19 replies to this topic

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

I have kept Formica before (last year) but they died because every worker had a ridiculously short lifespan and all died out   :facepalm:and the queen did not want to lay eggs or eat resulting in her dying but all that has changed and I decided to  make a polygynous colony because a lot of the MASSIVE colonies have 2 queens and the polygynous success rate is way higher than any other ant in my area. It all started around 1 month ago or a bit more? Where I caught the queens together running around (and I had caught some lasius around 2 weeks ago) and after I caught them they were laying eggs 2 days later, it felt like a blink but they had larva at the final stage while the lasius were still growing their larva. A couple more days passed and I had pupa! I did some research and found out that the pupa take up to 5 days - 2 weeks to enclose from pupa to worker. (is that true?) I also have a question about Formica being "slightly polymorphic"    please enlighten me about what are the changes between the workers and the ones that are "slightly polymorphic.

 

here is them now with a lot of pupa and 1 larva that has not spun a cocoon

 

here is them before when the first few larva were spinning cocoons and with larva of all sizes

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, September 27 2024 - 1:46 PM.

[Stubyvast]

Noice! I also caught a formica, I think subcericea! Never raised these girls before, sounds cool! I bet slightly polymorphic means that they will raise their first batch of workers together, and once they arrive, either fight to the death until one remains, or separate to different parts of the nest, never interacting with one another. This is just my guess, though, should be taken with a grain of salt.

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

Noice! I also caught a formica, I think subcericea! Never raised these girls before, sounds cool! I bet slightly polymorphic means that they will raise their first batch of workers together, and once they arrive, either fight to the death until one remains, or separate to different parts of the nest, never interacting with one another. This is just my guess, though, should be taken with a grain of salt.

I think you mean pleometrosis

Edited by GOCAMPONOTUS, August 7 2024 - 1:08 PM.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

i mean polymorphic like they have different worker casts

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

I JUST REALISED SOMETHING

 

one of my queens has a weird abdomen with what I am calling right now "an exaggerated petiole dent" I have no idea why she has it but it is definitely not a different species or something because I did some research on every Formica species that lives in my area and none had that "exaggerated petiole dent"

 

here is a pic were you can kind of see it

 

here is a closer look

 

anyone know what is the cause like mishandling a genetic error? please tell me because I am dying to know 

[RushmoreAnts]

Noice! I also caught a formica, I think subcericea! Never raised these girls before, sounds cool! I bet slightly polymorphic means that they will raise their first batch of workers together, and once they arrive, either fight to the death until one remains, or separate to different parts of the nest, never interacting with one another. This is just my guess, though, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Polymorphism is a size difference in workers, i.e. species that have soldiers/majors. The term you are thinking of is pleometrosis. Formica are slightly polymorphic, as their workers do have noticeable size differences. Nothing crazy, their majors don't have huge heads or look super different than the minors, they're just slightly larger versions of the minors. If you want Formica with extreme polymorphism, I'd look into getting parasitic Formica. Their majors can be larger than the queens. The dent is probably an injury. There are no vital organs (or many organs at all) in that area, so she's probably fine.

Edited by AntsDakota, August 7 2024 - 12:26 PM.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

 

Noice! I also caught a formica, I think subcericea! Never raised these girls before, sounds cool! I bet slightly polymorphic means that they will raise their first batch of workers together, and once they arrive, either fight to the death until one remains, or separate to different parts of the nest, never interacting with one another. This is just my guess, though, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Polymorphism is a size difference in workers, i.e. species that have soldiers/majors. The term you are thinking of is pleometrosis. Formica are slightly polymorphic, as their workers do have noticeable size differences. Nothing crazy, their majors don't have huge heads or look super different than the minors, they're just slightly larger versions of the minors. If you want Formica with extreme polymorphism, I'd look into getting parasitic Formica. Their majors can be larger than the queens. The dent is probably an injury. There are no vital organs (or many organs at all) in that area, so she's probably fine.

 

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that is what they mean by "slightly polymorphic" thanks for the clarity! 

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

UPDATE!!!!

 

 

So I put my Formica colony next to my computer, and I turned off the screen of the computer and not the whole thing and it resulted in the computer blowing hot air at the nest the whole night and the pupa's growth process was sped up so much because the night before the pupa inside the cocoons were just beginning to darken and the next day they were a dark shade of grey, so a couple of hours passed and all of sudden, I check up on them and there are two ants in the process of being born      Another couple of hours later the first one is completely fine but I find the second one in the outworld having trouble to walk so I help her and the reason why is because of the "glue" that is stuck to her two back feet. Right after that she goes running everywhere and rushes back to her nest to try to recruit her sister to explore the outworld but as usual she is the shy one and denies her invite 

 

Right now just as THIS POST is being written and published, I think they are ripping open another cocoon because the first workers event happened yesterday (Due to my laziness)

 

 

This is them yesterday, the photo were taken as soon as they came out of the cocoons

 

 

And this is the photo taken the next day where you see the queen and the former "scaredy-ant" of the colony while her sister is exploring

(And yes, I am aware they are not workers but nanitics)

 

As a bonus mention, my polygynous Lasius colony just had their first worker too, how I found out was when i saw a little callow walking around and immediately was assaulted with all three of her mother's "cleanliness kisses" 

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, August 20 2024 - 1:22 PM.

