6 replies to this topic

[Flish]

I caught an Odontomachus (I believe brunneus) queen on July 1st (still had her wings on at the time) and have been keeping her in a tubs and tubes type setup with some "forest floor" substrate designed for isopods and she has been doing very well thus far. She originally was nesting under the test tube (now is nesting in it as she's supposed to, and has brought in a ton of dirt) so I'm not sure exactly when she laid her initial batch of eggs, but she has since laid a second batch of eggs and now has some decent sized larva as well. She accepts both (dye free) hummingbird nectar and crushed baby mealworms readily, so she is doing well at this point in time.

 

I'm just curious if anyone knows exactly how fast Odontomachus colonies grow, as there isn't much information that I could find on them beyond the absolute basics, and it's not even been a month and she already has some larva that have definitely been hatched for some time now. From what I understand it takes months but it's not even been one and the larva have already doubled in size. Do they just have a particularly long pupation period or something? 

[FloridaAnts]

I caught an Odontomachus (I believe brunneus) queen on July 1st (still had her wings on at the time) and have been keeping her in a tubs and tubes type setup with some "forest floor" substrate designed for isopods and she has been doing very well thus far. She originally was nesting under the test tube (now is nesting in it as she's supposed to, and has brought in a ton of dirt) so I'm not sure exactly when she laid her initial batch of eggs, but she has since laid a second batch of eggs and now has some decent sized larva as well. She accepts both (dye free) hummingbird nectar and crushed baby mealworms readily, so she is doing well at this point in time.
 
I'm just curious if anyone knows exactly how fast Odontomachus colonies grow, as there isn't much information that I could find on them beyond the absolute basics, and it's not even been a month and she already has some larva that have definitely been hatched for some time now. From what I understand it takes months but it's not even been one and the larva have already doubled in size. Do they just have a particularly long pupation period or something?

Honestly, if you mix up feedings, they can get 20-30 workers in the first year. People say if you feed them termites, they grow much quicker. I tried it, and it does work with termite alates. I haven’t seen a huge difference with termite workers, but it still seems to speed them up

[Mettcollsuss]

Odontos grow surprisingly fast for a large ponerine. My 6 worker colony already has ~15 pupae in just a few weeks. From my experience the pupal stage is a little under a month (24 days though that likely varies a bit). But they speed through the larval stage if they have enough food, I counted only 10 days from 1st instar to pupating for mine. I haven't had a chance to measure egg-larva time though.

[FloridaAnts]

Odontos grow surprisingly fast for a large ponerine. My 6 worker colony already has ~15 pupae in just a few weeks. From my experience the pupal stage is a little under a month (24 days though that likely varies a bit). But they speed through the larval stage if they have enough food, I counted only 10 days from 1st instar to pupating for mine. I haven't had a chance to measure egg-larva time though.

For me egg-larvae is about 2 weeks, larvae to pupae is 5-7, and pupae for workers is what you said. My Haematodus grow much slower though. Ruginodis are smaller, so slightly faster growing

Edited by FloridaAnts, July 24 2022 - 10:09 AM.

[Flish]

Alright, thanks guys. Makes sense with what I've been seeing. Just was curious since that is really not at all what most resources say online, but glad to know they're just wrong and I don't have some free Odontomachus

[Mettcollsuss]

My Haematodus grow much slower though. Ruginodis are smaller, so slightly faster growing

Mine are cf. haematodus, so that difference in larval growth time makes sense. I'm not sure how large brunneus are compared to the others, but either way they should grow at a good rate for a large ponerine.

[FloridaAnts]

My Haematodus grow much slower though. Ruginodis are smaller, so slightly faster growing

Mine are cf. haematodus, so that difference in larval growth time makes sense. I'm not sure how large brunneus are compared to the others, but either way they should grow at a good rate for a large ponerine.

They haematodus size