64 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Update 9-16-2015
 
I'm really surprised how well these colonies are doing this year. Only one colony looks to have lost two workers. Right now the worker count for all four colonies is 15, 15, 18, and 21. The one with 18 workers has about 15 pupae, and a whole bunch of larvae and eggs as well, so this colony is going to be doubling in size very soon. Also one of the smaller colonies already has what looks like a small major on the way.

[Thomas_Nguyen2456]

My school has huge colonies of those. 

[dspdrew]

Nice. What kind of a nest are they being kept in?

[Tpro4]

his school is being "invaded" by those, they don't keep them

[dspdrew]

Ohhh.

[Foogoo]

My school has huge colonies of those. 

Mind me asking which school (feel free to not answer)? I find that interesting because I've never seen Camponotus in urban areas around here, only in the mountains.

[dspdrew]

These would not be in urban areas in Southern California; it would have to be some place with climate similar to that of Angelus Oaks where I found these.

[Foogoo]

These would not be in urban areas in Southern California; it would have to be some place with climate similar to that of Angelus Oaks where I found these.

That's what I thought, which is why I find it curious if they are in fact running around a school in the Valley.

[dspdrew]

Update 10-2-2015
 
All four colonies are still healthy and continuing to grow. They're now up to 18, 20, 22, and 25 workers.

[dspdrew]

Update 1-15-2016
 
A couple of these colonies went down in size a bit. The smallest one is so small now, that I took it out of the foraging container, and put it in one of the small test tube containers.
 
All four colonies have been put into hibernation in my new "hibernation cabinet".
 

[dspdrew]

Update 4-27-2016
 
I just took these out of hibernation. Most of them had quite a few workers die. The largest now has fourteen workers, and the other three only have eight, seven, and one. Only a couple of them have a few larvae. The rest have no brood at all.

 

I moved them all into fresh containers and gave them all some of my kevlar feeders full of Sunburst Ant Nectar. I moved the colony with eight workers into the old "wood box" that I used to have my Liometopum occidentale in. They immediately moved right into the little chamber I made for them in the wood. I'm keeping these in the area of my apartment where it's about 80 degrees instead of in the room where it's always over 90 degrees. I think a constant 90+ degrees would be too hot for this species.

 

All four colonies weren't interested at all in the crickets I gave them, but they did drink quite a bit of the Sunburst.

[dspdrew]

Update 5-9-2016
 
All but the smallest colony each have about four new eggs now.
 
The colony in the "wood box" has been chewing away at it ever since I put them in there. They chewed out most of that top chamber themselves. The left side of it isn't completely visible because they left some wood in front. That's where the queen is hiding in these pictures. I notice they don't take any of the wood shreds outside the nest, and instead plaster it in other areas inside the nest, sealing them up. They put a bunch in the entrance, making the hole just big enough for the workers to fit through.
 

 

 
 
This is around the corner where they have been placing a lot of the wood.
 

[Crystals]

I found that any Camponotus I kept seem to dislike tiny gaps, and either chew them open or try to jam stuff into the gap or crack.

[dspdrew]

Update 5-17-2016
 
I just found fifteen more of these queens in Angelus Oaks, CA, on 5-12-2016. A few of them have already laid some eggs. About seven or so had a few parasitic mites on their legs, so I had to remove them. I'm not sure if the mites were dead or alive, because it's almost impossible to tell with these type of mites, unless you see them crawl.

 

The older colonies now have even more eggs. Even the worker-less queen has a few now. The colony in the "dirt box" has the most, at around twenty.

[Air]

Update?

[dspdrew]

Update 8-9-2016
 
Most of these colonies are not doing very well. The one that seems to be doing the best, is the one housed in rotted wood. I recently moved a bunch of the new colonies from test tubes into my small founding formicariums.
 
The colony in the rotted wood has really dug out quite a nest. I'm not even sure how many workers there are because most of them are hidden. With only 3/8 of an inch of space, they still manage to dig out chambers small enough to keep a thin layer of wood in the way. I dropped one small pill bug in here months ago, and now there's quite a few of them wandering around more towards the bottom near the dirt. This thing is so full of springtails, booklice, and mites, that it never molds, even with the bottom portion constantly damp. None of the other creatures living in this thing seem to bother the ants in the slightest.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SirAnticus]

Update, this species is pretty cool

[dspdrew]

Update 11-20-2016

I only have three colonies/queens left. There's one queen with no workers, a colony with just one worker, and then there's the colony in the "wood box", which isn't doing too bad, with about thirteen or so workers.t one worker. I just put these all in hibernation.

[T.C.]

Are how you keeping that wood nest hydrated? And that wood, are those just boards you made that out of?

Edited by T.C., November 22 2016 - 6:37 AM.

[dspdrew]

Yes it's hydrated. The wood panels were cut from a rotted log I found in the mountains.