4 replies to this topic

[LC3]

H'llo,

This is where I put all my experiments on ants to be more exact Myrmica. I love Myrmica mainly because of how they stand out with their weird behaviour among other ants. I haven't seen a lot of Myrmica species and there are a lot of species out there so none of these these experiments should be taken too seriously or be used to apply to all Myrmica. I'm only including the local Myrmica here. Not too mention BC has a problem with M.rubra and M.specoides both of which are invasive. 

(not included Richmond which is good and bad haha)

 

 

List of Myrmica spp. 

 

Myrmica sp.1

Nesting habits

Location of colonies: In wood,sometimes under stones and soil.

Nest description: Network of tunnels going through dirt under rocks and in wood. small chambers tunnels are found near the surface but may extend deep into the ground.

Habita/conditions: Anywhere that provides shelter from sunlight and decent amount of vegetation.

Length

Workers: around 4.5 mm 

Queens: 6 mm

Males:6 mm or 6.5mm

Characteristics:

workers: red all over some are darker than others, they have a dark red gaster.

They have hair on their gasters and small spines. They are very very very slightly polymorphic

Queens: deep red colour they have dark red coloured heads and the front half of their wings are darkened. They have tiny hairs on their gaster and small spines. (larger than worker spines)

Males: all black,wings slightly darkened at front and orange tip gaster.

Behaviour

Nuptial flights: during late July and August

Activity: All day most active during evening and night.

 

Myrmica sp.2  (I haven't really study this species and might not have the time to)

 

Location of colonies:

Nest description:

Habita/conditions:
Length

Workers: 

Queens: 

Males:

Characteristics:

workers: 

Queens: 

Males: 

Nuptial flights:

Activity: 

 

 

 

Colonies I own:

Myrmica sp.1 2 queens a few workers (12 - 18) and larvae.

Myrmica sp.1 One queen, 4 workers,two males and brood.

 

 

All of these will be recorded in the comment thingees below.

 

 

 

.

Edited by LC3, September 1 2015 - 3:17 PM.

[LC3]

Myrmica Journals

 

Myrmica colony 1:

1 queen

5 workers

sp.2 pupae and some eggs 

 

I found a Myrmica queen wandering around doing who knows what, she wasn't part of the nearest colony so I took her, eventually I gave her some Myrmica pupae and after they eclosed she layed a batch of 5 or 4 eggs.

 

Myrmica colony 2:

2 queens 

Some workers (13?)

Larvae of sp.1 and sp.2

 

I found a queen in a mature colony and grabbed her with some workers later I added another queen and more workers from the same colony plus some brood.

 

 

 

Experiments:

.Brood boosting using different Myrmica species

.Getting a colony started using one queen.

.Starting colonies without brood boosting

Edited by LC3, September 1 2015 - 9:55 AM.

[LC3]

Update #01

 

This is the first Update and boy am I lagging behind, I had these Myrmica for over a month now both colonies are a bit inactive which is pretty normal for the local species since it's August but this year is really hot and all the ants are pretty of schedule.

 

I haven't had a lot of time either cause all my ant queens are having their workers eclose.

 

Colony #1

All of the sp.2 larvae pupated, The workers aren't doing much and neither is the queen, No egg explosions or anything.

So nothing too exciting. However the workers are still orange.. It's been at least a 2 or 3 weeks and they're still orange. 

 

Colony #2

Just like colony #1 they're pretty inactive, I'm pretty sure most of their brood must have pupated but the conditions of the queens are pretty much unknown to me. There's also some weird fungi rowing on the dirt, All the dirt contain this fungi. The fungi are straight strands running across the dirt and the strands look like spider silk. Since these fungi seem to occur in all dirt I find (and only in dirt) I'm not too concerned.

 

^Colony #1. BTW the large test tube is where I put their food but they rarely ever come out.

 

 

^Colony #2, I just keep them in a box of dirt I don't even need to hydrateit the condensation does it for me.

 

Spider-silky fungi thingy around a nest entrance.

 

Edited by LC3, August 4 2015 - 12:01 PM.

[LC3]

Kind of a big update but I'm to lazy to photo. (16/08/2015)

 

I decided to move them (2 queen colony) out of the fungal infested dirt it was getting annoying and the dirt was woven together by the threads put them in a dirt filled test tube and a bucket to use as an outworld. The container was cleaned and used for my Tetras I'll se how it works out for the ants in the tube. (and it's working fine) The other Myrmies (1 queen colony) had all their pupae eclose and the queen added one more egg to the pile (around 4 or 5) and one of the eggs is developing slowly. I'll say Myrmica take forever to have their workers darken takes more than 2 weeks or so for me. I suspect one of the workers escaped from that 1 queen colony when I was away for 3 days or so. Still got a lot of workers left (around 15). I can tell one of the Myrmica are from the black species can't wait to see what a multicoloured colony looks like.

[LC3]

Updated Sept|01|2015

 

Myrmica had a nuptial flight in late august so I grabbed six(?) alates and two dealates. Weird thing about this flight; there were no males present the alates were walking up and down plants most of them most likely returned back to the nest and only few ever managed to fly, I even saw a dealate go into a nest. Either way I have no clue if they are fertile or not. I am pretty sure I have three queens that may be fertile as dealates/queens of this species are very aggressive especially at other queens (basically the dealates had a brawl with everyone else after 3 or 4 hours of doing nothing). Kind of weird considering this species is (most likely) polygynous. Not to mention if this Myrmica sp is indeed semi-claustral than how do they last the winter? They fly during late August when the days here get cold and rainy but than again I have no evidence pointing out that they don't fly during other months. One is queen is boosted with 3  and a tube full of alates have one pupae, I'm thinking of putting the rest into hivernation.

 

Not the best pictures XP anyways I have 5 alates (some have shed their wings) in one tube, I couldn't put the other 3 dealates together because they would beat each other up.. which probably either means their fertile or they are just really aggressive for some reason. The alates (and the ones who shed their wings don't fight.. at least not yet.

 

While I was snapping these pictures I noticed one of the queens looked a bit different than the rest and I realized it was smaller than all the other queens, so I took them out an measured them (which was hard since 2-4 minutes in a freezer wouldn't really faze them) and turns out it was smaller than the other queens it was also lighter in colour but I don't see any obvious morphological differences. I have no clear reason to believe it's a different species so I'm placing my bet that it's a microgyne or simple a smaller-than-average queen. 

 

 

Normal queen, dark red colour and 6mm. Queen is pressed against a cotton ball with a transparent ruler. 

 

The small queen which measures 5 mm. This is the only encounter I've had with a Myrmica queen that's 5mm.

 

P.S Can someone move this thread to the journal subforum?

P.P.S Still can't figure out the links and stuff

Edited by LC3, September 1 2015 - 6:39 PM.