size when the next generation emerges next month. 

 

Camponotus castaneus: I am down to two colonies of this species now. The 10 worker colony is still in a tube while the 11 worker one has been moved into a formisquarium. Their larvae are growing very well. I am guessing that there will be 5-10 more workers for them next generation. 

Tapinoma sessile: Brood is all over the place for this colony. A large number of eggs have appeared, so hopefully they will do decent now. 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis: The single queen has died. I moved the 4 worker colony into a Mini Hearth and am going to let them improve their numbers on their own. 

Colobopsis obliqua: I combined the two colonies, but two queens have randomly died. Brood is growing nicely and they have laid eggs.

Camponotus subbarbatus: I forgot to include these in the original list. 1 queen 10 workers and 4 eggs. The first two eggs the queen laid after diapause were orange. 

Pictures coming next post.

[OiledOlives]

Formica fusca group:
They have naked pupae now. Should eclose in 1-2 weeks.

Formica pallidefulva group:
Eggs have not hatched. Might be too hot and they are dying.

 

Tapinoma sessile:
Pupae now. They have been putting their brood very close to the heating cable and are eating well.

Camponotus castaneus:
Most brood is pupae. 3rd gen eggs have been laid.

 

Pheidole bicarinata:
Tube dried out and only the queen is left. Will be boosting her.

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis:
Received another colony from THA yesterday. These ones are much better off and should do very well.

Colobopsis obliqua: 
Down to 4 queens and 4 workers now. I see prepupae.

 

Crematogaster cerasi:
Forgot that I had these. 1k worker colony in a terrarium.

Tetramorium immigrans:
I forgot I had these as well. 500 worker colony, also in a terrarium.

Crematogaster subgenus:
I collected a colony two days ago with 1 queen and 2 winged female alates and 150+ workers. You can see pictures on my iNat, which I will not link.

[OiledOlives]

Formica fusca-group: This colony quickly crashed after the naked pupae died in condensation and excessive heat. Always give your ants a gradient! I introduced two queens of the same species that failed to found and moved all of them into a petri dish.

Formica pallidefulva-group: Eggs are still being laid and shrivel up, even without heat.

Camponotus castaneus: The formisquarium colony is at 16 workers now and are about to be at 19. The most dangerous phase for this colony is over. I was about to give up on my test tube colony due to the queen not laying, but I saw the queen laying the first egg of the year. I'll add the video to my Youtube to post it here within the next month.

Pheidole bicarinata: I lost the queen in a test tube somewhere. Fortunately, I received another colony of this species from a friend which is now in a Mini-Hearth. No pictures because that would require around 30 seconds of minimal effort to transfer the photos to my school laptop.

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis: The queen ended up being killed and beheaded by her own workers. Maybe they thought they were French?

Colobopsis obliqua: The other three pupae are turning brown and are will eclose within the next week. They have various stages of brood, but are still bad and boring due to their inability to spend more than 5 seconds eating proteins. 

 

Crematogaster cerasi: I reshaped their terrarium and will be adding organic material within the next month. Maybe I'll actually feed them soon? Who knows.

Crematogaster subgenus: New workers have eclosed and there is a decent amount of brood. I pulled the wings off of the alates to pretend to be cool. I'll ID them under a microscope later along with my fusca-group. I'm thinking that they are lineolata, but I'll need better pictures.

iNat obs: https://www.inatural...tions/107199783

Tapinoma sessile: Doing very nice, lots of brood.

Something I would like to share because it is haha funny:
https://www.inatural...tions/107199587

Edited by OiledOlives, March 29 2022 - 7:37 AM.

[OiledOlives]

Added videos, picture of the queen laying an egg is at the top of the post.

[azzaaazzzz00]

I love how the Tapinoma eggs and larvae are spread across the screen

Edited by azzaaazzzz00, March 29 2022 - 11:08 AM.

