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[Ants_Dakota]

Ants_Dakota's Formica sp. Journal

Entry 0: Purpose, Background, and Goals

9/20/2024

Purpose

To both inform and learn about the genus Formica. Future updates will also include a purpose to create a more structured journal.

Background

Formica has been the most diverse ant genus I have kept throughout my years in South Dakota. This is no surprise, as Antmaps finds 37 native species of Formica live here, and I am certain many more have not been recorded. I have attempted to create a Formica journal here, but I just never got around to updating it. That year was the highlight of my Formica experience, with multiple rare species. Sadly, I was super busy with many other things then and did not care for my ants properly, something I truly regret. With a renewed collection, albeit a more common one, as well as a more organized and professional dedication to nurturing strong and large colonies, I begin again.

Notable Journals

It is only fair to include multiple journal in this section that are both relevant to this species as well as explore the topic of Formica in South Dakota. Put on your goggles, we are time traveling folks! RushmoreAnts, a very close friend of mine, as well as the person I started keeping ants with nearly 10 years ago, began a journal around 2020 documenting a species of Formica that I gave him. This was a Formica fusca group queen, likely in the Formica subsericea category (F. subsericea, F. argentia, F. podzolica). Ants4Fun, another South Dakotan ant keeper, and someone on the forum since nearly the beginning, began documenting another fusca group queen here. He has amazing macro shots, I would recommend you go check it out. My first journal documenting Formica also came out around this time, found here. Throughout these journals, multiple species of Formica are showcased (in some of them less well, like mine), highlighting the diversity and density of Formica here in South Dakota. Following this, RushmoreAnts began a fresh journal after an unknown airborne sickness struck his previous colonies, which highlighted a colony he bought from Ants4Fun. It is well done, and I would recommend taking the time to check it out. At this time in RushmoreAnts and I's ant keeping journey, we had found Formica queens pretty consistently, but had little luck raising them beyond 15 nanitics. Fast forward around 2 years, and both RushmoreAnts and I have gained a lot of knowledge from this forum. I began my aforementioned Formica journal linked in the background section, and RushmoreAnts started another general journal, found here. Although none of the colonies in either journal ended up surviving, Formica had become a genus I was fascinated with. I remarked numerous time to RushmoreAnts about how I wanted to research Formica more because of how understudied they were. So, this journal has been created. In present time, two important journals for Midwestern ant keepers exist, both from RushmoreAnts. Firstly, his claustral Formica journal documents a mix of both rare and colorful as well as common and "plain" species that can be found here in the midwest. Secondly, his Parasitic Formica journal documents his multiple parasitic Formica queens and their progress. This journal is especially exciting because this is one of the coolest draws of the Formica genus; every type of social parasite exists in it! 

Myrmecologist engagement requested!

Like my other more recent journals, discussing Lasius and Micro Ants, I want to take an in-depth approach to documenting my colonies. This is just as much of a learning experience for me as it is for you, and I greatly hope that more experienced ant keepers than myself, especially myrmecologists, will comment on this journal to reframe my understanding or give useful tips they have discovered with IDing or pinning. There is a lot that they have learned over the years, and although this forum can at times be full of young children posting five word responses, there are still those of us who wish to learn from them. My hope is that anything they post in this journal can be read by others and reach a broader audience who will appreciate it. If you are not a myrmecologist and want to post, feel free! Questions, comments, personal experiences, and recommendations are all wanted. I only ask that you take the time to use correct grammar and post thought-out responses. This is a great example, as well as the main reason why I make these journals.

Identification

A main pillar of this journal will be the identification of Formica, one of the more difficult genera to distinguish. Especially on Antwiki, Formica is incredibly poorly documented. While Lasius has a handy description of commonly confused species and how to distinguish them, Formica has next to nothing (I challenge you, count the amount of applicable information contained here vs here, it will astonish you). Beyond that, images of queens in the Formica genus are rare and the ones that do exist on the images of a google search are questionable at best. Many don't even exist (search Formica altipetens and click on the images tab). Beyond that, the images that do show up may be misidentified by a hasty ant keeper. A great example of this is Formica subsericea, the go to name for any black fat Formica (I made this mistake too, just read my journal). Therefore, I will be taking a detailed and methodical approach to identification. This will definitely require some learning on my part, as well as experienced IDers to step in and guide me through how to use a key. For me to start writing this journal, I need this ID post to be answered, whether with concrete evidence, a request for more information, or the likely species group (ie. likely F. subsericea, F. podzolica, or F. argentea). Each species I document here will have an ID thread posted so that I can outline what it takes to get a firm answer on an ant species.

