75 replies to this topic

[Ernteameise]

I took some more pictures of this colony.

I just do not grow tired of watching and admiring them.

 

 

Some beefy majors

 

 

Her majesty, the queen

 

 

A nice new pile of eggs and young larvae

(and also, yes, the boys are still hanging around)

 

[NotAxo]

I'm just curious, and I've seen this alot, what is exactly a nestmate? 

 

Btw, No wonder you decided to call them cartoon ants, their big head and thorax and tiny legs make them look so chubby and cute! Not to mention how adorable and chubby the queen looks! 

[Ernteameise]

I'm just curious, and I've seen this alot, what is exactly a nestmate? 

 

Btw, No wonder you decided to call them cartoon ants, their big head and thorax and tiny legs make them look so chubby and cute! Not to mention how adorable and chubby the queen looks! 

Nestmates are the thin plastic tubes with a wire mesh to one side that come with the Tarheel Ant nests. They can be used as either ventilation ducts or as water feeders.

They might not be a good idea for ants with stronger jaws, because some ants can chew through them if they are not properly fitted.

See the Tarheel Ants video on the topic here:

 

[NotAxo]

Ah, thank you for responding. I thought those were the water towers in the ant farm.

[Ernteameise]

So today, for the first time, they dragged some fresh insect food directly into the nest.

I am not holding my breath for them to clean it up again, so later this week, I will have to clean after them.

I posted another thread that I had found book lice in some of my colonies, and this is one of the colonies with book lice.

Big surprise.

I bet the book lice love the soft approach to "hygiene".

 

Anyways, these are the girls:

 

One thing you can see well here:

The "food basked" of the larvae and how it is used.

The larvae are turned onto their backs, and the workers place small food bits into the grove on the belly/ under the chin of the larva.

Now the larva just has to bent the neck and can comfortably snack in a chill way.

This has already been described in "The Ants" (the big 2000 page book), and yes, they indeed call it the "food basket".

 

[Ernteameise]

They again dragged food into the nest.

But, the good news is- they do indeed clean up after themselves!

Last time, the food was removed as soon as they were finished with it.

And, as you can see, the winged boys are still around and kicking.

 

 

They indeed "dig in"

 

[Pogonomatt]

Just wondering whether you’ve noticed any trophallaxis or are they like Pogonomyrmex and don’t do mutual feeding.

[Ernteameise]

Just wondering whether you’ve noticed any trophallaxis or are they like Pogonomyrmex and don’t do mutual feeding.

These girls are more like my Messor.

So they carry bits of food in, and they stand around in a circle and they all chew on the food bit and enjoy a group meal.

I have not really seen any trophallaxis.

Also, they larvae are also fed with food bits and not by mouth to mouth.

 

From what I have read in scientific papers, these ants also have an interesting way of storing food:

Camponotus store food by having these swollen near repletes (the majors of my Camponotus colonies are FAT)- they will regurgitate food in sparse times to their sisters and they do a lot of trophallaxis to their sisters and their brood.

My Messor store seed and they sit together and share making and eating their ant bread, they do not do trophallaxis.

And these Acanthomyrmex: They will feed up their majors until they are fat and strong. If bad times hit, the majors (who have retained their ovaries!!) will lay trophic (=food) eggs. Like battery hens. And this will feed the colony. They also do store seed on a small scale (compared to my Messor) as you can see on my pictures). So they also do not rely on trophallaxis.

 

I find all this very fascinating.

Aren't ants cool?

Edited by Ernteameise, August 17 2024 - 1:36 AM.

[Pogonomatt]

Thanks, makes sense that they’d behave like Messors in that way. Interesting that the majors store fat similar to Camponotus. Makes me wonder about my Messor capitatus majors which also display swollen abdomens in a far more prominent way than the other Messor species.

[Ernteameise]

So today, the boys have decided to fly!

I already collected a couple out of the out world, and the others are sitting ready at the nest entrance.

 

 

Otherwise, the colony is doing well, despite a large population of book lice running around. I cannot really tell that these book lice are harmful, but I assume not, since I had no population crash.

 

 

Queen and brood

 

[Ernteameise]

Well, today this colony got ready for a nuptial flight.

The boys were out in force (I collected and removed them) and there was even a major out to keep track on things.

The majors normally never leave the nest, so this was special.

 

 

 

[Ernteameise]

The colony today

 

There are still some males hanging around.

 

[Ernteameise]

The girls are still active, I have removed most of the males that tried to fly over the past weeks.

I am not sure if this colony will grow any more or just stay in an equilibrium like this.

In nature, this species only forms small colonies of a maximum of 200 workers.

 

[Ernteameise]

OMG!

I discovered what their absolute favorite food is!

I also keep betta fish, and I always have some live white mosquito larvae in the fridge (they keep fresh and alive for weeks).

My bettas love to chase these.

I had tried these before with my other ants, and none of them did really know what to do with mosquito larvae.

Not so these Acanthomyrmex!

I dry off the mosquito larvae, put them into the ant food dish (they are still a bit wet) and the ants by now are on the look out for this treat. They basically come running as soon as I put the food dish down.

It takes 10 mins, and then they have harvested and chopped up the larvae- they do their usual thing where the smaller workers harvest, and then carry it back into the nest, and then they recruit a major and they stand around in a circle chewing it up in small balls, which are then placed on top of the ant brood. It is so cute to watch these massive majors when they tend to the small larvae.

 

Maybe the reason these ants love these mosquito larvae so much is that they come from a rainforest, and many tropical mosquitoes breed in very tiny water puddles, so this is just something these ants in nature would come across.

[bmb1bee]

I know this is a little late, but booklice are definitely not harmful. If anything, they're more beneficial as they eat bits of trash in the nest and in trash piles in the outworld. My setups get these pretty often and I just leave them there, as they don't do anything to stress the ants out much and always keep to areas with trash.

[Ernteameise]

I know this is a little late, but booklice are definitely not harmful. If anything, they're more beneficial as they eat bits of trash in the nest and in trash piles in the outworld. My setups get these pretty often and I just leave them there, as they don't do anything to stress the ants out much and always keep to areas with trash.

Good to know.

Yes, so far, I have not observed adverse effects. I see the book lice scurry around, but it does not look as if they stress or annoy the ants.