220 replies to this topic

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

That replete pic is just stunning!

[ANTdrew]

Pretty sharp photos, regardless!

[kiedeerk]

Camponotus socius has to be one of the prettiest Camponotus species in the USA. I have two colonies. The smaller colony has about 15 workers with healthy brood pile. The smaller colony has a much bigger queen compared to the other colony. Both queens were caught last October and diapaused until January or so. The larger colony now has over 60 workers. The interesting thing is they haven’t produced any media or major workers. Usually castaneus, chromaoides, pennsylvanicus would have produced media workers by now.

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[Yusteponant]

Can't wait to see more!

[Ants_Dakota]

Awesome documentation of some less kept species. Keep it up!

[kiedeerk]

This colony of M placadops 01 is growing well and this new nest is proving great for pictures. Interesting that they prefer to use the shelves to put their brood on instead of the water tower.

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Edited by kiedeerk, September 8 2024 - 3:12 AM.

[kiedeerk]

New additions to the ant room: Acromyrmex versicolor

This is a bit of an experiment. I received some acromyrmex queens two weeks ago. These are abundant in the southwest of the USA with massive nuptial flights. The queens will leave their nest with a grain of fungus in their mouth. However the difficulty of getting any fungus growing species is how fragile the fungus is. The fungus usually die during shipping especially in the summer time. Without their fungus, the queens are basically unless and will never found. These queens I received arrive without any fungus. Since I have a colony of trachymyrmex that have a massive fungus garden. I transferred some of their fungus to the acromyrmex queens. They showed immediate interest to the fungus. These acromyrmex queens were from an area where they are polygenous. I separated the queens into groups of 3/4. I gave them dry rose petals, oats, and wild flowers. They began to cut the flowers and adding bits to the fungus. The queens have also laid quite a few eggs and place them in the crevasse of the fungal garden. I hope they are able to grow the fungus and found successfully.

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[GOCAMPONOTUS]

They are just awesome! I'm rooting for them.

[kiedeerk]

Acromyrmex versicolor have larva. What I have noticed is that the trachy fungus looks abit different when it is under the care of acromyrmex. I included a couple pictures of the trachy fungus garden. The acromyrmex queens also seem to like different plant/flower matter compared to trachy which is probably the reason the fungus look a bit different. But it is interesting and I am hoping the acromyrmex will found and keep the fungus alive. I plan on hibernationg the trachy as they would in nature but I am also afraid the fungus will die during diapause. Now if the Acromyrmex will grow and keep the fungus alive during the winter as they don’t need to diapause I will be able to transplant the fungus back to trachy once they finish diapause.

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[kiedeerk]

All three Acromyrmex colonies doing well. The larvae have been growing. They should have pupae in a week or two. Currently colonies are 2queens, 3queens, and 4 queens. One random death so far. These are polygenous population so we will see how these queens will do once workers arrive. One interesting thing you will see in the pictures, you see the white bit of fungus on some of the larva as they are feeding

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[kiedeerk]

Novomessor albisetosus colony doing well. This species along with its close relative cockerelli were featured in a video by Cheeto. I have the same opinion about that they make great beginner species. The queens are fully claustral. They are a desert species which means they do best with some heating. They are a very generalistic and are not picky with foods. They will gladly take in nuts and seeds as well as insects. They will drink sugar liquids but it’s not necessary. You can limit their growth with limiting food and also taking them off heat.

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[kiedeerk]

My Trachymyrmex septentrionalis colony is still doing well. But I have a feeling they will start to go into diapause mode soon and the fungus will shrink. They interestingly made another huge batch of alates. The first batch had 50 or so queens that I murdered since they were doing nothing. If you have been following, I used their massive fungus garden to boost my acromyrmex queens.

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[kiedeerk]

Acromyrmex versicolor have pupae which confirms fertility

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[Stubyvast]

Man they're doing great! Great job with this colony!

[kiedeerk]

Pogonomyrmex barbatus. This is a colony I kind of neglected. The easiest colonies to neglect are the harvester ants because as long as they have seeds and nuts you can kinda of forget about them. This colony was also off heat for many many months. The colony did decrease in size by quite a bit but still has over 100 workers. I just put them back on heat last week or so and they are starting to boom again. Just to show the importance of heating for desert species like pogonomyrmex.

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[kiedeerk]

My bigger M placadops 01 colony outgrew their current set up so I decided to move them into a THA nucleus that I bought a few years back before I got into DIY. They currently probably have high hundreds to 1000 workers. I always give advice to new ant keepers about moving colonies to new set up when they absolutely filled their old nest to the max. Moving a honey pot colony is a bit more work than other species because of the repletes. Took me a good hour and a half.

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[kiedeerk]

Acromyrmex versicolor should have workers in the coming week or two. There is def one colony that is doing much better than the other two.

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[kiedeerk]

New species: Colobopsis Papago

This species nests in dead limbs of oaks or mesquites, and are difficult to find. They are most common in the stubs of broken branches, with a diameter of 4 cms or more, and point vertically (apparently catch more rainwater). The nest has several entrances, which are blocked by the large, round, truncated portion of the heads of majors. They are native to Arizona and New Mexico. Their nuptial flights are mostly in July.

I carved a slit like tunnel in a round piece of wood and stuck the piece inside a test tube to simulate their natural habitat. They are likely polygenous as most of the native colobopsis species here on the east coast. They started with 3 queens but now are down to two. They have 2 workers and a pile of brood.

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[OwlThatLikesAnts]

New species: Colobopsis Papago

This species nests in dead limbs of oaks or mesquites, and are difficult to find. They are most common in the stubs of broken branches, with a diameter of 4 cms or more, and point vertically (apparently catch more rainwater). The nest has several entrances, which are blocked by the large, round, truncated portion of the heads of majors. They are native to Arizona and New Mexico. Their nuptial flights are mostly in July.

I carved a slit like tunnel in a round piece of wood and stuck the piece inside a test tube to simulate their natural habitat. They are likely polygenous as most of the native colobopsis species here on the east coast. They started with 3 queens but now are down to two. They have 2 workers and a pile of brood.

They look so cool, I wish I had a diversity of species like you 

[Ants_Dakota]

New species: Colobopsis Papago

This species nests in dead limbs of oaks or mesquites, and are difficult to find. They are most common in the stubs of broken branches, with a diameter of 4 cms or more, and point vertically (apparently catch more rainwater). The nest has several entrances, which are blocked by the large, round, truncated portion of the heads of majors. They are native to Arizona and New Mexico. Their nuptial flights are mostly in July.

I carved a slit like tunnel in a round piece of wood and stuck the piece inside a test tube to simulate their natural habitat. They are likely polygenous as most of the native colobopsis species here on the east coast. They started with 3 queens but now are down to two. They have 2 workers and a pile of brood.

They look so cool, I wish I had a diversity of species like you

While it is easy to long to have the easily accessible queens some states have(I definitely have with the ease Pogonomyrmex, Veromessor, or Atta queens are caught in Arizona), you can work to get rarer species here in the northern windswept areas. I would highly recommend for anyone like you to invest in a blacklighting setup to target those rarer species that are pretty cool, just more elusive.