26 replies to this topic

[NotAxo]

June 5^th, 2022

I am new to formiculture and i am a teen who has 1 year experience in antkeeping. i live in india
I'm really bad at self intros, so moving onto my colonies

Yellow crazy ant
- 15 workers
- idk how much brood
- in a dirt setup
- had 2 queens but one dies cause my little sister decided to poke her gaster

1^stDiacamma rogosum
- about 20 workers
- about 13 brood
- no eggs seen cause i caught the colony under a pot yesterday
- in a tubs n' tubes setup

2^nd Diacamma rogusom
- about 34 workers
- about 23 brood
- no eggs cause i caught them under a pot this afternoon
- tubs n' tubes setup

Camponotus sericeus?
- 3 workers
- idk how many brood (i was too lazy to count lol)
- test tube setup

Camponotus compressus?
- no workers
- a good pile of pupae, larvae and eggs
- test tube setup

Camponotus?
- no workers
- 4 queens
- about 15 eggs
- test tube setup

Crematogaster?
- some teeny tiny eggs

Will send pics soon

Edited by NotAxo, July 2 2024 - 9:12 AM.

[NotAxo]

June 6^th, 2022

 

Updates :

 

1^st Diacamma colony

- I made a typo and they are not actually in a tubs n' tubes setup but are in a outworld connected to 2 test tubes

- 2 new workers

- i actually found 2 new eggs!

 

2^nd Diacamma colony

- i added well washed red sea sand gathered from trivandrum seaside

- several new workers

- still no eggs

- eating well

 

I couldn't get new pics sorry in advance

 

 

my 1^st diacamma colony

 

 

My 2^nd diacamma colony

 

 

My camponotus sericeus colony

 

 

My Maurauder queen

 

 

Idk what this is but i think its a crematogaster queen

 

 

My yellow crazy ant dirt setup

 

 

i think this is camponotus compressus

 

 

I'm pretty sure its a camponotus atleast

 

 

Bull ant colony

(my least favourite)

[ColAnt735]

Your Bull ants are actually Trap jaw ants (Odontomachus). Also your Ants are super cool! Looking forward to watching them grow!

[NotAxo]

oh yes thank you, i didn't remember the name "trapjaw"

[ANTdrew]

That queen does look like Crematogaster based on the dorsally attached petiole.

[NotAxo]

I've only seen crematogaster cerasi workers as crematogasters in my area. I've caught different crematogasters but only my cerasi survived. this was last years batch. i released all of them cause i didn't know how to care for them

 

this year i have more knowlegde and will try to keep them for longer periods of time like the diacamma.

 

they have a bad reputation in my area as they have a painful sting but I've always wanted an "giant" ant colony

[ColAnt735]

I've only seen crematogaster cerasi workers as crematogasters in my area. I've caught different crematogasters but only my cerasi survived. this was last years batch. i released all of them cause i didn't know how to care for them

 

this year i have more knowlegde and will try to keep them for longer periods of time like the diacamma.

 

they have a bad reputation in my area as they have a painful sting but I've always wanted an "giant" ant colony

Crematogaster cerasi isn't found in India.

[NotAxo]

hmmm, the ant was a glossy finish and looks almost like a cerasi

 

well again, i didn't have much education on ants and anting sites

[ANTdrew]

hmmm, the ant was a glossy finish and looks almost like a cerasi

well again, i didn't have much education on ants and anting sites

Crematogaster are famous for all looking very alike.

[NotAxo]

June 7^th, 2022

 

1^st Diacamma colony

- seeing a few more eggs

- fed them a baby roach 

[NotAxo]

June 7^th, 2022

 

I just caught a new Camponotus Compressus queen! hehe no pics sry.

 

And i feed a small roach to both my Diacamma rogosum and the yellow crazy ants

 

Trapjaw ants

- i sadly released them. the gamergate won't feed the larvae and won't eat the roaches i give her and her eggs 2 week old eggs havnt hatched.

 

i also found a small Diacamma colony in a pvc pipe but 25% of the ants got away so i didn't bother to catch any. Instead i kinda stole the larvae and brood-boosted the 2^nd diacamma colony

 

I should've given it to the smaller one but i didn't think enough *

[NotAxo]

June 8^th, 2022

 

SPEED UPDATE

 

Today i caught 2 more queens!

 

one is about 10mm and the other is about 4mm

 

my 4 queen camponotus have a few larvae, I'm happy

 

my c. sericeus have 5 nanitics now

 

new c. compressus have no eggs

 

both Diacamma have a few new workers

 

I'm really sorry for not bolding, adding pics or designing my post, i came home late today and have loads of HW from school.

 

see you tommorow

[NotAxo]

June 9^th, 2022

 

Yellow crazy ants

- more nanitics in outworld

- fed them

 

Diacamma 1

- 3 larva turned to pupae

- fed them

 

Diacamma 2

- not eggs yet

- fed them

- 3 pupa dead?

 

Marauder queen

- ate her 3^rd batch of eggs, disapointed, gave her to my lil' bro as his first queen

 

4 queen Camponotus

- nice pile of brood, no pupa

- since the queens are 9mm, i think pupa won't have cocoons

- really looking forward to it

 

C. Sericeus

- still 5 workers

- even more eggs

 

C. Compressus 1

- few pupa and larva, no eggs

 

C. Compressus 2

- caught on 7/6/2022

- no eggs

 

5mm queen (idk the genus and I'm lazy to know)

- caught 8/6/2022

- no eggs

 

8mm queen i caught with the 5mm queen(idk the genus either

- died ;-;

 

Crematogaster queen

- has about 20 eggs idk if larvae

- noice

 

also quick question, is elmers glue toxic to ants?

i mean the original liquid type.

