5 replies to this topic

[antperson24]

What is everybody's favorite species of ant?

 

[antperson24]

My favorite species is Aphaenogaster rudis. Mostly because they are fairly fast growers for their size, they are not too picky about their food, and their lack of a social stomach is also very interesting. I like watching them drag their food back to their nest, which they do because they do not have social stomachs.

[ANTdrew]

https://www.formicul...m/?fromsearch=1

https://www.formicul...t/?fromsearch=1

https://www.formicul...y/?fromsearch=1

[antperson24]

https://www.formicul...m/?fromsearch=1

https://www.formicul...t/?fromsearch=1

https://www.formicul...y/?fromsearch=1

Oh, sorry about this.  Wait, I posted on the top one, I don't even remember that!

Edited by antperson24, March 10 2023 - 7:30 AM.

[ANTdrew]

It's all good!

[Ernteameise]

Several.

I absolutely love bull ants and I loved watching them during my trip to Australia. I would love keeping some, but it is extremely hard to get one's hands on a colony in Europe. Yes, there are colonies sold on Ebay, but the prices are astronomical. We are taking 800 Euros.

 

I adore the large nests of our native German wood ants and I had the priviledge to be able to keep a small colony in my youth. They are magical.

 

During a holiday in Spain, I loved watching the harvester ants, Messor spp. I loved the different sizes of the workers, the red headed majors and it was a joy watching them transport all these different, giant seed into their nest. I actually fullfilled a wish of mine to actually get a Messor barbarus colony when I recently re-kindled my love for ants. Now I am a proud owner of a busy little colony of these ladies.

 

Since I was a little kid, I also loved the humble Myrmica rubra. The garden of my parents is full of plants and trees and they always had a range of different ant species in there, and I learned their names from an early age. We had Lasius niger, Lasius flavus and of course Myrmica rubra. Myrmica rubra was the most exciting one of these, of course, because it can sting. Yeah, I was a weird kid and I had a thing for animals that make other people run away. I also gave my grandma a near heartattack, because as a kid, I loved to let the hornets who were nesting in our orchard land on my hand. European hornets are actually very gentle and not very aggressive (if you do not disturb the nest) and I must have acted in a very non-threating way back then. So actually, my very first pet was some Myrmica rubra ants which I had put in a jar. As you might guess, this did not really work out. I actually debated with myself if I should just dig up a M. rubra colony from my parent's garden now that I started up again, but then I read that they are quite finicky for beginners and have more advanced needs concerning humidity and heating- and it is just a bit intimitating for someone starting out new. So I held back on these guys.

But they might be something I might come back to and try my luck on later when I have a bit more experience.