12 replies to this topic

[ZATrippit]

Hey all!

 

Over the past two months, I've caught 3 2 Iridomyrmex undescribed queens (my carrying capacity-- I only have 5 test tubes at the moment, 2 of which contain ochetellus glaber queens; I will get way more test tubes after christmas). 

 

I first caught two queens after spotting a nuptial flight on the wall of my house in October. The Iridomyrmex flights in general are very  conspicuous, since the queens and males scale up places, in my experience ranging from the height of two metres to about 60 centimetres. This makes them very easy to find, and so my queens each came from a different flight location. One of the queens I caught on my wall was infertile, which I should've known as I grabbed her while she was still looking for a mate but this was before I knew they were having a flight. My second came from one of the many flights at my work, and the third I found a couple days ago searching for a nest sight. Unfortunately, after bringing my queens to take photos for this journal I found her dead. I mustn't be cleaning the test tube I housed her in well enough, as she's the third to die in this test tube  . My bad. 

 

Both of the queens have a large brood pile, but it might take a month or two for them to hatch.

 

Here is one of the I. undescribed queens.

 

 

Anyways, see you soon.

 

P.S. I've been having trouble with my physogastric O. glaber queen eating brood, which is why I haven't made an O. glaber journal yet. She's probably doing this since this species is sensitive to temperature change, so I plan on purchasing her a heat pad. However, the only suitable heat pad that I could find... IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY... is all the way down in Christchurch. I could order it online, but I'm going to Christchurch with my family for christmas and I would get it sooner that way lol. 

 

My physogastric O. glaber queen.

Edited by ZATrippit, December 18 2023 - 11:35 PM.

[100lols]

Good luck with the heating pad! Looks like you're stocking up this Christmas.

[ZATrippit]

I've made the pilgrimage to Christchurch. On the way to the Antarctic Center, I picked up the heat mat.


It's an 18 watt.
It's a bit bigger than I expected, but that's a good problem to have.
We return tomorrow so I'll install it on Friday, which is when I usually check on the queens.

In similar news, I think one of my I. undescribed queens has a larvae, but it's hard to tell.

Edited by ZATrippit, December 26 2023 - 2:42 PM.

[100lols]

Make sure you don’t cook the ladies good luck!

[ZATrippit]

Sad news. The heat mat caused all of the sugar water to dry up, caused incredible mold growth, and made the sugar water seep through the cotton, where it dried and made a glue-like substance. Two of my queens died in the glue, one from her water drying up, and the other was infertile. Surely the 18 watt wasn't too hot? I just don't know how the heat mat would have this bad of a reaction.

I might be able to find more of these queens this season, so fingers crossed.

Edit: looks like the two I. undescribed queens had workers too...

Edited by ZATrippit, January 4 2024 - 5:34 PM.

[ANTdrew]

One should never keep queens in a test tube filled with sugar water for all the reasons you just described. Sugar should only be offered as a tiny droplet.

[ZATrippit]

One should never keep queens in a test tube filled with sugar water for all the reasons you just described. Sugar should only be offered as a tiny droplet.

So are you saying that it was only the sugar that caused the problem, and that I should only fill with water? Thanks for the help.

Edited by ZATrippit, January 23 2024 - 12:26 AM.

[michiganantsinmyyard]

How are they doing now?

[ZATrippit]

How are they doing now?

Still dead.

Edited by ZATrippit, January 23 2024 - 12:25 AM.

[michiganantsinmyyard]

 

How are they doing now?

Still dead.

 

Oops, I misread it. Thought the ones with workers were the only ones to survive. Good luck in future endeavors, and be sure to keep us posted.

[ZATrippit]

Well, luckily, I went on a 2 hour rock flipping extravaganza today. I'd actually consider myself quite unlucky as I saw many Huberia striata colonies producing alates but none above ground. I only managed to fetch one iridomyrmex queen among the H. striata colonies. Hopefully I see more queens as I've found this species to still be producing alates, however I've only seen one flight since Christmas. I'll add pics soon.

[ZATrippit]

Hey all!

It's been a while. Turns out the IDs this forum gave me on the iri and ochetellus queens were wrong! Never going on this forum again (I'm joking). The "ochetellus glaber" queen is actually iridomyrmex, and the Iridomyrmex is most likely prolasius advena (possibly Nylanderia sp.). Oh well. The *true* iridomyrmex queen has larvae now. Caught a few other queens after my last update, but they unfortunately passed away. Also caught a pheidole sp. queen, if her eggs hatch I'll make a journal for them. Couldn't get a positive ID for her although she is quite beautiful.

Edited by ZATrippit, February 29 2024 - 2:46 PM.

[PurdueEntomology]

Hey all!

It's been a while. Turns out the IDs this forum gave me on the iri and ochetellus queens were wrong! Never going on this forum again (I'm joking). The "ochetellus glaber" queen is actually iridomyrmex, and the Iridomyrmex is most likely prolasius advena (possibly Nylanderia sp.). Oh well. The *true* iridomyrmex queen has larvae now. Caught a few other queens after my last update, but they unfortunately passed away. Also caught a pheidole sp. queen, if her eggs hatch I'll make a journal for them. Couldn't get a positive ID for her although she is quite beautiful.

Take your time to learn to use principle diagnostic characters to delimit genera and hopefully species yourself.  Trying to ID ants via images of insufficient quality for visualizing key morphological characters is notoriously ubiquitous and indicative of a bit of hubris on the part of those who seem to do it with gusto!  Those of us with more professional experience in diagnostics are generally a bit more cautious in this. Fortunately  living in New Zealand means your endemic species numbers (genera 23/species 38: https://www.landcare...ested habitats.) are low enough to allow quick elimination in the diagnostic process. As an addition, your unique geographic location allows you to share insights into species most of us will only see via images and reports.   Thanks for sharing!  Before I go,  I was once on a lecture tour in Singapore and found a founding weaver ant (Oecophylla spp.) dealate and wanted to bring her back to the US, but obviously that was illegal so I could not; not least to say I was saddened, but it was a momentary bit of excitement to have held such a beauty in my hand!