 

see you tommorow bye

[NotAxo]

July 2, 2022

well that's a bummer...
I'm on my phone so can't make thus post look cooler.

well onto updates.

C. Sericeus
- 11 workers
- lots of brood

c. Compressus
- 10 workers
- tones of eggs

camponutus unknown
- broods are nioce
- 7 workers

crematogaster
- 3-4 pupae about to eclose
- some eggs

yellow crazy ants
- idk but they eat alot
- more than 15 workers

diacamma 1
- about 30 workers
- only about 30 eggs
- all pupae eclosed

Daicamma 2
- same as Dai 1 but with 40 workers

NEW COLONIES

a smaller type of black crazy ant I think
- 3 workers
- tonnes of brood

8 new c. Compressus or irattians
- looks like they are about to die.

solenopsis
- 4 larvae
- some eggs

pharoah ant queen
- nothing

3 tetramorium (I think)
- all seperate
- 2 have only eggs
- 3rd has pupea too

[ZTYguy]

Show photos of the rugosum. They are a favorite of mine. Always wanted to keep them but alas they are out of my reach.

[NotAxo]

New updates comin soon. WITH PICS!

its just a photo dump but you'll be surprised at how much some of these have grown!

Edited by NotAxo, July 10 2022 - 4:35 AM.

[NotAxo]

Well I'm back to anting this year. Very sad at just ghosting you guys. Anyways I've learned alot. Actually, all my earlier Camponotus species were wrong. Compressus was actually irratians, sericeus was actually parius, and the tiny camponotus was a species called vitiosus. I had to release all my earlier colonies due to exams. Currently I have these ants.

1st C. Parius
- 6 Pupae, 3 larvae and maybe half dozen of eggs. Doing very well at the moment
- I really wanna keep this colony in a formicarium but cannot buy one, so I will try to make a really well made formicatium for them. THA mini hearth is my favorite design.

2nd C. Parius
- 3 larvae and probably 6 eggs
- since these are a second colony and my ambition is a biologist, I want to study how this guys nest. So I will be making an ant farm like setup that ACanada uses so study their behavior.


C. Vitious
- 4 eggs and has been 2weeks, still has wings and I think is probably infertile

that's all for now guys

also it may rain very hard by the end of next week so fingers crossed for more C. Parius and Vitiosus. They are both the cutest ants I have had.

[NotAxo]

So today I went to a relatives place and I turned some rocks there. I actually found 3 colonies! I actually found 1 traphaw ant colony. Only had a couple of eggs which I didn't get but I wasn't much concerned as they are a semi claustrak species so I can feed it later. Then I luckly found another trapjaw queen, but she was super fast and dissapeared with a TON of eggs. I stole her single pupa and larva and returned her Rock with no damage. I turned more rocks and I found a NEW MARAUDER QUEEN! I've had quite a few queens of this species in the past but I check on them every 5 days and maybe because of that, they keep eating eggs and dying. This time, I caught her under a rock so she is most likely fertile. She had a ton of eggs in a ball but she must have been super stressed cause she abandoned them in the temp tube. I'm gonna keep her in a new tube undisturbed for exactly one month.

UPDATES

1st C. Parius
- laid a dozen more eggs and one new pupa, another pupa has darkened very much so i am expecting a nanitic tommorow or the day after.

C. Vituosus
- she ate her eggs and i needed a tube quickly so i released her, I'm gonna buy more tubes when i got out again.

No other updates

[NotAxo]

**************************

Updates

June 18th 2024

C. Parius 01
- On the 17th, the first nanitic had eclosed!
- Today morning, I witnessed my first nanitic helping to free the second nanitic!
- They have a few new eggs, and no new pupae or larvae.
- Their test be has been put in a time outworld and are ignoring the honeywater I gave them. I am going to wait till 4th or 5th nanitic or until they start pulling on the cotton ball, whichever is first
- Another pupa is slightly turning darker, another worker in 2 days! :happy:

No other updates

******************************

Edited by NotAxo, June 17 2024 - 10:32 PM.

[NotAxo]

19/6/2024 Wednesday

Updates :

C. Parius 01
- One more nanitic exposed, now upto 3 nanitics. 2 more pupae have turned almost unnoticeable darker. The rest (2) are newer pupae so they will take a bit more time.
- No new pupae, but queen might have laid a bit more eggs, but it has a low chance because they might really need protein.

C. Parius 02
- Queen has her second pupa, but no new larva or eggs

Trapjaw Ant
- I still need to ID this lady but I'm way to busy at the moment. She threw some sand on top of her only larva yesterday, and now I see a brown cocoon inside the sand pile.
- Queen also laid a single egg. When she starts wandering out of her tube, which should be any day now that she has an eggs, I will feed her a cricket nymph. I think that's what you call them.

Off-subject :
I have a few questions. I was planning to make a THA mini hearth style formicarium with my tiny ferrero richer box (the small cuboid one). I almosted scrapped it because sand is an absolute pain to work with. But today, I found an old container with untouched and unopened cake fondent inside. It is 3 years expired, but I wanna know if it would work to achieve a modeling clay alternative.

Also I found a cup set box and inside was a styrofoam box with 6 compartments, open to one side. I was thinking, if I add a watering dish thing like THA mini hearth with the mesh, and silicone it into the styrofoam, and then proceed to layer all the sides of the box with about 7mm of grout, would it be good enough for C. Parius or irratians?