63 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

What are they eating and drinking?

 

Other than the Formula Blue 100, they are drinking byFormica Sunburst Ant Nectar, and the pink stuff they are eating is some food my friend made out of processed chicken, hummingbird nectar and agar.

[nurbs]

Out of all your journals Drew this is without a doubt my favorite.

[TennesseeAnts]

Really? I loved his acromyrmex versicolor!

[dspdrew]

Out of all your journals Drew this is without a doubt my favorite.

 

[dspdrew]

Update 2-17-2018
 
This colony has been producing a lot, but it seemed they were losing workers at about the same rate. I suspected they weren't getting enough food so I gave them a feeder. Now they seem to be doing much better with the constant food supply. I also moved them into a larger formicarium. They now only have about 115 workers but I'm expecting that to grow.
 

 

 

[gcsnelling]

I have always been of the impression these are a fairly high metabolism ant, more food is probably a very good choice.

[AntsCalifornia]

Hah, wow, I need a good ant to sell and I found like a million of these and only caught 3.

[dspdrew]

Update 6-8-2018

 

Well this colony was doing great and then started quickly dying off for no apparent reason. Now two workers are all that remains. It got smaller and smaller until finally the queen died too a few days ago. At first she was laying in the out world, but now the two remaining workers have dragged her back into the nest and laid her next to the brood. They both keep going up to her and touching her with their antennae almost like they're wondering why she isn't doing anything. There's quite a few larvae left, but they're all slowly shriveling.

[Enderz]

Wow that is quite sad drew, hopefully you can catch more of these gems this summer. I'm hoping I can catch a few myself

[dspdrew]

Wow that is quite sad drew, hopefully you can catch more of these gems this summer. I'm hoping I can catch a few myself

 

So is nurbs.

[nurbs]

Update 6-8-2018

 

Well this colony was doing great and then started quickly dying off for no apparent reason. Now two workers are all that remains. It got smaller and smaller until finally the queen died too a few days ago. At first she was laying in the out world, but now the two remaining workers have dragged her back into the nest and laid her next to the brood. They both keep going up to her and touching her with their antennae almost like they're wondering why she isn't doing anything. There's quite a few larvae left, but they're all slowly shriveling.

 

There goes another colony. Some antkeeper you are.

 

Didn't you tell me you accidentally forgot to rinse out the bleach, and that's what killed them? Or was that another colony 

[FSTP]

Update 6-8-2018

 

Well this colony was doing great and then started quickly dying off for no apparent reason. Now two workers are all that remains. It got smaller and smaller until finally the queen died too a few days ago. At first she was laying in the out world, but now the two remaining workers have dragged her back into the nest and laid her next to the brood. They both keep going up to her and touching her with their antennae almost like they're wondering why she isn't doing anything. There's quite a few larvae left, but they're all slowly shriveling.

 

 

 

that's to bad. I know Dorymyrmex spp. get some hate from some people Cough Nurbs Cough  But this species is quite nice. I don't know what it is but I've had some similar experiences with Dorymyrmex they are easy and quick to found but raising up the colony to a mature sustainable colony seems to be a slight challenge. They seem to eventually do exactly as you've described. I've not been able to keep a colony going longer then a couple seasons or so. I'm going to really try this time though I've got a bunch I'm hoping to do better with this time around.

[nurbs]

 

that's to bad. I know Dorymyrmex spp. get some hate from some people Cough Nurbs Cough 

 

 

Dunno what you're talking about, best species ever.

[Zeiss]

My colony of these were doing fairly well, until they decided to tear apart their queen for some absurd reason.  Probably due to Nurbs hating on them so much.  I have no idea what prompted their attempt at copying Julius Caesar's stabbing, they were fed plenty and kept at reasonable temperatures.  

[dspdrew]

Update 8-24-2019

 

I found two more of these queens on 7-24-2019 in Landers.

 

One queen got her first workers today. She has three so far.

[FSTP]

this is awesome. These are really underrated ants. Once they have a fairly sizable colony they're really interesting ants to keep.

[dspdrew]

Update 1-11-2020

 

This colony died off.

[dspdrew]

Update 11-16-2023
 
I don't know why, but I decided to collect another two of these queens this summer. One of them fizzled out and died, but the other has started a pretty nice colony.

 

found them August 1st 2023 in Nipton, CA, and by now the colony is up to around 100 or so workers.

 

 

 

 

 

They created quite the nest entrance in front of their test tube.
 

 

[ANTdrew]

This is a really cool species, in my opinion.

[100lols]

I have beef with this species because they are taking over my neighborhood lol.