10 replies to this topic

[schafro]

Hi I'm new around here and new at keeping ants in general.

I was going to write this journal offline but I haven't found many journals about this species 

so I decided to share my experience.
I caught 7 Solenopsis Fugax queens after they had a nuptial flight on the 12th of September.
I wanted to see how their habitat influences the founding stage so I spread them around

different types of nests.

 

Queen A, large test tube setup.

Queen B, improvised test tube setup made from a plastic pen

Queen C, a small glass plaster nest, tiny chambers

Queen D, plastic container plaster nest with large chambers

Queen E, plastic container plaster nest with medium chambers

Queen F, small glass jar

Queen G, small glass filled with sand loam 

 

It's been a week since then. I can't spot any eggs being laid by them,

but this is nothing unusual for this species as far as I'm informed. 

what's was surprising to me is that the Queen G which I was hoping will last the longer 

from all of them, actually seems to be dead. She made a small chamber which is difficult

to observe but she stopped moving around there and under closer observation I'm 95%

she is dead.

So far only Queen E seems to be closer to laying eggs (or might have some already).

She placed here self in a small opening at the bottom of the nest and there are some
small white balls at the bottom of it from what I can see, but it might be just the remainings 

of the plaster.

Another strange thing I've noticed from Queen C and Queen E in the plaster nests is that tend

to stick at the top of the chamber hanging down most of the time.

 

I will try to update this journal as soon as something important happens.
But it might be a long time if they are waiting after their hibernation period for laying eggs.

Update: 10/1/2015

It's been almost 3 week since I got these queens and today I've noticed that Queen C in the small
glass plaster nest has 2-3 eggs. It's really hard to count them since they are very small.
I can see the queen cleaning them on regular basis and I hope that she will have a lot more
in the following days.

The rest of the queens don't have any eggs so far. They might be infertile or waiting until their hibernation period ends.
I've moved Queen B to a small plastic container and I've added some sand loam to Queen F in the small glass jar.

Queen F made a small chamber with the sand loam right next to the cotton which was already inside.

Most of the queens are in a very inactive state. They seems to stick to one place in their nests and don't move 

as much as they did in the first week.
Hopefully I'll have a lot more interesting news in the following weeks.

Edited by schafro, June 23 2016 - 11:21 AM.

[Alexant]

May I ask where you caught them and for some pictures?

[Jonathan21700]

Nice! But you should take them out of those plaster nests.

They make a very small founding chamber and don't do well without substrate.

They usually won't lay eggs before hibernation. Good luck!

[schafro]

I live in Macedonia in South East Europe, I caught them in my back yard.
I've seen their alates get out from 3 different nests only couple of meters away from each other.

I used a sand casting technique to make the plaster nests so there is sand stuck at the walls of

the chambers. I guess I should've left more sand inside so they can move it around and make

them self a smaller chamber if they like, but we'll see how it goes. 

 

I don't have any camera at the moment to take pictures of them.

But I will try to get some pictures when I can afford to buy one.

Edited by schafro, September 18 2015 - 1:36 PM.

[schafro]

Update: 10/6/2015
 

I have some good news and some bad news this week.

Looks like the Queen G in the small glass with sand loam which I thought has died is actually alive.

For the bad news I can't see any new eggs from Queen C. It's just the two she had before and 

I can't notice any change in their size or any signs of them turning in larvae.

I currently have full vision on 4 out of the 7 queens.
The rest of them got some sand loam added to their nests and made small chamber which are

hard to observe. I might not have any info about them until I see the first workers get out of the nest.

If they get to that stage of development.
Stay tuned for more updates. I'll try to post one every week.

[schafro]

It's been a while since I've updated this post. During the winter only 3 out of the 7 queens survived. The one in the test tube has more brood then the rest of them. 

I got couple of videos from my test tube queen. I'll try to upload them to youtube and share them in here (hope that's allowed).

They are low quality videos taken with my iPhone, but I think it's better to have some then none
Here is one of them:
https://www.youtube....h?v=SGmdDg_6BEI

[schafro]

Update: 06/18/2016

 

I just caught the "awakening" of the first worker on video. 

I'm kinda bummed that I don't have a better camera so you can see it better.
Anyways it's been a long long time waiting for this moment I feel ultra happy.

 

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=tf16gIlFjvw

 

p.s The worker is that moving yellow blur in the front   

Edited by schafro, June 18 2016 - 5:46 AM.

[JediPeaceFrog]

Nice work. I always wanted a Solenopsis Fugax colony. Tiny species have always fascinated me.

[Alexant]

I do too

[schafro]

Two more workers enclosed in the past couple of days. From what I can see maybe one or two more will do by the end of the week.
The queen still has decent numbers of brood. I plan to give them their first liquid food during next weekend.
The rest of the Solenopsis queens don't have any workers so far, and they are very hard to record.
 
Anyways here is a new video:
 

Edited by dspdrew, June 21 2016 - 2:14 PM.
Embedded video

[schafro]

I was expecting one or two more workers but looks like I got 6 more. I expected them to have a large number of workers but not this early.