64 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Update 3-16-2017

I just took these out of hibernation. It looks like one worker in the "wood box" died. The colony with just one worker looks healthy still. As for the single queen, she died.

[nurbs]

Found three of these last year up in the Eastern Sierras. Two of them died early on. The remaining one which got out of hibernation last month has 14 workers and lots of eggs and pupae.

[dspdrew]

Update 4-1-2017

Not sure where the dead ones went, but it looks like there is only one or two workers left in the "wood box" colony.
 
As for the other queen, she just laid ten new eggs.
 

[Antking117]

These things are so sweet looking! I wonder, might these be in Nebraska? Also where can i even find a list of ants in my state? Thank you!

[dspdrew]

I don't think this species is, but possibly another Camponotus species. AntWeb usually lists most of the species in a given State, but sometimes it's not very complete. Unfortunately, this is all they have listed for Nebraska.

[Antking117]

I don't think this species is, but possibly another Camponotus species. AntWeb usually lists most of the species in a given State, but sometimes it's not very complete. Unfortunately, this is all they have listed for Nebraska.

Thank you very much, yeah we have much more ants than that 0.0 I've seen so many lists, but i was not sure if there was an accurate site. I do know we have camponotus, but these are so shiny.

Edited by antking117, April 1 2017 - 1:18 AM.

[dspdrew]

Yeah, these are really shiny and have pure white hairs.

[dspdrew]

Update 4-28-2017

I just found a bunch more of these queens April 21st and 22nd in Mount Baldy.

[dspdrew]

Update 10-6-2017

These queens have been doing great this year. Colony growth is a little slow, but I haven't had hardly any deaths. Right now my largest colony has 13 workers.

[dspdrew]

Update 1-13-2018

I haven't lost very many of these colonies, but the colonies have lost a lot of workers. I moved them out of the warm room they were in, and into the air conditioned area of my apartment, but so far I haven't seen any improvements. I just now put them all into hibernation for the winter.

[dspdrew]

Update 6-8-2018

I just took these out of hibernation about a week ago. All four colonies are still very small. Two only have one worker, and the other two both have six workers.

[dspdrew]

Update 12-3-2018

These are all dead now.

[dspdrew]

Update 6-6-2019

Found only a single one of these in Mount Baldy, CA on April 8th.

 

So far it is going great. It just got its first workers about two weeks ago.

[B_rad0806]

Nice

[dspdrew]

Update 6-8-2019

I just found 15 more of these queens near Angelus Oaks, CA on June 6th. I found them in my usual spot up there, about 700 feet higher than Angeleus Oaks. As always, they were all over the large rotted pine logs that they all live in. It has been so cold all year so far, that it wasn't until now that that area reached high enough temperatures for them to fly. There was a bit of an inversion layer which helped, as it was damp and about 59 degrees at the bottom of the mountains, and dry and about the same temperature 6500 ft up where these were.

[Dukagora]

How is the colony in the wood box doing? Have numbers increased or did I mis read and they passed? I often wonder if deaths in general occur because of the environment we place them in verse what they would choose in the wild. I noticed with what I think are C. fragilis that when the workers I collected were put in test tubes so I could snap pictures, they just stopped moving. The Major looked to be grooming itself but the standard worker just kinda stood there. Almost like it was missing environmental clues needed to get it moving along and doing what it would normally do. Once I released them from my paltry photography attempts, they behaved as they normally would. Just curious on thoughts about that but if you want me to move that question to another thread let me know.

[dspdrew]

How is the colony in the wood box doing? Have numbers increased or did I mis read and they passed? I often wonder if deaths in general occur because of the environment we place them in verse what they would choose in the wild. I noticed with what I think are C. fragilis that when the workers I collected were put in test tubes so I could snap pictures, they just stopped moving. The Major looked to be grooming itself but the standard worker just kinda stood there. Almost like it was missing environmental clues needed to get it moving along and doing what it would normally do. Once I released them from my paltry photography attempts, they behaved as they normally would. Just curious on thoughts about that but if you want me to move that question to another thread let me know.

Update 12-3-2018

These are all dead now.

[dspdrew]

Update 7-13-2019

A couple of the new queens just recently got their first workers.

[dspdrew]

Update 12-4-2019

All of these colonies still only have between one and eight workers. I just put them all into hibernation the other day.

[dspdrew]

Update 5-16-2020

I just took these out of hibernation today. Many of them lost most of their workers during that time. The largest two now have only three workers.

 

I did find a bunch more of these queens a few weeks ago.near Big Bear, CA.