50 replies to this topic

[fung852]

Hey demoant, I am ethan, another ant keeper from Hong Kong, but less experienced and younger than you. I hope to interact with you about where to find uncommon ants. Happy chinese new year.
Hey demoant, I am ethan, another ant keeper from Hong Kong, but less experienced and younger than you. I hope to interact with you about where to find uncommon ants. Happy chinese new year.

[fung852]

Hi demo, I am also an ant keeper from hk, still studying in school, I would like to have a chat with you and learn more about ants in hk, do you have WhatsApp? Or maybe you can contact me with IG, 102beetle

[fung852]

Hey demoant, I am ethan, another ant keeper from Hong Kong, but less experienced and younger than you. I hope to interact with you about where to find uncommon ants. Happy chinese new year.

[Demoant]

Very quick updates on stuff
O.silvestrii queenhad mites on her and giving her the ethanol q-tip and rehome treatment seemed to have adverse effects on her. She is unlikely to survive and I will put her in alcohol later. It seems that she is recovering?
Reading through Baidu posts of Camponotus scarlet has made me realise that she needed diapause so I put her in 16C temperature for around 2 weeks now and I will begin to increase the temp. That should hopefully get her out of diapause.
C.holosericeus also got the same treatment.
New post soon when I feel like there is enough development to record.
 

Edited by Demoant, January 31 2025 - 7:16 AM.

[Kowal]

2 weeks seems like a very short period for diapause. Temperate climate ants won't accept a period this short as proper winter, so I'd expect ants from warmer climates which diapause too to require more like 2 months than 2 weeks of winter time

[Demoant]

2 weeks seems like a very short period for diapause. Temperate climate ants won't accept a period this short as proper winter, so I'd expect ants from warmer climates which diapause too to require more like 2 months than 2 weeks of winter time

I am aware that 2 weeks is short, however I believe the queen has been diapausing for at least a month.
i should also give some context on why I am doing 2 weeks 
The Chinese keepers of C.scarlet also encounted the issue of them not developing, but almost all laid eggs during December in heated environments
One keeper kept his queen at 26C for a while, then in 15C for a few days because the temp regulator broke and then back in 26C when at that point the queen started producing a lot of eggs.
Another keeper had his queen survive -10C and that queen quite quickly laid eggs after being placed in 25C area. 

This sort of sudden, immense cold and back to warm seems to be what triggers the end of diapause of the species, so I am trying it out

[Demoant]

2nd February 2025
Happy belate Chinese New Year!

Camponotus lianghuang (1Q, 1W)
One new egg, this should mean that the larvae should become pupae soon.

 

Camponotus sp. (1Q, 200W and 1Q, 8W)
The big colony's queen has been busy pumping out eggs.

 

If all the current medium/large larvae pupate, the colony would double in size. That means new nest soon.

 

The small colony got one new worker.

 

Ectomomyrmex leeuwenoeki (2Q, 11W)

After surviving the mite assult, the queens have begun to lay new eggs. The eggs aren't covered in mites which is a fantastic sign.

 

This is the new setup I gave them, a horizontal vial nest. A bit inspired by THEWILDMARTIN's Harpegnathos founding queen which used dirt only instead of plaster.

 

Odontoponera denticulata (1Q, 4W)

New eggs were laid, now just waiting for the larvae to pupate. I added more sand afterwards to give the ants substrate to work with.

 

Harpegnathos venator (1Q, 15W)

The strange die off seems to have stopped. I suspect it could be the workers not developing their internal organs well due to a low temperature. 
The larvae and workers are both hungry after a week or so of not feeding. The queen also laid one egg. 

 

Lordomyrma jingpo/Tetramorium? (1Q, 500W)

The large larvae has grown into alates. Now there is about 20-30 alates in the nest.

 

Some small larvae appeared as well, hope it will be workers. Still the workers of this colony live really long, from when I first got them there has only been maybe 15 deaths among the hundreds of ants. Gonna love hardy ants.

