117 replies to this topic

[bmb1bee]

Camponotus fragilis (10/7/23):

 

Edited by bmb1bee, October 7 2023 - 11:30 PM.

[bmb1bee]

Camponotus us-ca02 (10/7/23):

 

[100lols]

Absolutely epic!!! Even just a picture update is beautiful. Glad to be a Californian with all these beautiful Camponotus here

[bmb1bee]

Not sure if anyone noticed, but I recently acquired two new species from Vern, the owner of Antopia USA. He’s a great seller with good prices and customer service; super happy to have bought my C. laevissimus and C. sansabeanus from him!

[100lols]

I noticed the sansabeanus because you mentioned you’ll be acquiring one soon. I’ll have to send you some pics of my colony!

[bmb1bee]

Yes please! This seems to be a variant with smaller brown workers, compared to the colony I temporarily had back in May with larger yellow workers.

[bmb1bee]

Camponotus sayi (10/14/23):

 

I managed to acquire a large colony of C. sayi from a friend through a trade today. This one currently has around 15-20 workers, as well as a sizable amount of brood. I fed them shortly after returning home, and their feeding response was pretty good; they immediately drank the nectar I offered and also started feeding on pieces of dubia.

 

[bmb1bee]

Camponotus cf. vicinus variant C (10/14/23):

 

Also got this queen from a trade. Pretty sure it's C. vicinus, due to head shape. She had workers before, but now only has an egg and a couple boosted C. us-ca02 pupae. Apparently she came from close to the Oregon border, but I'm not sure low or high in elevation. The matte gaster does look pretty interesting though.

 

[bmb1bee]

Camponotus vicinus variant D (10/14/23):

 

This colony I got from Vern. These are the black variety, which I had before (but were duds). They have 5 workers and have done pretty well so far. Hoping these will be the fastest growing colony out of my C. vicinus.

 

[bmb1bee]

Camponotus maritimus (10/14/23):

 

Also received these from the aforementioned trade. As much as they look like C. vicinus, they are most definitely C. maritimus. This colony has around 15-20 workers, although I might've accidently killed a couple while attempting to move them. Now that they are in their new tube, hopefully they start growing a bit faster.

 

[bmb1bee]

Camponotus laevigatus (10/14/23):

 

I bought this colony of C. laevigatus (once known as C. quercicola) from Vern as well. Although C. laevissimus are generally considered larger, I was surprised to see how massive the queen of this C. laevigatus colony was. She's easily 18 mm in length, and rivals my extremely physogastric C. modoc queen in size. Hopefully she increases in size to rank in my top 3 largest Camponotus species in my list... So far the species up there are Camponotus us-ca02 (rank 1), Camponotus modoc (rank 2), and Camponotus ocreatus AZ var. (rank 3). 

 

[bmb1bee]

Camponotus cf. semitestaceus variant C (10/14/23):

 

Also from the trade came two C. semitestaceus queens. I'll update on this queen since she seems more likely to be fertile and isn't tearing off the cotton plug of the test tube. My friend caught several up here in the Bay Area just a week ago. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go myself. Lucky I got a couple from him though.

 

[Virginian_ants]

You have more colonies of Camponotus then I have of any ant.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

wonderful picture set, thanks for posting.

[100lols]

Camera skills are amazing indeed!

[bmb1bee]

It's been almost a month since I've updated this journal, which is all because I've procrastinated and neglected to do so. All of these colonies are fine, but some are well overdue for a move. Heating has also been an issue, so some are much slower in development than others while some had a growth spurt. A few colonies will also have to go into hibernation this month.

 

Needless to say, I'll hopefully have the time to update on all of these colonies tomorrow (or if I end up not doing so, then sometime this week). 

[100lols]

Take your time. Finding motivation is the hardest part looking forward to the update!

[bmb1bee]

Motivation certainly is a difficult part, since I have issues with procrastination lmao. This Monday in particular hit me pretty hard though, so the update will have to wait until later this week...