34 replies to this topic

[Virginian_ants]

I have other journals for my Vollenhovia emeryi and cryptic ants. They will be separate and other ants that I deem special enough they will get their own.(I'm not picking favorites, just rarer or less documented types.) I have 17 ant colonies, some I won't talk about at all because I'm selling some and others only slight updates because they don't have much to show. So that brings it down to 9 that will be more commonly updated.

1. Monomorium minimum.
They are in a natural island setup so I won't update them often.



2. Aphaenogaster sp
I have 6 colonies that may be different species . The main three that I will be keeping. First, the bottle colony (jar colony would be better) they have been in a peach jar since September last year. They have many workers, during large feedings they can get up to 20-30 workers on the surface. They are in a naturalistic setup so I won't update them as much.. Second, a small 20+ worker colony that is in a tube and tubes setup and is growing fast. Last, my little brother's colony has been keeping ants for just over 3 months now. They grew at an incredibly fast rate once I gave it to him but then once they hit around 40 workers they got sick and we were able to save the queen don't brood and 5 workers. A week later we brood boosted them and they are about 20 now and growing fast. Right not their in a esthetic ants mini out world




3. Tapinoma sessile
I have one colony that has ~8 queens and a few hundred workers. They are in a formisquarium connected to a wakoshi out-world, but Tapinoma sessile are so grateful for the nest I gave them that they moved mostly into the tube.


4. Tetramorium immigrans
I have two colonies but one is up for sale. The one I'm keeping has ~30 workers and is in a small wakoshi gypsum nest. They are growing fast and I love how they have polymorphism but all the same shape.

5. Pheidole tysoni
They are in a wakoshi Venus mini; they mostly inhabit one test tube but have a satellite nest in the other. They love all foods I give them and grow at an incredibly fast rate. They are easily one of my favorites.


6. Temnothorax sp
They are probably ambiguus or curvispinosus they are so cute with one queen and about two dozen workers. How do you ID them?


7. Parasitic Lasius sp (probably aphidicola)
I have two queens with host workers, one with 10 hosts and about 10 cocoons with a large pile of biological eggs. I will give them more cocoons soon. The other with ~30 workers with even more cocoons with a pile of medium larvae and huge pile eggs. I'm probably going to sell the small one.

8. Camponotus colonies
I have two one ~70 worker Camponotus Castaneus colony and one small 5 worker colony. I still don't know the exact species they look like Pennsylvanicus but the queen has red on her underside so I don't know
(First large major!!)


Queens

4 mymrica q
3 Pheidole queens together, one is a different species
1 Camponotus Castaneus
2 Formica Pallidefulva
2 Tetramorium immigrans
I have ponera and Hypoponera but they are on my cryptic ant journal.

[Virginian_ants]

Looking at photos from other people journals I saw that Aphaenogaster lamellidens have these two small yellow circles in their gasters base and the jar colony has those. Finally I Identified them!!!

[OiledOlives]

Very nice! The Temnothorax is T. curvispinosus (T. curvispinosus have spines longer than the length between the spines, whereas ambiguus have very small spines). The small Camponotus colony is chromaiodes, the Lasius is aphidicola, the naturalistic Aphaenogaster is A. fulva, and I think the tubs+tubes colony is lamellidens but better photos would be helpful.

[Virginian_ants]

Wow, thanks.

[Virginian_ants]

Lasius aphidicola
I moved the larger colony into a formisquarium because they filled up their test tube

Camponotus colonies
The chromaiodes have had more workers eclose bringing the total up to 6 workers with a 5 cocoons and 15 eggs. The Castaneus have 93 workers as of last night with new ones emerging every day. I noticed the first true major a week ago and since then a couple more have closed. I got into contact with Utah ants and I'm getting a nest to fit this growing colony soon. The queen has recently been busy laying a huge pile of orange eggs.

Edited by Virginian_ants, July 31 2023 - 6:12 AM.

[Virginian_ants]

Pheidole tysoni
They are growing exceptionally fast and are not showing signs of slowing down they are filling up their test tubes and are going to need a new home soon. Does anyone know how big do their colonies get at their greatest extent?


Camponotus
The Camponotus chromaiodes queen laid even more eggs and still looks a little physogastric I would post pictures but there is too much condensation.

Aphaenogaster
They are doing well the tubes and tubes colony have almost filled their test tube so I need to add a new one soon. My little brother's colony are a lot more active now and are getting back in track. I tried remodeling the bottle colony but ran out of sand halfway through soo...

Edited by Virginian_ants, August 3 2023 - 4:18 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Condensation seems to be a big problem with those AA nests

[Virginian_ants]

The temperature on the top floor where me and my ants live has been fluctuating so that is a main factor.

[Virginian_ants]

Pheidole tysoni
I moved them into a formisquarium connected to a homemade outworld and they love it. I can finally see their full colony size and it's impressive 2-300 workers with ~50 majors and on the edge of a population explosion.


