57 replies to this topic

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

So um, it has been a while since I posted anything because we were moving and now I finally have a back yard 😀 yay.

So these are my current ant species I have. I will post more details later on a post because there is a nuptial flight tonight which will yield in more species. And I will also add pictures in the next post.

Tetramorium bicarinatum
Pheidole crassicornis
Brachymyrmex depalis
Pogonomyrmex badius
Camponotus insanus
Solenopsis invicta


I may have spelled some names wrong so don't mind

I am also wanting raise paperwasps and bumblebees this season as well.

Edited by asim, February 17 2023 - 5:27 AM.

[antsriondel]

Nice colonies! I love pheidole, and will be following this journal. 

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

This is a random male alate I found he is dead though does anybody know which species he is







This is my pheidole crassicornis colony they are black and are hard to see against their piece of wood they nest under.













I forgot to mention these guys in the previous post. If any body remembers that pogonomyrmex badius queen I found under a rock raised 4 workers







Brachymyrmex depalis











Tetramorium bicarinatum





Camponotus Insanus

Edited by asim, February 17 2023 - 5:26 AM.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

A major fungal infection swept throughout my ant collection. I lost my pogonomyrmex badius, brachymyrmex depalis, and camponotus Insanus colonies in this fungus. The rest of colonies have survived and are doing well

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

Camponotus Insanus is replaced. I flipped a small piece of wood to find a two workers a queen and a bunch of large larvae. I collected then and they are now in this test tube setup.

[ColAnt735]

Do you still have the Brachymyrmex depilis? They aren’t Brachymyrmex depilis there Tetramorium bicarinatum or a similar species.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

Oh um my mistake the pictures are not labeled correctly and the pics for b.depalis are above the name

[ColAnt735]

My bad.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

A fungus swept throughout my collection (again) and all of the previous colonies are dead. I flipped a rock and found a very large solenopsis colony underneath. I saw three queens and tons of brood. I filled my three containers with workers and brood and managed to grab one queen. When I got back home I took a dead worker from their test tube ( I had moved them in to a test tube) and used a microscope to figure out the species. I am 99.99999999 percent sure that they are Solenopsis Xyloni. I ordered a nest for them which will arrive tomorrow. I will share pictures after moving them in.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

I have just bought a black light to trap queen so hopefully that will give me more queens. I also bought a Camponotus castaneus queen with small larvae for ten dollars. I brood boosted her with Camponotus Floridians pupae.







I released the "Solenopsis Xyloni" after realizing that they were S.invicta

Edited by asim, April 30 2023 - 3:30 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Do not release invicta. They should be frozen.

[TennesseeAnts]

A fungus swept throughout my collection (again) and all of the previous colonies are dead. I flipped a rock and found a very large solenopsis colony underneath. I saw three queens and tons of brood. I filled my three containers with workers and brood and managed to grab one queen. When I got back home I took a dead worker from their test tube ( I had moved them in to a test tube) and used a microscope to figure out the species. I am 99.99999999 percent sure that they are Solenopsis Xyloni. I ordered a nest for them which will arrive tomorrow. I will share pictures after moving them in.

S. xyloni are most definitely extinct (or close to it) in the Southeastern US. What you have is more than likely S. invicta in your area of Florida. 

 

I have just bought a black light to trap queen so hopefully that will give me more queens. I also bought a Camponotus castaneus queen with small larvae for ten dollars. I brood boosted her with Camponotus Floridians pupae.







I released the "Solenopsis Xyloni" after realizing that they were S.invicta

In the future, try not to release exotic or invasive species back into the wild. You're far better off just freezing or boiling the colony. It is also technically a crime to move and release S. invicta, S. richteri and S. invicta x richteri. 

Edited by TennesseeAnts, April 30 2023 - 5:26 PM.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

Okay, I did not know that in the future I will freeze all invicta colonies. Sorry

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

So I decided to add a few more pupa to the test tube. The queen is still doing well.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

All the pupae hatched. 

 

Four of them were males so I spent a long time trying to get them out but the queen protected them so that was hard. 

 

But now the queen has four workers. 

 

There is a fifth worker but she is crippled. Not sure if she will make it.    

 

I am currently in school and using my computer to do this in free time. So I will post pics when I get home.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

I caught a few camponotus Floridians callows from the same nest. They were excepted by the colony.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

That habitat did not work. The workers keep getting stuck in the tubing so I changed their setup to this.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

I went a little crazy and collected about 3 or 4 more callows for the queen. Her highness was fed half a mealworm and honey.

The queens name is Imarti (A bright orange Indian sweet)

The colonies name is undecided but here is what I was thinking

Ember wings
Flame wings
Amber wings

If anybody has a wings of fireish suggestions for their name, that would be great.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

The queen is perfectly fine. I will update this when she gets biological workers or when she dies 😭

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

I caught a few more queens
Camponotus are still doing well