 

Monomorium sp. (1Q, 70W)
This is a two part story. The workers and brood were first collected where no queens were found. I mistook them as Leptanilla. Around 2 weeks later, I flipped a rock and saw a small colony with a queen and I sucked them up. 
The queen was quickly accepted by the foreign workers so now I have a Monomorium colony. They are a new record for the smallest ant I kept, beating that cf. Cardiocondyla colony.

 

The queen, alone.

 

As of me writing this I slipped on a rock yesterday and fell on my butt. Ouch. Still hurts btw. If I get better I will go anting tomorrow. I have also upped the temperature of the fridge housing the big Camponotus. The next update should include them with some development. 

I also want to show this. The summer of this year should be fire.

Happy Chinese New Year and the Year of Snake. I will see you next time.

[Demoant]

16th February 2025

On Valentine's Day, I went to Mount Foggy*, alone... 

 

Anyways time for update.

 

Camponotus sp. Scarlet (1Q, 2W)

I am very excited to annouce that she is now laying eggs! A week in 26C environment after the 15C period managed to end her diapause. 
The larvae also started to grow at a rapid rate, but the pre-pupa actually has half her body outside of the cocoon which is worrying. I hope she doesn't get eaten...

 

Camponotus holosericeus (1Q, 4W)

The previous queen died for no apparent reason (Myrmosaulus behaviour) so here is another founding colony. They have 3 larvae and the workers are very feisty. I haven't managed to get a queen to a big colony so forth time's the charm?

 

Camponotus herculeanus? atrox? (1Q, 16mm queens)

Sold under the name "Black carpenter ant" by the seller. Unlike most herc queens, this queen's legs are pitch black, with only the lower part of the thorax being deep red. Identifications should be easier when workers arrive.

 

Myrmoteras binghamii (1Q, 12W)

These two days I went through the frustrating process of picking off mites from them. By the time of me photographing them for this post I saw more mites. DAMN IT!!! I do suspect however that the mites like a more humid and less ventilated area so this new nest+arena has a mesh which allows better air flow.

 

Strumigenys exilirhina (1Q, 20W?)

Moved them to a new plaster nest and made the fatal mistake of adding too much substrate. You can't really see the ants...

 

Pheidole sp. (1Q, 3000W)

This issue has actually been going on for quite a while. The workers managed to chew through the nest and escape through the hydration port. I sealed that off with hot glue and now they are escaping from nowhere?!? I can only assume the workers can squeeze through the walls and enter this hydration chamber and escape. I did place 3 tubes in the arena in hopes of them moving, hasn't worked yet. (Having Pheidole workers running around is fine, they don't really do much)

 

Anochetus risii (1Q, 2W, 8mm queens, 6mm workers)

A tiny colony I found after knocking a rock down off a slope. Queen laid one egg so far. Also worth mentioning the old A.graeffei escaped due to a small gap in their nest. I think they all died by now.

 

Nylanderia cf. yaeyamensis (1Q, 15W, 3mm queens, 1.5mm workers.)

A way smaller Nylanderia species compared to emmae. The queen is a nice bicolour look with the workers being bright brown.

 

You could say that my tiny ant arc began with me keeping a lot more small size species than before.

 

 

Odontomachus silvestrii (1Q)

Well guess who decided to lay one egg after half a year of capture. I will watch the egg's development with great interest.

Honestly though she is a tough one. She looked like she would die 3 weeks ago after I treated her mite issue but she bounced back. 

Today is a bit warmer than before sitting at 23C compared to the average 19C. A few ants such as Chronoxenus, Crematogaster sp. and oh, Solenopsis invicta... Gross.

Expect to see more ants flying soon.
*This mountain is actually called Tai Mo Shan (大帽山) which means hat mountain, named after its shape. At the same time the Cantonese pronounciation for the name can also mean foggy mountain. Clever naming.

[Demoant]

okay some stuff that happened very recently that I want to update but don't want to make a full post (lazy).

