28 replies to this topic

[CheetoLord02]

I honestly wasn't really planning on making another journal, but these two colonies have been absolutely blowing me out of the water. I love Novomessor, so finally getting some successful colonies is so great! I've had them in the past, but they never did well for me. This time is a completely different story.

Novomessor cockerelli

This queen was caught on August 3rd, in Tucson AZ. I only have like one really terrible picture of her during founding, so I'll spare your eyes for now. She got her first nanitic on September 8th, putting their egg to worker at around 5 weeks. Insanely fast for ants as big as them. Once all four of her nanitics eclosed, I moved the colony into a Tarheel Ants Mini Hearth. I had heard that Novomessor do exceedingly well in those formicaria, so I decided to give it a shot. Well, the rumors are true. As soon as I put them in the nest they absolutely took off. As of right now their second generation is in their late development, with one pupa close to eclosing and the rest of the generation being either larvae in premolt or pupae. Their 2nd generation will total up to 12 new workers, meaning the colony will quadruple in size in just one new generation. I feed them one mealworm every day, and keep a heat cable underneath the nest to keep things hot. I've learned this genus absolutely needs heat above all else. Check out the massive brood pile! Crazy to think a colony with only nanitics can raise that much brood.

 

 

 

Novomessor albisetosus

Caught on the same day as the cockerelli above, this colony has one key quirk: 2 queens! N. albisetosus are polygynous, so I quickly scanned all of the Novomessor queens I'd caught that day to check for differences in the propodeal spines; the only surefire way to differentiate cockerelli and albisetosus. Only these two ended up being albisetosus, so I quickly tubed them together and left them to found. They took a bit longer than the cockerelli, getting their first worker on September 12th. They would get 6 nanitics total, and then I moved them into a Mini Hearth on the same day as the cockerelli. This colony got their 2nd generation far quicker, but it was only an additional 4 workers. Their next few generations are a totally different story, though, as the laying power of two queens is definitely no joke! I feed them usually 1-2 mealworms a day, depending on how much they'll take, and their setup is pretty much identical to the cockerelli's.

One key thing I'd like to note is that they're in a 2-segmented Mini Hearth, which you'll see later. The reason for this is that the queens actually don't really like each other. Despite founding together and everything, they won't come into contact at all. Whenever they see each other they quickly repel in the opposite direction. Despite this, the workers actively care for both, and there are no signs of actual aggression within the colony at all. This behavior makes me think that perhaps they are oligynous instead of truly polygynous. Just food for thought.

Either way, here's some pics of them from today. Check out all that brood!
 

 

 

To wrap things up, here's a few recent videos I've done on these guys. The 2nd one even catches one of the albisetosus queens laying an egg!

Edited by CheetoLord02, February 7 2021 - 10:57 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Now you’re making me jealous.

[M_Ants]

Someone should make a post explaining all the founding types. How many are there? I know there's polygynous, monogynous, pleometric and now you mentioned oligynous.

[RushmoreAnts]

Someone should make a post explaining all the founding types. How many are there? I know there's polygynous, monogynous, pleometric and now you mentioned oligynous.

That's basically it, although oligynous is a pretty rare term. Polygynous is 2+, monogynous is one only, and pleometrophic is polygynous until workers. In oligyne the queens stay in separate chambers all the time, and don't socialize. I believe in oligyne there is a better chance the queens will fight, though.

Edited by AntsDakota, October 4 2020 - 5:08 AM.

[CheetoLord02]

I suppose I can just detail it here, because why not:

Monogynous/Monogyne: Both workers and queens will not tolerate the presence of more than one egg-laying queen.

Polygynous/Polygyne: Both workers and queens will tolerate the presence of more than one egg-laying queen. This sometimes has limits, where only a certain number of queens will be tolerated in the colony.

Pleometropic/Pleometrosis: Queens will tolerate the presence of each other so long as workers are not present. Typically once workers emerge they will kill all but one queen, however in some species the queens are the ones that fight each other.