Recommended Reading

In this journal, I am going to be referencing multiple sources that contain a lot more information than what is going into this journal. If you decide to follow along with my progress and wish to gain the most information in the process, you may want to read these.
Firstly, you will want to become familiar with the Formica Species Groups, as documented on Antwiki. This is important because if you want to ID an ant, knowing which group in which to search saves a lot of time. If you live in North America like me, this slightly outdated list by Ferox_Formicae could be helpful.
You may also wish to glance over the Formica Queen Key, found here. Although it will be confusing, I am going to reference it when ID's come up. A simple ant anatomy guide can be found here.

I appreciate if you took the time to read this, and I hope that in the future I can add to the conversation surrounding Formica. You can follow this topic in the top right corner if you wish to get email updates about posts I make. 

Ants_Dakota

Edited by Ants_Dakota, September 30 2024 - 9:59 AM.

[ANTdrew]

I look forward to a great journal! Formica are the quintessential ant in my opinion. When I mentally picture a perfect ant, it is a Formica.

[Ants_Dakota]

I look forward to a great journal! Formica are the quintessential ant in my opinion. When I mentally picture a perfect ant, it is a Formica.

I concur. They were also the first ants that started RushmoreAnts and I in our anting journey. They definitely have a special place in my ant keeping memoir (if I had one).

[Ants_Dakota]

Ants_Dakota's Formica sp. Journal

Entry 1: Formica subsericea

9/30/2024

Purpose

To document important journals, background history, identification, and my colonies of this species of ant.

Background

As ANTdrew mentioned above, Formica is the stereotypical ant, as they live nearly everywhere. If you keep ants, chances are you have, are, or will keep Formica in the future (maybe you will even look harder for queens after you read this journal!). However, of all the places you can find Formica, South Dakota is one of the best. The Great Plains represents a desert for many ant genera, but a huge opportunity for Formica fusca species. As Pogonomyrmex is to the desert, so Formica fusca species are to the Plains. What makes here even more special is the Black Hills, Newton Hills, Union Grove, and other tree-covered hills dotted around the state that hosts many woodland species of Formica as well, so we don't just have the Fusca group. In my nearly 10 years as an ant keeper, I have kept over a dozen separate species, and this is not even half of the 37 native ones. Hopefully, access to such plentiful ants can allow me to expand the conversation surrounding this genus. The current ant-keeping meta is dominated by Camponotus, and I hope to change this. This has kind of become the theme of all of my journals, so hang on for an uphill battle!

Notable Journals

There are actually a lot of mature F. subsericea colonies out there, a quick YouTube search will demonstrate this, but a lot less documented here on Formiculture. One of the longer journals was created by ANTdrew documenting his colony in a dirt setup. A smaller colony of these ants can be seen documented in a Formica sp. journal similar to this one by AnthonyP163. Finally, there is a very well-documented journal by Dean I would recommend reading and especially looking at the responses. There is information to be gained there, especially about the picky nature of this species. Many more journals exist, so please post how your colony is doing and link the journal below. Any unique behaviors you have noticed are also appreciated.

Identification

This is a pretty long discussion, I highly recommend you check out my ID thread here. It also contains helpful information for IDing any Formica fusca group queen. The most important thing in these queens that will tip you off to the fact they are F. subsericea is the black bands on the abdomen, although this is not totally conclusive (see my next journal entry for more Formica ID chaos).

My colonies

I currently have two colonies of F. subsericea, but one has never founded and I am going to preserve her in ethanol when I put the rest of my colonies into diapause. This is the queen labeled "Formica cf. subsericea Colony 1" on my ID thread. I also have a more productive colony with three workers and several pupae, which this journal will document moving forward. Interestingly this colony refused to lay eggs for months of the summer even though I fed them regularly, choosing only to lay now.

 

Colony A (Leaving the Journal Soon)

9/2/24

 

9/18/24

 

 

9/21/24

 

 

9/28/24

 

 

Colony B

9/18/24

 

 

9/30/24

 

 

Edited by Ants_Dakota, September 30 2024 - 2:37 PM.

[ANTdrew]

This makes me miss Yrse!

[Ants_Dakota]

This makes me miss Yrse!

I know I really enjoyed your journal. Its too bad she died mysteriously. It is also super unfortunate you can't get more of these queens. Maybe one day I will be able to ship Formica to you.

