63 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

8-14-2014
 
Species: Dorymyrmex sp.
Date collected: 8-4-2014.
Location collected: Near Joshua Tree National Park, California.
Collection method: Found wandering around.
 
I found tons of these Dorymyrmex sp. alates on my black light earlier, but none of them seem to be fertile. A little later that night I found this dealate wandering around. She started laying eggs a couple days later.
 

 

[dspdrew]

Updated 8-26-2014
 
So far it looks like this queen is indeed fertile.
 

[Gregory2455]

Is it just the lighting, or is she velvety like that?

[dspdrew]

Not sure. She probably does have some pubescence on her gaster.

[Myrmicinae]

Judging from their opaqueness, they look very close to pupating.

[DesertAntz]

I caught 4 dorymrymex bicolor queens tonight in my backyard (there were tons more wandering around but I only have room for so many ). I'm excited for this species. 

[Gregory2455]

Nice! It sounds like an interesting species to keep.

[dspdrew]

Updated 9-10-2014
 
Two days ago this queen got her first workers.
 

 

 

[dspdrew]

Updated 3-5-2015

 

The queen had a small colony for a while, but after they slowly died off, she has now died too.

[Gregory2455]

Shame... This was a cool species.

[dspdrew]

7-10-2015
 
1. Location of collection: Goffs, California.
2. Date of collection: 7-7-2015.
3. Habitat of collection:  High desert.
4. Length (from head to gaster):  7mm
 
I dug a bunch of these queens up from founding chambers in the desert out in Goffs, California, on 7-7-2015. A storm went through two days before, dropping a little over an inch of rain.
 
A few of these died soon after getting them home, leaving me with six. Since most people hava had a lot of trouble raising these, I took James C. Trager's advice, and I boosted all but one of them with D. insanus brood. The one I didn't boost had already laid her own little pile of eggs.
 
So far I put one of these in one of my small ant farm boxes, and he rest I have in test tubes.
 

[Foogoo]

Where their founding chambers just tiny mounds of dirt like the ones I found instead of the typical hole with a fan of dirt? Hope these do better than the Dorymyrmex I caught!

[dspdrew]

These were tiny mounds of dirt.

[kellakk]

That's weird that yours dug up piles, the D. bicolor I dug up around here didn't make the typical Dorymyrmex mound.

[Foogoo]

That's weird that yours dug up piles, the D. bicolor I dug up around here didn't make the typical Dorymyrmex mound.

What were they? Like the typical hole and fan?

[kellakk]

Yeah, they made the hole and fan. Now I'm thinking I might have caught them early on in their burrow-digging, before they had a chance to make a mound.

[dspdrew]

That's weird. I've never seen Dorymyrmex make founding chambers like that. I guess it's possible. I always thought all Pheidole made little mounts too, until I dug some species I never found before out of a typical fan shaped nest.

[dspdrew]

Update 7-11-2015
 
The queen in the dirt has finished her nest. I can see she only went down about 3/4 of an inch and then headed sideways. Since one of my Pogonomyrmex magnacanthus queens died, I put another one of these in the vacant ant farm box.
 

[Foogoo]

Have you had relatively good luck with all the species you've tried in the dirt boxes? Of the three Pogonomyrmex I tried in similar setups, only one dug (then died). My other two never attempted to dig, even with starting holes.

[dspdrew]

Yes they have worked pretty well.

 

Pogonomyrmex do that some times. I've had a lot of different species wait a while before digging.