12 replies to this topic

[ColAnt735]

*Ahem*
Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to ColAnt735's Solenopsis molesta Journal!
(Applause) why do I do this to myself... I'll stop now doing the weird TV host stuff now..

Hello readers, this journal will be about my new fledgling colony of Solenopsis molesta ( Thief ants). I currently own a small colony of Solenopsis molesta with 30 workers a bunch of pupa and an absolute monster of an egg pile. I guess now is the time for some backstory of this colony. They currently have twenty eight queens of the thirty two I caught on August 5th 2022. On that day two different colour morphs were flying, an orange colour morph with a brown head, and a brown head, orange mesosoma, and black gaster variant. I put them all in a test tube and put them in the dark for a week. Then you may ask how they get workers in around two weeks? The answer is I'm paranoid and wanted them to get workers prior to the inevitable diapause that was approaching. I then stole pupae from a wild colony and put the pupae in the queens' test tube. The workers enclosed and viola! Colony created. I now have given them an outworld and some dirt in the test tube. I look forward to this colony's growth and I hope you enjoyed reading this. Have a great rest of your day or night and happy anting!

Photos:
August 5th 2022

August 10th 2022 Look at all those eggs.

Sorry for the image size change Imgur wasn't loading.
August 16th 2022.

I accidentally stole two male pupae with the normal pupae.

One of the colour variants.

Edited by ColAnt735, January 22 2023 - 6:13 AM.

[bmb1bee]

Wish I had a Solenopsis molesta colony with 28 queens...

[ColAnt735]

Wish I had a Solenopsis molesta colony with 28 queens...

I'm in for a wild ride...

Edited by ColAnt735, August 16 2022 - 7:13 PM.

[antsriondel]

*Ahem*

Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to ColAnt735's Solenopsis molesta Journal! 

(Applause) why do I do this to myself... I'll stop now doing the weird TV host stuff now..

 

Hello readers, this journal will be about my new fledgling colony of Solenopsis molesta ( Thief ants). I currently own a small colony of Solenopsis molesta with 30 workers a bunch of pupa and an absolute monster of an egg pile. I guess now is the time for some backstory of this colony. They currently have twenty eight queens of the thirty two I caught on August 5th 2022. On that day two different colour morphs were flying, an orange colour morph with a brown head, and a brown head, orange mesosoma, and black gaster variant. I put them all in a test tube and put them in the dark for a week. Then you may ask how they get workers in around two weeks? The answer is I'm paranoid and wanted them to get workers prior to the inevitable diapause that was approaching. I then stole pupae from a wild colony and put the pupae in the queens' test tube. The workers enclosed and viola! Colony created. I now have given them an outworld  and some dirt in the test tube. I look forward to this colony's growth and I hope you enjoyed reading this. Have a great rest of your day or night and happy anting!

 

Photos:

August 5th 2022

August 10th 2022 Look at all those eggs.

Sorry for the image size change Imgur wasn't loading.

August 16th 2022.

 

I accidentally stole two male pupae with the normal pupae.

One of the colour variants.

Nice!

[ColAnt735]

Some photos I took:

Lets play spot the male!

Did you spot him? Of course you didn't *ahem* his sisters made him stop being addicted to oxygen.

[Jonathan5608]

Man you are in for a wild ride

[ColAnt735]

It's update time

 

Update 8/9/22

 

Holy cow this colony does not stop growing. The sheer speed that the brood develops is incredible. I have increased the feedings from once every two days to everyday and increased the quantities as well. The workers of this colony are quite shy compared to ants like my Tetramorium, Formica, and Crematogaster (Even after the die off) at the slightest vibration the workers of this colony will run back to the nest or take cover, at the moment I'd estimate that this colony has around 100-150 workers with a pile of around 200 pupa eggs and larvae. Sadly they have killed off seven queens so the queen count is now twenty

Photos:

At the start of this journal:

Present Day, look at the growth!

Not great quality photos

A dead worker and queen

I love these little ants they are great. Thanks for reading and Happy Anting!

[ColAnt735]

Diapause Update 10/10/22

 

This colony doesn't stop growing... They currently have around 600 workers with a mound of brood and nineteen remaining queens. Over the past few weeks they slowed down for winter and now are in diapause. This colony has been very fun to keep and I hope they survive diapause. Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your day ( or night).

[AntsCali098]

I think the big factor of growth for this species is food. I don't feed mine much, and they have stayed at around 200 workers for a while which is what I want.

Edited by AntsCali098, October 11 2022 - 11:27 AM.

[ANTdrew]

I think the big factor of growth for this species is food. I don't feed mine much, and they have stayed at around 200 workers for a while which is what I want.

Food is a big factor for every species.

[T.C.]

Gonna need to see some images of this colony.

[ColAnt735]

Gonna need to see some images of this colony.

Wish granted.

Photos:

Two of the queens with a hoard of workers around them.

The entire colony (sorry for the low quality)

The connector to the outworld and the outworld if anyone has any clue what that white stuff is please let me know my guess is sunflower seed because it appears when they are fed sunflower seed.

[AntsCali098]

That's a big colony