[Ants_Dakota]

Ants_Dakota's Formica sp. Journal

Entry 2: Formica montana

10/21/2024

Introduction

If you live in South Dakota, Formica montana is the go-to assumption for any medium-sized brown Formica queens. I cannot guess how many queens I have erroneously labeled as F. montana in my 10 years of ant keeping. That being said, there are a very large amount of colonies here, and they seem to be fairly successful in certain niche urban environments. Their thatch mound-building architecture is something that nearly all colonies do here, even though Antwiki lists this behavior as occasional. Beyond this piece of information, however, Antwiki has next to nothing about this ant species, which is unfortunate considering how common they can be. Although this journal entry is the only one planned until I find another queen (see why later), I think it is important considering the identification of this queen may help other ant-keepers in the future.

Notable Journals

As usual, I am starting here in South Dakota to highlight the journal of a good friend of mine, Thunder_Birds, and his Formica cf montana queen. Is this queen F. montana? Probably not. Likely it is just another erroneously labeled ant queen, but it is still an important journal to South Dakota's Formiculture history. Beyond this, FormiCanada has a fairly recent journal that is short but sweet and contains some good pictures. It is also the most likely of any of the journals I list to be updated. AnthonyP163 also has a Formica sp. journal similar to mine, inside of which he has several posts documenting Formica montana and other cool Formica species. Beyond this, very few other entries come up when searching for F. montana, which is unfortunate but also expected, as Formica, in general, are fairly sensitive.

Identification

I know I say this way too much, but Formica is a notoriously hard genus to identify, and I encourage everyone who owns a colony that they caught themselves to do a little research before choosing a species name. For this queen, the identification steps and results I got can be found here, on an ID thread I created. This is a great start for someone who wants to narrow down the species of their queen.

Future plans

I have alluded to it in other posts, but this queen and the dud Formica subsericea (colony 1) queen will both be preserved in ethanol later this year and pinned sometime after that. They will be the first specimens in my ant collection, and I hope to document the process from start to finish. Finally, I plan to get both of them under a stereo microscope and get some high-quality images to add to the identification threads to confirm what species they are, and hopefully submit some of them to Antweb for queen specimen images, as F. montana, for example, does not have a queen specimen for reference. A lot of the things I am doing in this journal are things that most people think you need a 4-year entomology degree for (and some of them you do, if you want to do it well), but I want to demonstrate that if you put your mind to it, you can learn how to do some pretty cool things related to ants. A future post will outline my plans for pinning insects, as well as the materials I used to do it. I hope you stick around for this journey!

My colony

At the time I caught this queen, I was not as organized with the locations and dates of the queens I caught, something I regret, but I believe I caught this queen in the Black Hills around the beginning of August. Formica flights are wrapping up around this time, so she was a late flyer, something that likely led to her unmated status. I considered for a while attempting to merge her with my other similar colony in hopes she was mated but just not very fertile (did not have very good genetics), but decided against it because I wanted to start my queen collection.

 

9/18

 

Album: Formica cf argentea Colony 1

7 images

0 comments

 

Images used in the ID thread

 

 

10/20

 

 

Queen eating her last meal

 

 

 

Fuzzy abdomen

 

 

 

A beautiful distance shot of the queen

[ANTdrew]

RIP Formica montana queen 2024-2024.
Thanks for another great post!

[Ants_Dakota]

RIP Formica montana queen 2024-2024.
Thanks for another great post!

I know, I am sad to have to preserve her, but through her pictures she will live on as long as the internet continues. I am excited to document the process of ant pinning, as it is something I have wanted to do for years, and hope that other people will pick up alongside me so we can learn together!
I am also pretty optimistic that I will be able to continue this update next summer as I am targeting Formica as a genus to capture, and they are really common around here. Thank you for the encouragement, I look forward to the next few that I am planning already!

[Ants_Dakota]

Ants_Dakota's Formica sp. Journal

Preservation Update Part 1: Unknown Formica

12/6/2024

Introduction

As I have alluded to in previous entries of this journal and others, one of the exciting adventures I set out upon this winter season to keep me entertained while my ants were in diapause was creating a personalized preserved ant queen collection. If you are unfamiliar with insect displays, they are the results of dedicated entomologists and insect collectors preserving insects from around the world for display, most commonly at museums.

