10 replies to this topic

[RushmoreAnts]

Tetramorium immigrans
Update 1

July 30, 2024
 
Hey guys, I'm back! I was super busy these past few months, and haven't had time for ants, unfortunately. But now my schedule has cleared, and I was thrown back into the hobby, in fact right in the middle of a Tetra nuptial flight. These little [censored] had the audacity to fly on the 4th of July, almost like a slap in the face to all of the American ants these invaders have displaced. While I am saddened by their single handedly tanking ant biodiversity all over the continent, I still respect the hardiness, impressive growth, and aggressiveness these ants offer to ant keepers. 
 
Anyways, I caught 27 of these queens on my driveway. I simply couldn't allow these queens to found colonies in my yard and displace the last of the Lasius colonies holding the line against three maturing Tetra colonies that barely had a few dozens workers 4 years ago. However, I couldn't bring myself to kill the queens either, as they are still queens in the end. So why not have them kill each other? Naturally, chill. For those who didn't know, Tetramorium immigrans founds colonies via a method called pleometrosis. Multiple queens found the colony to increase resources and the number of nanitics (first workers). I noticed these queens' nanitics appear larger and healthier than single-queen nanitics. I have read other posts which claim that queens usually begin killing each other within two weeks of being placed together, though from my personal experience with South Dakota Tetras the queens are not aggressive towards each other, but once workers eclose (hatch) they choose the healthiest and fittest queen and slowly dismember the others by slowly chewing off their limbs and antennae, leaving them blind and immobilized and let them starve to death. Heartwarming, I know. It does, however, allow the most successful queens to be selected through natural processes. 
 
I divided the 27 queens into 5 groups. Groups A, B, and C each originally had 5 queens, and groups D and E had 6 queens. All colonies just got workers yesterday, and I fed them for the first time today. They are in homemade test tube-pencil case formicaria. Over the next year or so I will choose the healthiest colony to keep and give the others away to other ant keepers in my area. If you're from South Dakota and are interested in one of these colonies, hit me up and DM me!

 

I got the photos from these videos, which you can watch here on Imgur.

 

Colony A
This colony had 5 original queens, and one queen died within one week of having them. Now they have roughly ~15 workers. When I checked up on them today one queen was sitting alone at the entrance of the nest, a possible sign she is being rejected by the colony. If she doesn't escape she may be on the chopping block soon.

 

4 days after capture

 

26 days after capture

 

Colony B
All 5 original queens are still alive as of yet. The workers are hardening and beginning to forage, so we'll see how long that lasts. Pleometrosis is like some Game of Thrones plot.

 

4 days after capture

 

26 days after capture

 

Colony C
Two queens died within a week of capture, the most of all the colonies. They have 3 queens currently, and around 10 workers. They also have the smallest amount of brood of the colonies, though it is still substantial. The fact this colony is the least successful is a testament to just how successful all five colonies are. 

 

4 days after capture

 

26 days after capture

 

Colony D
The best of the five, this 6-queened colony still has all 6 queens and has shown no signs of disposing of any queens, though some queens are noticeably skinnier than others. It has around 20 workers now, and should be around 30 by the time all nanitics are finished eclosing. This is the colony I'm considering keeping as of now, though colonies B and E are also options if they possibly overtake D in the future. A and C are noticeably behind the other three, and likely won't be chosen.

 

4 days after capture

 

 

Tetramorium immigrans Colony D 7/30/2024 (youtube.com) (Sorry, it uploaded as a short, and Formiculture doesn't support shorts.)

26 days after capture

 

Colony E
My other six-queened colony is also very successful, with around 15 workers. While still behind Colony D, they are about tied with Colony B for 2nd place. Like colony D they are showing no signs of disposing of any of their queens as of yet. All queens have all their limbs in tact from what I can see. We'll see how the purge unfolds over the next couple weeks. 

 

 

4 days after capture; the eggs appear scattered because I accidentally rolled the test tube.

 

26 days after capture; as you can see, everything turned out alright... for now.

Edited by RushmoreAnts, September 10 2024 - 7:08 PM.

[RushmoreAnts]

Update 2

August 6, 2024
 

 

Alright, lots of lore and gore coming out of these colonies this time around. They are finally choosing their supreme and only monarchs. I also have more accurate worker counts and have reevaluated the colonies I'm likely to keep, and all estimates are within a margin of +/- 3 workers.

 

Colony A
A is actually one of the boring colonies, it has yet to kill off one of its queens and holds steady at 4. However in terms of numbers it holds second place, with a worker count of ~25.

 

 

 

 

Colony B

We have a winner! B is the first colony to officially reject all of its excess queens, bringing the grand total down to just one. Its worker count is only at ~17, though it may shoot up through the ranks as they have a very large and healthy pile of large larvae.

 

 

 

Recently rejected queen, was being attacked by workers before I disturbed them for the photoshoot

 

Graveyard. Queens the colony killed and workers those queens killed

 

 

Colony C

The other boring colony, C has also yet to kill off any of its queens, though since it has the lowest starting queen count at 3 that also means that statistically and now in reality they have the fewest workers, at ~15. Still more nanitics than your average 1 queen colony, though.