Aphaenogaster
The tubes and tubes colony I moved into the Pheidole's Venus mini nest.

Late Camponotus chromaids picture.

Edited by Virginian_ants, August 4 2023 - 12:12 PM.

[Lillyrose]

Love the photos!

Is that the normal ratio of majors? It seems like a lot!

[Virginian_ants]

With the Pheidole tysoni or Camponotus Castaneus. With the Pheidole it's a lot but not as much as some others I've seen.

[ANTdrew]

Pheidole pump out as many majors as they can with their available resources. This ratio sounds totally normal to me.

[Virginian_ants]

Sorry I read the question wrong. It will depend on the amount of protein given. For the Pheidole I started bulking their diet a few weeks ago and there is a lot of major larvae and pupae as a result. Same for the Camponotus they just started getting their larger majors and lot of them.

Edited by Virginian_ants, August 7 2023 - 2:10 PM.

[Virginian_ants]

The Camponotus Castaneus always have ~20 workers in the outworld.

I moved the Chromaids into a ac ant tower small because the formisquarium was growing mold. I didn't take pictures so they could settle in.

The Temnothorax seem to have crippled their queen and is always on her back or side but is alive. Is this weird for Temnothorax's, I always think of them as calm, peaceful ants.

I brood boosted the Lasius aphidicola with brood from a wild aphidicola colony the brood size difference between Americana and aphidicola is cool. They also have mild some of the larvae and have only about 5 now.

Edited by Virginian_ants, August 7 2023 - 2:30 PM.

[Virginian_ants]

Temnothorax
My little brother caught a ~50 worker colony with 2-3 queens yesterday. They are the same speices as mine and he put them in a naturalistic bottle setup and it was his first time but I think he did very well. What do you think?

Edited by Virginian_ants, August 10 2023 - 4:43 AM.

[Virginian_ants]

I'm limiting myself to weekly updates so I don't flood the journals section.

Tetramorium immigrans
They are doing well so I moved them into a ac ant tower small and they dug chambers immediately. I would post pictures but their chambers are all covered with dirt so there's nothing to take pictures of.

Tapinoma sessile
I moved them into the gypsum nest the Tetramorium were in. I added soil into the middle chamber to it would be moist but they moved it all out into the outworld. Yesterday I was watering them when I flooded with half a inch of water coating the entire ground they actually floated like fire ants but I was so scared they would drown so I didn't take pictures. I went in with a pipette and sucked all the water up. It was still very wet so I added more soil to the middle chamber and a little into the main one to soak up and excess water. (They have eggs and larvae stuck to the glass so the view is bad)

Temnothorax
My small colony killed their queen 😭.
My brothers is still doing well.

The Lasius aphidicola eggs have finally started hatching into larvae and they keep them in little scattered clumps in the moist side of the nest.
I'm going to get fruit flies soon what type is better for ants melanogaster or hydei?

Edited by Virginian_ants, August 12 2023 - 9:29 AM.

[Ottercl]

How old is your castaneus colony?

[Virginian_ants]

I think third year is hard to remember and I didn't document my ants back then. Once they get into the third year they grow rapidly. It the beginning of this year they had 50-60 workers now they have 110+!

[Virginian_ants]

I know I said weekly updates but I used a old microscope and if I'm not mistaken this is fulva.

Attached Images

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Edited by Virginian_ants, August 13 2023 - 12:43 PM.

[Virginian_ants]

This week was a rollercoaster.
It was going well until it all went downhill one Thursday. I decided to water the bottle colony because it's fun to then swarm it out of their holes. But over watered them and flooded most of their chambers. I took all the soil and plants out to save the colony, but I couldn't find the queen I spent an hour and a half sifting through substrate to no avail. I took the rest of the colony and moved them back to the bottle but no soil just some test tubes. It's tubes and tubes but not. They stayed the there as I thought what to do with them. I went to look at my soil bin where I have millipedes, rolls pollies, and other beneficial animals. And there she was the queen with about 6 workers she seemed slightly wounded probably from the way I opened the lid. I moved the dirt from the bottle after I thought it was ant free into the bin because it was very bioactive. Some of her legs didn't work and a dirt particle was stuck to her back pinning her to the ground but, she was alive!!. I used tweezers to remove the dirt and placed her in the workers pulled her into the test tube over night and they are doing okay. I will be keeping them in artificial nests to monitor three queen before re-making the bottle for them. Another thing happened this morning me and my brother were sharing a small Formica subsericea colony with two queens I forgot to post them in the last update and the one before. But sadly this morning they were all dead due to unknown reasons. They didn't fight each other they just died. It looked like when one of my ant colonies smothered from me using a test tube cap instead of cotton last test, but they had cotton. Anyone know how? I feel I failed as a ant keeper having one maybe two colonies due to my mistakes.