Oligynous/Oligyny: Queens will not tolerate the presence of another egg-laying queen, however the workers will tolerate multiple egg-laying queens in a colony. Typically in this case queens will be kept far apart from each other, either in separate chambers or separate nests entirely. The workers will care for multiple queens just like they would in a Polygyne colony, however if the queens come in contact they will typically repel away from each other, or in some cases they may try to fight. This is a rare trait exhibited by few species, however it does happen.

Polydomous/Polydomy: When a single colony occupies two or more separate nests. Typically colonies that exhibit polydomy also exhibit polygyny or oligyny.

[M_Ants]

Thanks so much. This helps a lot.

[Fabey]

Hey!
One question - as there is no information available in German and not much in English: do they have to hibernate? If yes: like the South European species at 12-18 degrees Celsius? Do you think around 12, but certainly over 12 degrees would fit to maintain their reduced winter activity?

[CheetoLord02]

Update 10/8

Both of these colonies are continuing to do absolutely amazing. I'll just get on with the pictures, since they're pretty impressive.

N. cockerelli

These guys got 1 new worker as of last update, the earliest in their 2nd generation. They still have a huge pile of pupae, I believe 11 in total, as well as tons of larvae and eggs. I think this next generation of workers is already going to be larger than the nanitic workers, as I've been absolutely powerfeeding them. I don't think they're as large as they'll get just yet, but it's definitely a step up. Granted, Novomessor nanitics are significantly smaller than the workers of a mature colony, so I'm definitely excited to see how they go on.
 

 

N. albisetosus

These two queens continue to be absolute powerhouses, and their brood pile definitely proves it. They like to keep it all stacked up in a giant mountain on the water tower, although occasionally they'll put the pupae in a separate pile on the other side of the nest. Sooner than later this whole nest is going to be full of brood. I have a new nest coming for them today, but of course it'll be a little bit before they're actually ready to move.
 

[Kaelwizard]

These are giant Aphaenogaster. I love them.

[KitsAntVa]

They really are which is so cool.

[CheetoLord02]

Update 10/11

This is definitely an interesting update.

N. cockerelli

Unfortunately this colony, or rather just the queen, randomly dropped dead. The water in the Mini Hearth was running a bit low, so maybe that was it. Either way, while it's a bit disappointing, it's not the end of the world, since I have a ton of backup colonies at the ready. Unfortunately there was a reason that I wanted to keep the original colony over any others; the queen was far larger and they had a really cool dark color morph. Now the replacement colony is just the normal, boring colors

Either way, after removing the other colony members I introduced the new colony to the nest and the orphaned brood. They definitely are confused as to how all this brood showed up or even what to do with it, but they'll definitely figure it out.
 

 

 

N. albisetosus

Even though these guys still had some growing room left in their other nest, I made a somewhat rash decision to move them. Their next nest is a Tall Fortress Type 1 from Tarheel Ants. The reason why I decided to rush the space upgrade is because the two queens were NOT being friendly. They weren't actually fighting, but it was getting scarily close to that. I figured they were just feeling cramped, and that hopefully a larger nest would result in them splitting off better and maybe even get them in totally separate chambers. Unfortunately that didn't exactly happen, and even though they've got pupae in a second chamber, both queens are in the same chamber, with the water tower. Thankfully that chamber is the largest in the nest, and there's enough space for the two queens to keep separate. I really hope sooner than later they'll fill this nest and the queens will spread out, but until that happens I just have to hope the workers continue to care for both and that no real fights end up happening.
 

 

 

P.S.: Novomessor look AMAZING on ytong!