[OiledOlives]

Formica fusca-group: The three queen two worker colony is doing fine. They have a massive batch of eggs and I hope that they manage to get back on their feet.

Formica pallidefulva-group: I am no longer the owner of these.

Camponotus castaneus: These are still doing good, formisquarium colony is at 16 workers, 4 pupae, batch of eggs, and 2nd instar larvae. Tube colony still has pupae and an egg batch.

 

Pheidole bicarinata: These are still doing very nicely.

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis:

 

Colobopsis obliqua: More workers have eclosed and they have several larvae. Unfortunately, these have gotten worse and even more boring. 

Crematogaster lineolata:

Tapinoma sessile: They are eating very nicely now. 

Monomorium sp: 
The newest addition to my boring ants! I pulled off some bark with berb when we went anting and it revealed a massive pile of larvae, hundreds of workers, and some very physogastric queens. We split the colony and in the end, I got 8 queens and a lot of not queens.
Here is what I mean.

 

Lasius brevicornis: I received this colony from Mett two weeks ago. Here's how they're doing!

 

Here's some V. emeryi that I got that will not be part of this journal.


And finally, last and best, my Camponotus chromaiodes.

They haven't been doing as well as they were when they were in the amog nest, but the FF isn't bad either. 

Edited by OiledOlives, October 19 2022 - 7:03 AM.

[Mettcollsuss]

Nice to see the brevicornis actually going after insects. When I had them they were still acting scared of them.

[ANTdrew]

Monomorium aren't boring!

[azzaaazzzz00]

Cool! Wait...these arn't supposed to be cool?

[OiledOlives]

Gonna stop updating on the fusca-group, T. sessile, C. obliqua, tube castaneus, and both Crematogaster colonies unless something really interesting happens.

[azzaaazzzz00]

There's nothing happening with the Crematogasters?!

[OiledOlives]

The Tapinoma sessile have alate pupae.

Edited by OiledOlives, October 19 2022 - 7:04 AM.

[OiledOlives]

Honestly the chromaiodes and the sessile are my favorite colonies in this journal. 

Tapinoma sessile are honestly super underrated and it's crazy how many eggs queens of Dolichoderinae subfamily can spew out. The entire frame of the Mini Hearth has been full of eggs ever since I dumped them inside. 

 

The Camponotus chromaiodes are still doing very good. The colony has a bio major and it seems they aren't the bad morph! The hairs of the bio workers are pretty golden and their mesosoma is a nice red (but definitely not great).

 

The F. fusca-group still have a ton of brood, indicating that at least 2 of the three queens are producing eggs. One of the queens occasionally gets pulled by a worker so it is very likely that she will be culled by their new generation.

Pheidole bicarinata are pretty cool as well.

Nothing interesting happening with the other colonies because they're all so boring.

[Mettcollsuss]

I just recently collected a Tapinoma colony, and I can definitely confirm that.

[OiledOlives]

Formisquarium castaneus colony:

Edited by OiledOlives, April 28 2022 - 6:42 AM.

[OiledOlives]

Current list of boring ants:
Campontous castaneus (20 workers)

Lasius brevicornis (3 queens, 25 workers)

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis (15 workers)

Aphaenogaster fulva (50 workers)

Pheidole bicarinata (300 workers)

Camponotus chromaiodes (100 workers)

Out of this list, the last three are doing amazing .

Edited by OiledOlives, April 29 2022 - 6:39 PM.

[OiledOlives]

I moved the occidentalis into a separate room a week ago and wrapped a heating cable around their Mini Hearth.

Bicarinata brood pile has tripled since last post. Very aggressive towards termites.

Chromaiodes is at 150 workers now and climbing. 

Nothing happening with fusca group, brevi, and castaneus.



Nothing really interesting has happened but I collected some lineolata and 100 or so claviger workers and around 500 larvae. Here's a time lapse video of them moving into the new nest. 

Edited by OiledOlives, May 9 2022 - 10:01 AM.

[United-Ants]

Did you get a queen?