 

An insect display that inspired me; featured at Dr. Crawley's Insectorium located at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky

 

 

Preserving insects takes time and dedication; Dr. Crawley hard at work

 

Initially, I believed that the science of preserving insects was something taught in college to Entomology or Myrmecology students. But, upon further research, the select universities and Entomology degree programs that I viewed did not appear to have a course dedicated to this subject. However, it may be taught in another class, so correct me if I am wrong myrmecology graduates. If my initial hypothesis is correct, then insect preservation is more open to the public and collectors like you or me. With this in mind, I set out to discover how difficult it is to teach oneself how to pin and create an insect collection.

Background

When creating an insect collection, the first step is to find and collect the ants, something most of us on this forum have already accomplished. This is not to say go preserve your personal colony, but rather to point out that if we can find queens, it is inevitable that eventually we will collect a queen that is infertile. The only problem is knowing that they are infertile. Often the queen dies and that is the sign, but when preserving insects for a display, it is best to put them into a preserving agent alive. That being said, a freshly dead queen will probably still work, although I will need to try it. Another option is collecting queens and males as they are coming out of the nest for a nuptial flight. This requires very exact timing and luck, though. In some genera such as Formica, though, infertile queens will often live for months or even years without laying eggs or raising workers. These are the queens I am targeting in this journal entry.

 

Before attempting or even considering creating your own insect collection you will need some background information and research. There are two articles that I have found to be highly helpful. The first, a detailed PDF document by M. E. Schauff and others, published by the USDA (found HERE). It contains everything you would ever need to know about creating an insect display and includes much more information than an ant keeper needs. Even though it is so large, I still recommend you skim through it and read the applicable sections for ants. As a bonus, it even includes methods to catch target insects such as a blacklight setup, which is highly effective for ants. However, a far more concise article written by Joe A. MacGown at Mississippi State University will be the main source for my preservation journey. It is specific to preserving ants and is highly informational. I will be referencing both resources throughout my preservation attempts in this journal.

Part 1 of 2

This journal entry will detail just the preservation aspect of pinning insects, and not the actual pinning itself.

Materials

There are several different methods for killing ants in such a way that they remain in the ideal condition mentioned in Collecting and Preserving Insects such as Liquid killing agents (2.1) and Refrigeration and Freezing (2.2.1). In general, I think either will work for ants. Refrigeration is the more budget method if you plan on killing the queen or ants and then pinning them days later, and will save you around $40. However, if you plan on keeping the insects preserved for longer, or even just leave them in a vial forever, you will need another option. Alcohol is the standard method for insect collectors at the current time.
In order to keep ants preserved in alcohol, you will need something to hold the alcohol in. If you only want to preserve one queen and have no plans on future preservation attempts, about any container will due, although baby food containers might be the most affordable. For those like me who have been in this hobby for a while and desire to create a lifelong insect collection, glass vials are the way to go. Vial cover choice is important here, as you want something that will keep the alcohol inside in case of a spill. The highest quality vials with this in mind are called Scintillation Vials, recommended by Joe A. MacGown because they "reduce evaporation and leaking" via a special aluminum foil lid that prevents any liquid from escaping. However, these can only be bought in bulk, starting at $70 for 100 20mL vials at the time of writing this. FOUR E'S SCIENTIFIC was the brand I was considering purchasing on Amazon. However, this was a lot of money and upon several weeks of reflection (I highly recommend leaving all items you wish to purchase online in your cart for a while and making sure they are worth it, as this helps reduce impulse buys that shopping sites such as Amazon are built on) realized that as long as I planned on pinning the queens within the near future, I could reuse the vials and needed nowhere near 100. Because, as mentioned before, scintillation vials are not available in small quantities at the time of writing this, I looked for other options. The more affordable option that I ended up purchasing also claimed to be waterproof but only had foam seal paper instead of aluminum as a seal. That being said, I will probably never bring these vials outside of my house, so a perfect seal is not as important to me. These set me back $18 for 30 20mL vials. BKMAMLAB was the brand I ended up purchasing from. The glass on them is high quality and thick, and so far I have no complaints. They even came with four pipettes, which are perfect for transferring the alcohol into the vials. As a final note, never use cork or Aluminum flip caps, as the former lets alcohol evaporate and the latter is a one-time use, requiring a special tool to crimp on and remove the lids (I had to return some I bought because I did not realize this).