Pheidole pulled an escape on me. Currently attempting to move them to some tubes with limited success.

Colobopsis minus queens decided to cut ties and fought, one queen stands with small injuries.
And a new colony.

 

Full post on them and other colonies soon.

[Demoant]

7th March 2025

The first spring rain falls upon me...

 

Crematogaster cylindriceps (3Q, 60W)

As mentioned before, these crems are unique in that the queens have truncated heads. Still a bit of a mess as they refuse to move into the test tube.

 

There is in fact another species which also has this trait, but they are black instead of yellow.

 

Odontoponera denticulata (1Q, 5W)
There are cocoons now and new eggs. One larva failed to pupate but I managed to 'save' it and put it in a cocoon that is empty. (the ants ate that pupa from some reason...)

 

Odontomachus simillimus (1Q, 8W)

Their original egg pile got shrunk into this much smaller one and there is only one larva. The queen isn't very fat so I need to feed them a lot more.

 

Colobopsis minus (1Q, 50W)
One queen remains in this colony. She actually has one broken leg in addition to the broken antenna. I did see new eggs so the colony should resume development soon.

 

Carebara affinis (1Q, 300)

They have been very dormant over the winter with very little activity and growth. Not much to talk about them. I am interested to see how big can the majors get, assuming more show up. This one here is the largest at 9mm.

 

Pheidole sp. (1Q, 2000W)

These pricks pulled an escape on me. I came back home from school and saw an alarming number of workers roaming the ant table. They managed to chew through ytong and exit through the water tower gaps. Tubs and tubes for them now.

 

Polyrhachis fellowesi (1Q)

The larva survived winter and grew very big. Waiting for it to pupate now. The queen did lay a few more eggs but only one remains. I don't want her to eat the larva.

 

Stictoponera bicolor (100W)

Similar to the Carebara, they survived winter but with little to no growth. Nothing noteworthy. Here are some workers having shrimp.

 

Paratopula bauhinia (1Q, 20W)

The golden tree ants was moved from their gross tube, now in a better tube in a tub. I see new eggs and pre-pupae. 

 

Chronoxenus (1Q, 8W, 4mm queens)

So this is something that got people's attention. Chronoxenus is a genus that parasitized on Tapinoma. Ones in Hong Kong usually target the ubiquitous ghost ants. I have seen workers of this genus but they are rare. 

This founding colony consists of a queen and some ghost ant workers and brood. Apparently there has yet to be a successful founding record for Chronoxenus in the hobby. I did see a worker holding an egg while I am imaging them so I think things are going well.

 

I have another week off (Thanks HKU reading week) so I should go on a few trips. C. nicobarensis already flew a week ago and I think some Polyrhachis and Ectomomyrmex will follow. Warmer and wetter environments should also bring some ants ants under logs and rocks. I actually want to find Stigmatomma and they actually nest in leaflitter (sort of) and maybe some random weird ants. Wish me luck.

 

 

[Demoant]

10th March 2025

I have obtained the Stigmatomma...

 

Stigmatomma sp. (50W)

Well it was done as easily as it was said. I found a bunch right under a rock at the base of a tree. They are quite large in size around 1cm.

I am not too sure about the species but they might be nr. quadratum.

 

I need to figure out how to effectively feed them. They aren't very keen on food yet.

 

Dolichoderus taprobane (1Q)

A common Dolichoderus species here. Workers are small but with red head and thorax. I am keeping her in a vial with less humidity since she didn't seem like like test tubes. I might move her again. She did lay an egg before in the capture container and my cat... well the egg was lost.

 

Crematogaster sp. (1Q)

Another species that flies early in the season. This should be the species which me and my friends say is "black cylindriceps". Safe to say the head truncation is much less pronounced than in the real cylincriceps.

 

Cataulacus granulatus (1Q x2)

No introduction needed. These are attempt I lost count. Little hope on them.

 

A bit of a small post but I have been busy looking for ants these days. Wanted to share these with you all.

See you next time.