[ANTdrew]

I removed the period from your title.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

I removed the period from your title.

Ok thanks, did not notice that

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Here is our newest member who enclosed literally right now

 

 

To me she looks very cute with those big black eyes of hers

[RushmoreAnts]

Formica brood grows insanely fast for how large they are.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Formica brood grows insanely fast for how large they are.

I have noticed that too

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

UPDATE!!! (again hehe)

 

So today I was just checking up on the nest and I  found a little worker in the outworld   , she was so cute licking at the honey but when I opened the top to take pictures of her but she decided that she should come to the edge of the top of the outworld to meet the camera and chill there, she was still a bit grey on the legs and antenna, I'm guessing that she was my second worker, (the one that enclosed a bit later) she was surprisingly calm for a Formica, I even managed to feed her honey with my finger! I am going to miss these little nanitics being so cute and calm, sooner or later they are going to be replaced with workers that are sassy and aggressive like their mothers  Right now I thing that there could be another worker enclosing 

 

here is the worker looking at my camera

 

 

BONUS:

I have now a Lasius worker boom

 

I find it funny that I have 3x more Lasius than Formica and whenever one of those 10 workers come near the entrance, they are like "WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING" and run back towards the brood pile to hide

 

(sorry about the photos, I don't know why they are sideways)

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Sorry it has been so long since I have last updated but the colony is doing well with around 10 workers, they have been doing… well, Formica things like : running foraging, caring for brood then running with it, making dirt forts in the nest for the queens?

Anyways, I have brood boosted them and now that is why there are a variety of bigger and smaller workers, but then they started laying eggs and now they have been keeping them for about 6 days now, with no sign of the egg ball getting smaller, only bigger, and it is even more perplexing because of how they don’t lay after August, in my experience. (I am aware that they do not hibernate with brood) So can you guys please tell me what is happening

 

(I am going to school so I will give a photo update later)

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

UPDATE TIME! (after such a long time)

 

So I am back again with my journal!   Before we continue with the ant-y stuff, I need to say a bit of things and ask a few questions.

 

1. I could not update the journal because of school related things but... I have some good and bad news. (I guess the ant-y stuff can not be avoided) So starting with the bad news. One the 2 queens died which is forcing me to ask another question ( more in that after this ) and now we are down to one queen, who is surprisingly the one with the dent. The story is that my little brother accidentally shook my desk with my colonies too hard, so I put some cloths that will stop the vibrations. One of the queens decided to abandon the nest and live in the outworld (yes I know that they consider that the nest because of the lack of the elements) and some of the workers were forced to pick sides and some were living with her in the outworld and others were bringing them back in, but soon she died and I knew it would come eventually because of what she is doing.

 

2. how do you change the name of the journal can does it need a mod?

 

3. should I do a weekly update thing? (I can't promise it will be on the same day every week)

 

Now the update. I have brood boosted them and now they have 15+ workers and I still have the eggs from the queen that is now dead, in fact they have now turned into larva and the colony is extremely protein hungry, but I am having doubts about the larva, I feel like they are going to turn into males. I have recently fed them a lot of things like maple water (I call it Canada juice) some Korean pork legs and a dead spider I found in the house. now there are many repletes and I think they are ready for hibernation once the larva pupate and enclose.

 

Here is them yesterday with the pork and a replete:

 

and here is them eating the spider with a lot of the colony in sight:

[ANTdrew]

Go to the first post and click edit. You can change the title that way. If you need help, I can do it easily enough.

[RushmoreAnts]

I would update it whenever something interesting happens, that's subjective to you. I tried doing weekly updates, but not every week has an interesting event, and I too am also busy. You will find yourself running out of things to talk about if you force an update at a certain interval.

[ANTdrew]

What do you want to change the name to?

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

What do you want to change the name to?

I have changed the name, but thank you for offering to change it and thank you for the help!

 

 

I would update it whenever something interesting happens, that's subjective to you. I tried doing weekly updates, but not every week has an interesting event, and I too am also busy. You will find yourself running out of things to talk about if you force an update at a certain interval.

Ok thanks for the heads up, you made a good point, so I guess I will go back to updating it every other day

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, September 27 2024 - 1:49 PM.