 

 

Glass vials came well packaged with no damage, and with a useable storage container

 

 

Thick glass makes breaks far less likely

 

 

What alcohol to use is also something to consider. Both Joe A. MacGown and M. E. Schauff recommend Ethanol (Ethyl Alcohol) to be used as the solvent. There are surprisingly few options available on Amazon when it comes to Ethyl Alcohol. I purchased 500mL from ALDON for $20 and that will be enough for all 30 of my 20mL if I do not fill them all the way up. I will note that this lack of availability of Ethyl alcohol as well as its relatively expensive price could be a deterrent for this project for some, so there is an alternative option. M. E. Schauff finds that "Because pure ethanol is often difficult to obtain, some collectors use isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol) with generally satisfactory results. Isopropanol does not seem to harden specimens as much as ethanol, and at least it is satisfactory in an emergency." Because this type of alcohol is much cheaper and usually found around the house in first aid kits, this is a great budget option.

 

Aldon brand Ethyl Alcohol

 

 

Process

There is not much to preserve insects. Simply pick them up gently so as not to do damage that will be visible under a microscope, and drop them into the Ethyl alcohol-filled vial. I know this may not seem like the most humane method for killing a queen, but it is what is practiced in the field. I would recommend closing your eyes for about 20 seconds. It is also important to note that rather than just dying and disappearing into dust, these infertile queens become "immortalized" in your collection. In my case, because both of my queens were infertile and had been unproductive for over half the year, I was not strongly affected.

 

I would however recommend feeding your queens before you preserve them, as that reveals additional details on their abdomen that otherwise may be hidden.

 

Queen 1: Formica cf. montana

 

 

Queen 2: Formica cf. subsericea

 

 

Labeling

This is one of the most important aspects of keeping an insect collection. As Joe A. MacGown puts it, "Collections of insects for scientific study are essentially just "pretty bugs" unless they are labeled with locality, date, collector, collecting method, habitat or other pertinent collecting information." This requires careful record-keeping or a very good memory (the former is highly recommended   ) whenever going on anting trips or finding a queen while in day-to-day life. A temporary label should be created and placed into the vial with the ants for future records when you pin them to the board. The creation of these labels requires detailed information and can be explained in Joe A. MacGown's article or in a more in-depth Mississippi Entomological Museum Guidelines Report. A separate guide can also be found in Collecting and Preserving Insects part 5 on page 46.

 

As expected, memory is not the best way of finding out where you caught your queens, and I have forgotten where both queens were found. Don't make the same mistake I did and go buy yourself a cheap notebook (or moleskin if you will be bringing it into nature with you) notebook to record the required information for each label whenever you catch a queen. Even if the colony is successful, these records are useful details inside of your personal journal and important for recording nuptial flights for the Queen Ant Spotting/Mating Chart. Most importantly though, they are vital to helping you understand the nuptial flight timing of ants in your local area and this data can be passed on to ant keepers in later generations.
So Why?

So, besides being a nerd like me, why would you want to create an insect collection? Surely the experts have already documented your ant species and pictures exist on AntWeb. And while this may be true, personal insect displays are a powerful way to tell the story of the local ants in your area. They may be common, and they may be "boring" in most people's eyes, but they are your ants from your local habitat. For the longest time I thought the Lasius genus, which was incredibly common around my area, to be "boring" ants as I could catch near unlimited queens if I saw their nuptial flight. However, there are places in the US where these ants are super rare and a prized find for people like AntDrew. This collection is also a great display if you ever choose to talk to your local area about ants. I know multiple members on this forum give either professional presentations or local school talks about ants, and having a display that you can point to that contains ants people see daily to relate a niche hobby to people's everyday lives could be helpful. Occasionally I will be asked to give a presentation in my community as well, and my collection will be a center display of those talks in the future.

 

Another important aspect of pinning insects is their value to science and your knowledge database. Pinned insects are easy to get under a stereo microscope and get a verified ID for. No more guessing or key following. One of the goals behind this project is to determine if the Formica key by Francoeur is as helpful as it once was. Earlier this year I created a detailed ID post about one of the queens I am preserving which I highly recommend you read through (found here). I struggled to get a set ID and there was some discussion and disagreement about the final ID. I will be comparing my key ID (as well as the IDs of everyone who commented on that thread) to the microscope pictures when I get the queens pinned. This knowledge of a verified positive ID will also be beneficial to all other South Dakotan ant keepers as well as those within the region when it comes to local color variety within a species.

 

Finally, in the words of Dr. Crawley, “The goal of every collector should be to share his collection with others.”

 

I hope you enjoy my insect display journey, consider joining me, and provide helpful and critical feedback for any mistakes or corrections, and also any additions I missed. Remember: Keep ordinary ants in extraordinary ways!
Ants_Dakota

Edited by Ants_Dakota, December 6 2024 - 11:48 AM.