3 replies to this topic

[RapaNui]

This is my second attempt with this species.

 

References:

 

0 - https://en.wikipedia...wiki/Myrmicaria

1 - https://en.wikipedia...micaria_brunnea

2 - http://www.antstore....ia-brunnea.html

3 - http://www.alexander...era/Myrmicaria/

4 - http://antclub.org/M...micaria_brunnea

5 - https://www.youtube....h?v=s_Sw9PCfmbw

6 - https://www.youtube....h?v=e9aTgsOlmgg

 

Past Experience:

 

This was my first species and my first ant keeping experience. To make it worse, it was a single queen. I couldn't have chosen worse species to start of with.

I made all sorts of beginner mistakes with this queen, which will not be relevant to this journal.

This queen ended up dying 3 months after purchase, and she only laid once, the eggs never matured.

 

On going experience:

 

The second queen came in a test tube with a significant amount of eggs and larvae. This species does not cocoon for the puppae stage.

I had high hopes for this second trial. Few days after arriving, she had eaten all the brood. I was quite disappointed.

So i made up my mind and left her completely alone and in the dark for a long time. I noticed that she started laying again soon after. 

I went one week on holidays, and upon my arrival I was so excited because she has 3 new workers!!

 

After that, I though I was going to be super successful, and I started feeding them some crickets, which turned out to be a tricky thing.

 

Behaviour:

 

The queen is very easily agitated and when stressed she will eat eggs, larvae and puppae.

This is a species where I feel my patience and itchy fingers are being tested.

The queen is fully claustral. 

They need to be completely covered and minimum disturbance even with 3 workers.

The workers will not forage the outworld. They just go for the water and sugar. 

They will take the crickets, but only when deposited inside the test tube, which will of course increase the disturbance.

Since it has been a long time since new workers emerged, I am keeping away for good to see if some more come out.

The larvae development is very slow.

 

I will post new developments as soon as possible.

[RapaNui]

Update: 

 

Brood have been developing slowly but steadily. I cannot stop being amazed by the amount of small eggs the queen as layed recently.

Its not visible on these photos, but its a huge pile! From my experience I have only seen these amounts vs period of time from Solenopsis before.

 

 

Now I start to understand the amount of brood showing on this video:

https://www.youtube....h?v=cHC11cngxOA

And the (hopefully!) difficult (but fascinating) future in front of me.

 

There was an interesting phenomenon in the behavior of the workers. Before I had to place the dead cricket near the test tube entrance for them to collect it, otherwise they wouldn't.

With the passing of time, the 3 workers have claimed possession of the small outworld and now forage and roam it regularly. This is a huge difference for this species regarding disturbance levels.

Before a dead cricket on the entrance meant threat and the queen and workers would come frenetically to the entrance to deal with it before realizing it was food. Now the dead cricket is placed outside and within 5 minutes one worker will exit to inspect and call for back up to bring it inside.

I am to guess this lowered the stress thus inciting for more laying and development.

I am waiting anxiously the appearance of the 4th worker.

Worker 1, 2 and 3 have noticeable differences on their sizes. 

Edited by RapaNui, November 18 2015 - 8:09 PM.

[RapaNui]

Video from the last post:

https://www.youtube....JYI9l0GCOCWZ_TM

[RapaNui]

Update: 4th worker emerged... not quite the one I was expecting, still one more pair of hands to help is always welcomed!

https://www.youtube....JYI9l0GCOCWZ_TM

Two more on the rise! 

I am starting to debate on what type of formicarium/setup to use with these guys.