 

 

 

 

Colony D

Colony D, while at the top of its game in the first update, has proven that nature is very unpredictable. About two days after I posted the last update, this colony became the first to execute any of its queens and killed off one. The next day they killed off two more. A couple days ago they killed off a fourth. Now it seems like they're beginning to reject the fifth one. It's been a long bloodbath. Worker count is at ~20.

 

Tetramorium immigrans Colony D 8/6/2024 (youtube.com) (Sorry again, this video also uploaded as a short. Again, colony D is the victim here.)

 

 

 

Colony E

This colony used to be boring. Not so anymore, especially recently. A couple days ago they killed off their first queen, and have spent at least 48 hours gruesomely torturing her to death in their outworld. I believe she only died just yesterday. I thought they may stay at 5 queens for a while, but I was very wrong. This morning I checked on them to see two of the queens fighting, a first in keeping Tetras. A few minutes ago I checked on them, and all four of the remaining extra queens were being attacked simultaneously by multiple workers. It's a warzone in their test tube. I believe Colony D's population dropped since their literal battle royales were so bloody, as several workers died attacking the queens. Colony E, however, has over 30 workers and appear to be much more competent in restraining the queens before execution, and worker loss seems to be much lower despite the chaos. Even if they do lose a lot workers, they can take it. They are by far doing the best, and I am strongly considering keeping this colony permanently. If by some freak of nature colony A or C remains polygynous I will keep one of them as well. 

 

 

 

 

Queens fighting

 

Brood (Sorry the quality is so bad for Colony D and E, their test tube seems to obscure my camera's view.)

 

The queen that was tortured for over 2 days is finally dead. This was outside the test tube so the quality is much improved.

 

 

Here's the colony rankings so far:

Workers:

E - 30

A - 25

D - 20

B - 17

C - 15

 

Queens:

A - 4

C - 3

D - 2

E - 1

B - 1

Edited by AntsDakota, August 12 2024 - 11:30 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Savage!

[RushmoreAnts]

Update 3

August 20, 2024

 

So I have some sad news. Colony E started to kill its queens like usual. However shortly after the last update they got a little too "savage" and killed ALL of them. They are now queenless, and I will definitely not be keeping them. Well, one less colony I have to get off my hands. As to not waste resources, I fed their brood to my Formica cf. pallidefulva and Formica cf. incerta colonies. I didn't brood boost my other colonies since I didn't want to skew their natural development, as that will determine which colony I end up keeping, thus feeding them to the Formica seemed like the logical alternative. 

 

Formica cf. incerta 1 week after consuming Colony E's brood

 

Formica cf. pallidefulva 1 week after consuming Colony E's brood

 

As you can see, they benefitted greatly from the protein boost, which prompted both queens to lay more eggs. This was the cf. pallidefulva before the boost:

 

The remaining colonies have massive brood piles, and consume equally massive food portions for colonies their size. I feed them three times a week, with either a whole mealworm or third of a large superworm. They always hollow out the mealworms and get over halfway done with the superworms.

 

Colony A

As of today, this colony finally started killing off its queens. Workers are attacking all three undesired queens at once. Besides that, they are now doing the best out of my four remaining colonies, with around 30 workers and roughly 90 larvae and pupae, and over 100 eggs. The floor is a carpet of brood several layers deep, and the cotton is decorated with large larvae. Yesterday the first workers of this massive next generation eclosed, and they're longer, beefier, and have larger heads than the nanitics. While the nanitics triggered queen killing in the other colonies, it seems like this second generation triggered it in Colony A. As of now this is the colony I am thinking of keeping. As you've seen over these past couple updates that could very well change. Colonies B and D are not far behind.

 

 

Sorry for the bad quality, I take my pictures outside in natural light, and today it was cloudy and raining.

 

 

Undesired queen being attacked

 

Colony B

With around 25 workers and ~70 larvae and pupae, Colony B is also making a name for itself, being the first colony to kill all of its undesired queens and the first to recover from worker losses, and is roughly tied with Colony D for second place. The cotton is molding, though the ants don't seem to mind, and still keep some larvae on the cotton. I couldn't determine how large their egg pile was, as it must be hidden under the larvae and pupae.

 

 

 

 

Colony C

So unfortunately this colony suffered from test tube flooding, and they lost roughly half of their brood. They moved to the far side of the test tube near the entrance.They were doing the worst out of all the colonies anyways, with around 20 workers and ~40 larvae and pupae before the flooding, so I'm not very concerned. Interestingly, this colony stands as the only colony to not kill any of its queens yet. This is likely due to their smaller workerforce, and will probably kill their extras once they start catching up with the other colonies. They have roughly 30 eggs.

 

 

 

 

Colony D

Near-peer to Colony B, Colony D has killed the last of its undesired queens and stabilized. When killing the last queen, however, they were attacking both remaining queens at the same time, and I was worried they would go the route of Colony E. Fortunately the workers came to their senses before that, and didn't form an anarchical coup poised to overthrow the government. I was also unable to determine the egg count for this colony.

