1085 replies to this topic

[Barristan]

Your strobe ants look great, maybe I'll keep them some day too

Sometimes ants need more solid food. So I gave my garden colony of Camponotus vagus an adult grasshopper for dinner:
 

[CoolColJ]

Your strobe ants look great, maybe I'll keep them some day too

 

 

It's the way they move that makes them even cooler, like a 5fps movie, or a breakdance popping

[AntsAreUs]

Arboreal Temnothorax schaumii eating some egg yolk:

 

 

Also Myrmica sp. queen eating some egg yolk and her larva:

 

 

Strumigenys pergandei queen and worker:

 

 

Secretergate Formica worker:

 

 

Small Hypoponera opacior colony (queen top left):

 

 

Pheidole pilifera major:

 

These are supposedly supposed to guard the nest entrance.

[Bracchymyrmex]

Tetramorium immigrans queen:

 

[willhuntblue]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for welcoming me into your community – I have a question that I hope you can help me with! I'm a writer and am working on a book about subterranean spaces (see here), part of which concerns ant nest architecture. I am looking for a high-quality photograph of a formicarium that follows certain criteria. It should be a well-framed shot that shows a cut-away or cross-section of a nest. It should be as natural looking an ant nest as possible with clearly pronounced tunnels. It should show the horizon of the ground. To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, I've included the image that I originally planned to use, except the photographer is now unable to find a hi-resolution version. (Frustrating!) So, I wonder if anyone here on formiculture knows of a photographer who might have a high-quality image of a formicarium that follows those criteria. I would of course pay to license the image for publication. 

Thank you so much,

Will Hunt

 

 

[VoidElecent]

Dolichoderus mariae dealate.

 

 

 

 

[CoolColJ]

Pheidole brood pile near heating cable

 

click to enlarge

[Bracchymyrmex]

Trachymyrmex septentrionalis queen:

 

 

[CoolColJ]

Found these 13 Polyrhachis ammon under a rock, with 1 larvae.

I can't tell if there is a queen there, they all look so similar.

Boy they sure do love their raw honey, they have been sipping it for the last 40 mins straight! if there is no queen i will return them, and they would have had a nice honey meal for the trouble 

 

click to enlarge

 

 

Edited by CoolColJ, June 30 2018 - 9:11 PM.

[Barristan]

Camponotus turkestanus founding queen. She is very shy and doesn't like light exposure at all

 

[AntsAreUs]

Formica cf. pergandei queen with host brood:

 

 

Strumigenys pilinasis colony in a petri dish:

[CoolColJ]

Nasutitermes fumigatus or N. dixoni termites

click to enlarge

[CoolColJ]

Ants I saw on the bush trail today

very fast non nocturnal Camponotus

click pics to enlarge


There was a trail of these dainty small ants today at the local bush trail.
I thought at first they were Tetramorium, being bright red. But they are obviously Iridomyrmex ants.
Might be Iridomyrmex discors. Meat ant looking, but a lot smaller and not aggressive

 

edit - these are Froggattella kirbii ants!






There were these black meat ants, about the same size as well - this one has a dent on the gaster

Edited by CoolColJ, July 8 2018 - 3:05 AM.

[CoolColJ]

Myrmecia nigrocincta - I pulled a stone out a few days ago to reveal their nest after spotting a big hole next to it

Went by again today, they were still busy moving twigs around - this one appears to be missing an antenna...

click to enlarge

Edited by CoolColJ, July 5 2018 - 11:34 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Unknown queen I found today, about 5mm





Another queen I found under a rock, she is Rhytidoponera sp.
Absolutely savage - she tore most of the legs off a small spider that was in the capture vial with her!
You can see the leg there

Edited by CoolColJ, July 5 2018 - 11:31 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Queen I found might be a Rhytidoponera aspera, about 6-7mm. Semi-clasutral, aggressive with a nasty sting

click to enlarge

[Barristan]

My two year old Manica rubida colony is still doing fine. Here they enjoy cooked chicken breast for dinner:

 

 

Small pieces are removed:

 

 

And carried back to the nearby entrance into the nest made out of floral foam:

 

 

[CoolColJ]

Melophorus colony
1 minor worker, no brood


click to enlarge

[CoolColJ]

wild captured Polyrhachis femorata colony, appears to have 3 queens!
So they are polygynous?!
For Polyrhachis ants, these are pretty big. And have a more Camponotus appearance.
Queens are like 11-12mm, and workers around 9-10mm
 
this colony has 18 members, and 3 are definitely queens. 2 queens shown here, minus 1 queen and 2 workers. far left and the one looking at the camera.
The larger size, ocelli on head and wing scars, make them queens for sure

These ants freeze instead of running around madly when alarmed
click to enlarge



 

Edited by CoolColJ, July 11 2018 - 11:25 PM.

[Barristan]

Astonishing how different some Australian Polyrhachis species look compared to Asian Polyrhachis