16 replies to this topic

[Manitobant]

On august 30th, 2021 i caught 12 lasius latipes queens at bird’s hill provincial park, which is around 30 minutes away from winnipeg. Within a week, 11 of them were dead despite being given host workers. The lone surviving queen was placed into a mini hearth on September 15th with around 30 lasius neoniger and lasius latipes host workers, and was placed into hibernation on October 9th. She was taken out of hibernation on January 20th, 2022 and laid her first batch of eggs a few days ago. Despite being of the thin-legged “alpha” form, this queen is one of my favourites and I really hope she successfully founds a colony!

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Edited by Manitobant, February 21 2023 - 4:16 PM.

[NicholasP]

This is an incredible ant species to keep! Good luck with your latipes!

[Manitobant]

The colony now has some large larvae and a HUGE egg pile. The pupae are not hers but were robbed from some founding neoniger queens i have in order to increase the amount of hosts.

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[ZTYguy]

Very cool. I love parasitic Lasius journals.

[Manitobant]

The colony finally has some biological pupae after almost 4 months of being in the larval stage, and i expect the nanitics to eclose some time in the next few weeks. The queen was also given more neoniger hosts and laid a MASSIVE egg pile as a result.

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[Manitobant]

Today was the big day for this colony, as their first biological worker successfully eclosed. This is the first acanthomyops queen i have successfully raised to workers, and keeping them has been an amazing experience. I originally didn’t have much hope for this queen after 11 of her sisters died within a week of capture, but she has persevered and it should be smooth sailing from now on.

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Edited by Manitobant, August 10 2022 - 12:18 PM.

[BDantsalberta]

How are they doing now? Also, I have the same thin legged morph(except it's brown not orange) and she has 10 larvae and 50 hosts. I hope I can get some bio workers as well! Scratch that, she died. Stupid hosts killed her.

Edited by BDantsalberta, January 10 2023 - 4:56 PM.

[antsriondel]

Yeah, update?

[Manitobant]

These guys have been in hibernation since early october. I plan to wake them in early January and will update then if anything eventful occurs.


In terms of parasitic lasius in general, i have some big plans for the new year. Currently have an interjectus, subglaber, coloradensis and latipes x subglaber queen in hibernation and each is fully hosted.

[Ant-nig321]

Good luck,hope they pass through hibernation safely.

[BDantsalberta]

Good luck man!

[BDantsalberta]

Did they make it through hibernation? Also, I would like to see your coloradensis queen as I may have one and would like to see what your looks like.

Edited by BDantsalberta, January 9 2023 - 10:43 AM.

[Manitobant]

These guys are still doing quite well and have a crapton of larvae

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[antsriondel]

These guys are still doing quite well and have a crapton of larvae

Awesome! I would love to get some of these Queens this next season. 

[BDantsalberta]

Good to see that they are strong and healthy!

[Manitobant]

I've been boosting this colony with tons of neoniger pupae over the past few weeks and the queen has gotten slightly physogastric. Here is a photo of her laying an egg:

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Edited by Manitobant, July 26 2023 - 6:55 AM.

[BDantsalberta]

I've been boosting this colony with tons of neoniger pupae over the past few weeks and the queen has gotten slightly physogastric. Here is a photo of her laying an egg:

And did this colony survive the winter? And if so, how are they doing?