79 replies to this topic

[Retroman]

Yes, Guizotia abyssinica. Thanks for the clarification.

[Gregory2455]

Thanks for clarifying.

[antsinmypants]

My Pogonomyrmex took in a variety of small-sized peas, including poppy seeds, into the nesting area where the eggs, larvae and pupae are located. One seed was partially chewed on, another seed remnant was placed on top of a larva, and another seed appears to have been bitten into and fed directly to a larva.

Attached Images

• 
• 
• 

[dspdrew]

What exactly are these "small-sized peas"?

[antsinmypants]

I meant seeds, not peas. Boy, no matter how many times I proof-read my messages I always make a mistake or typo. Where's Antdude when I need him? To our eyes the seeds may look like perfectly smooth surfaces. However, I think these seeds may have tiny imperfections on the surface that allows the ants to grab and chew them up.

[dspdrew]

Where's Antdude when I need him?

Over in grammar nazi land.

 

So do you know what these seeds are? I'm working on creating a nice mix of seeds to be used as a general Harvester Ant food, and I am trying tons of different seeds out.

[Anhzor]

From my experience i have only seen Pogonomyrmex eat grass seed once, they seem to collect them but never really consume them.  However i have seen them eat herbacious dicot plants such as dandelion seed 99% of the time.  I am throughly convince that they prefer small dicot seeds over grass seeds, it could be that the sillica contain in grass seed might interfered with digestion or maybe the seed itself is too hard.  Also insect are chosen over seeds of anykind, they seem to prefer small crunchy bugs like mosquitos or small flies over squishy insect like caterpillar.

 

Queen will also take in fluids, the key is to keep it really diluted because it will evaporate inside the test-tubes.  I always find good success with diluting 10 part sugar to 1 part whey protein, that's pretty much how I feed my formica and Camponotus queens..

Edited by Anhzor, July 15 2014 - 9:47 PM.

[antsinmypants]

Drew, I have waited to respond to your question about what type of seeds my Pogonomyrmex feed to their larvae because I wanted to have absolute visual proof before replying. Last night, I finally saw the nanitics biting the seed coat off a poppy seed before feeding it to their larvae. Another nanitic was working on what I think is a white millet seed. The shell is off in the upper right hand corner (see pictures below). I recently bought a Carson 5x LED magnifier off of Amazon.com. It does a great job of providing adequate lighting and magnification. I was able to observe that the larvae have something like jaws to chew their food. Do you know what is the correct anatomical term for these jaw-like structures?

Attached Images

• 
• 

[antsinmypants]

I forgot to add that I have seen no proof whatsoever that the Pogonomyrmex queens are capable of chewing and eating poppy and Nyjer seeds. Whatever the exact species is that I have, I think these queens must rely on either a different seed type or subsist on insects while they are raising their first brood. Has anyone ever tried grinding up seeds with a mortar and pestle before offering it to their Pogonomyrmex queens?

[Anhzor]

Aside from occasionally chewing on insect and laping up some honey water in young queen, I have never seen a mature Pogonomyrmex queen eat. I theorize that they probably get their food from their larvae regurgitate, that's cause I seen them (the queens) occasionally lick the mouth of larvae.

[antsinmypants]

I have 4 Pogonomyrmex queens in test tubes with poppy seeds and Nyjer seeds. No bite marks are visible on the seeds at 5x magnification. The queens must be eating the mealworms that I offer instead. I will therefore use a mortar and pestle and experiment with crushed poopy seeds, putting in a defined number in each test tube. If they don't touch the seeds in 5 - 6 days, then I will offer mealworms before proceeding with crushed Nyjer seeds, then crushed white millet seeds, etc. I will let you know what transpires.

[dspdrew]

I noticed they keep the larvae on their backs and set the food right on their faces so they can chew on it. I actually recently gave my pogos some millet too. Poppy seeds can come as raw seeds in a bag for growing poppies, or from the grocery store for use in cooking. Does anyone know what exactly the difference is?

[antsinmypants]

Wikipedia has some information about poppy seeds (http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Poppy_seed. Apparently, the poppy seeds may be ground up, toasted, etc. The ones I bought are apparently raw, and when I crushed them up last night, I put one in each test tube where my 4 Pogonomyrmex queens are. One of them immediately took it, moved it next to the cotton and was doing something with it with her jaws. It was difficult to see exactly what she was doing given the poor visual access I had with her in that corner of the test tube despite 5x magnification. These 4 Pogonomyrmex queens, BTW, do not have any larvae, just 1 or 2 eggs each. This morning I briefly glanced at the test tubes. Two more Pogonomyrmex queens relocated the single crushed poppy seed I placed in their test tube to near the cotton. Using a mortar and pestle, it was difficult for me to separate the seed coat from the rest of the poppy seed, so I assume that the queens were dealing with that issue with their jaws.I would need a binocular dissecting microscope and sharp forceps to tease the seed coat off the rest of the poppy seed, which was whitish in color and, I believe is called the endosperm of the seed. When I get back home tonight, I will check on the status of these crushed poppy seeds again.

[Anhzor]

just out of curiosity, are poppy seed softer or harder then grass seed?

[dspdrew]

Depends which ones you're talking about. The ones used in cooking are softer than grass seed, while the ones that will grow into a poppy plant seem to be harder than grass seed.

[antsinmypants]

At least one of my 4 Pogonomyrmex queens appears to have eaten the white endosperm of the crushed poppy seed. I cannot find it anywhere else in the test tube. I think it would be much easier for me to crush up a larger seed, like the Nyjer or white millet seed. I will attempt this this coming Sunday.

[antsinmypants]

The 4 Pogonomyrmex queens without larvae have relocated the crushed white millet seeds closer to their eggs. I presume the queens are eating from them. White millet seeds are much easier to crush in a mortar and pestle. They are also easier to examine to make sure they are crushed and easier to handle with forceps. The above aside, I discovered that one of my budding colonies of Pogonomyrmex fed a pupa to a larva. Why in the world they would do that is beyond me, but I think I have observed this before albiet without definite proof. Now I have proof b/c I saw the pupa on top of the larva earlier in the day. Should I have intervened? Maybe I am not providing enough of the right nutrients? I'd appreciate any input on this. I also lost two newborn nanitics over the weekend to two of the budding Pogonomyrmex colonies. I hope I have not introduced a pathogen to them.

[dspdrew]

Don't forget, no matter what it seems, adult ants only eat liquids. Only larvae can eat solid food.

[antsinmypants]

So is it true that the larvae of all ants regurgitate liquid nutrients to feed the workers and the queen?

[dspdrew]

I've heard that's what they do.

 

http://www.ehow.com/...igest-food.html