 

No more annoying YT shorts for this colony!

 

 

 

Rankings

Workers:

A - 30

B - 25

D - 25

C -20

 

Queens:

C - 3

A - 1

B - 1

D - 1

E - 0

 

Larvae & Pupae:

A - 90

B - 70

D - 70

C - 20

E - 0

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

What was the worker carrying in her mandibles in colony D?

 

(Formica was enjoying their rice  ) 

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, August 20 2024 - 1:42 PM.

[RushmoreAnts]

What was the worker carrying in her mandibles in colony D?

 

(Formica was enjoying their rice  ) 

She was carrying a piece of grout from the outworld. They brought a lot of debris into the test tube to make it homier. 

[RushmoreAnts]

Update 4

September 10, 2024

 

They're dead. Thanks for reading, it's been fun. I suppose I'll have to try again next year. Just kidding, they're not dead. Except Colony C. Yep, they decided to follow Colony E's example and kill all of their queens. Which, to be honest, if I were to sacrifice any colony it would be them, as they absolutely fumbled the ball compared to their peers. I'm more relieved than anything that I have one less Tetra colony to blow resources on. On another interesting note, Colony D found a small breach in their enclosure, and a couple workers made their way next door to their friendly neighbors Colony B and A's enclosures. They got 360 no scoped instantly. To prevent World War III, I put a great deal more distance and shelving between the three colonies, until I find new homes for two of them. There have been no further incidents. To be fair, though, they can take the hit:

 

Colony A

This is my colony. I claim it. It's been 3 weeks since the last update, but for them it may as well been a year, as they breezed past the 100-worker mark sometime last week. To boot they have ~150-200 large larvae and pupae in que. They did have some test tube flooding, however. 200 is AFTER the test tube flooding wiped out some 80 brood. Like I said: they can take a hit. Their queen is an absolute unit, and I would not be surprised if they reached 1,000 workers by Christmas. Think about it: they have 100 workers now, 200 in que, and they're only 9 weeks old. It's over 15 weeks until Christmas, and Tetras grow exponentially. You do the math. Due both to their exploding growth and the test tube flooding I will move them into a formicarium shortly, as in by next update. 

 

 

If that doesn't look quite like 100 workers to you, I can assure you the rest are broiling in primal fury the outworld.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colony B

Now that Colony C was removed by their own choosing, Colony B is the short guy in their friend group, with *only* ~50 or 60 workers, and an equivalent amount of brood in que. They are doing extremely well, don't get me wrong, though they are still growing noticeably slower and eating less than A and D. You see: now that colony C's gone, I needed someone to crap on. I love you, Colony B. 

 

 

 

 

 

Colony D

In second place, Colony D is also thriving with a healthy ~80 workers and ~120 mature brood in que. I originally predicted this colony would do well, and I was right, though Colony A exceeded expectations. I suspect Colony E may have surpassed even Colony A if they were still around, however, though I am still proud of A and D's great accomplishments. Good news, I have a potential home for this colony, a friend whom is curious about ants, and if he decides to join the party I'll give him this colony. So Colony D may be the first colony to say goodbye to this journal by positive partition and not a Marxist-style Proletariat uprising. Also note in the pictures they were very efficient at moving the brood to the other side of the test tube, and I was unable to capture all of the brood in one shot. The queen even hopped on her private jet and burned some fossil fuels on a grand tour of their outworld.

 

 

 

 

"Yay Chiefs!" -The queen, probably

 

 

On a different note, happy 11th Anniversary to Formiculture! This place is amazing, and has been instrumental to my journey as an ant keeper. Thanks to everyone who makes this place special.

Edited by RushmoreAnts, September 10 2024 - 7:11 PM.

[Ants_Dakota]

Really good shots with only a macro lens!

[RushmoreAnts]

Supplemental Update 4.1

September 15, 2024

 

Colony A

The test tube flooding was worsening, so I quickly moved them into a Por Amor large Cryptic Insert I just received a couple weeks ago. Quality is amazing, it's really easy to see them and video them. I was able to get more accurate worker count, which is ~120, and brood count is still over 200 in spite of the flooding. I managed to save several dozen drowning brood with a Q-tip. This is temporary only due to the fact that they will outgrow it in literal weeks.

 

See for yourself:

Edited by RushmoreAnts, Yesterday, 11:57 AM.

[ANTdrew]

That is a cool looking nest.

[RushmoreAnts]

They call it a 'Cryptic Insert' but to me it's perfect for any ants 1-4 mm in length. Those chambers are the size of wild Tetra colony chambers from what I can gather. They really love it. I'd recommend it as a founding nest for Tetramorium, Lasius, Crematogaster, and other ants around that size. It's also ~$7 USD, which is a steal for a nest that can hold hundreds of small ants. The thing about these Tetras is their days in the hundreds are numbered.

Edited by RushmoreAnts, Yesterday, 12:02 PM.