[CheetoLord02]

Update 10/14

This is a sad update, and most likely the end of my N. albisetosus colony. Last night the queens went into a full-out brawl, and it did not end well. Let me go into a bit more detail:

In the colony there was a clear alpha/beta relationship between the two queens. The beta was easy to identify as she was missing part of one of her front legs. She would constantly get pushed around by the alpha queen, getting bullied into corners and whatnot. Well last night she snapped and decided to fight the alpha for dominance. By the time I noticed the alpha was missing a leg and an antenna and the beta seemed unharmed. I quickly removed both queens from the nest. I simply tried separating them, putting the alpha in the outworld and the beta in the top chamber of the nest. At this point it was around midnight and I really had to get to sleep, so I decided to sleep hoping not to wake up to any dead queens. This was not the case. Just now I checked on them to find the beta dead and the alpha lost in the outworld, missing both antennae. I guided her back into the nest, but she is currently lost in a random chamber away from the workers. They have found her, but haven't tried dragging her back to where the colony is grouped up. The issue is that ants in genearl really can't function without at least one antenna. Honestly, I don't see this queen living to see the end of the week. I'm considering just taking all of the living colony members out and freezing them. Living with those injuries is no way for a queen to live.

I think this may prove that either N. albisetosus are oligynous, or there is a cockerelli/albisetosus hybrid that is. I wouldn't doubt the latter, as the two species are very closely related. I definitely think it needs more research than just this one colony. It really is interesting how the workers didn't mind the presence of multiple queens at all, yet the two queens hated each other with a burning passion. I've never really seen ants interact in that way before.

Dead Beta

 

Crippled Alpha

 

 

 

In other news, the cockerelli colony is doing great with their adopted brood. The new workers are absolutely massive, nearly twice as large as the nanitics, and the queen has gotten quite physogastric and has started laying at a pace to match the brood boost. I might just take the leap and give them all of the albisetosus' brood to adopt since that colony is as good as doomed. Boosting between species in this case would work without problems, as the two species are nearly identical apart from the apparent polygyny/oligyny. I have a nest waiting for them, a Tarheel Ants Fortress III, and if/when they do end up getting the brood boost is when I'll likely move them.

 

[Ants_Dakota]

i just sold a formica queen with only 1 antennae and 5 legs, so ants can recognize queens with 1 antenna.

that is really sad, though. i do love this genus.(if only we have them here)

[OhNoNotAgain]

Oh wow, what an epic story. So sad about the albisetosus colony. Still kinda curious what happens to the maimed queen, though.

[CheetoLord02]

Update 10/27

The N. cockerelli colony that has adopted all of the orphaned brood is doing amazing! Pretty much all of the adopted brood has eclosed now, and the queen has absolutely kept up with the pace. I moved them into a THA Fortress Type III, and they already fill up around 1/3rd of it. You can definitely tell that this formicarium is designed for large species, because they look absolutely amazing in it.
 

 

 

Seeing this colony spread out among several nest chambers is really satisfying as well, especially after them being crammed in the mini hearth for a while.
 

 

 

Most of their brood is still in the water tower chamber. Just look at the giant pile of pupae!
 

[KitsAntVa]

Eeeeeeee that's a lot, at least there not picky about where they lay there brood..

[CheetoLord02]

Update 11/4

Since the last update these guys have grown a substantial amount, and now take up around half of their Fortress. Here's a quick video of them eating and their huge brood piles!

[CheetoLord02]

Update 11/18

In the last few weeks I've been seriously powerfeeding this colony; either 5+ large crickets or a few hundred D. hydei fruit flies per day, and it's really shown to be effective since their fortress is getting close to max capacity.
 

 

 

They continue to have huge piles of brood, now in pretty much every chamber. I'll never get tired at looking that their giant stacks of pupae.

 

Since we're starting to run low on space, I decided to hook up another fortress for them, this one being type I. The tubing is a bit jank since these guys are pretty bad climbers, the tubing needs to be at a super short incline or else they can't get up. Even in this current configuration they struggle a bit to get up, but it's pretty much the best I can do for the time being.
 

[MinigunL5]

Your journals are the best.

[Ants_Dakota]

Your journals are the best.

110% agree!