39 replies to this topic

[Aaron567]

I don't think I have ever shown pictures of my ants on this forum. So here are all of my colonies! I have only been antkeeping for about 7 months, so my colonies are still fairly small. All of my species are either native to, or can be found in my area.

I *might* update this as my colonies grow. Enjoy!

Strumigenys sp.

This is my only queen without workers. She may not be able to found a colony, as this genus is difficult to start from just a queen. She is about 2mm in length.






Dorymyrmex bureni

This colony has 6 workers, one pupa, and around a dozen larvae. And around 20 eggs.





Pheidole obscurithorax

This colony has over 40 workers, with tons of pupae and larvae. They are doing very well. There are 3 majors.









Pheidole bicarinata

This colony has over 20 workers, with one being a major. I'm not sure how much brood they have, since they have decided to nest in a hole in the middle of the cotton in their test tube. There are at least 10 pupae and there are always new workers hatching very often.




Pheidole moerens

This colony has less than 20 workers. I had to move them to a new test tube by myself because they are extremely stubborn and refused. So they lost all of their brood except one larva. Now they have several larvae and are going to start growing again. These are really tiny, each worker is just over 1mm. They also have one major.







Brachymyrmex patagonicus

This colony started off with 7 queens, and 2 got killed. Then I separated them and now there is one queen in the main colony, which has tons of larvae and eggs, and lots of pupae. There are around 30 workers it looks like.





Crematogaster sp.

There are 10 workers in this colony, and the brood are not growing fast. But I hope they start picking up the pace.





Solenopsis invicta

This is my largest colony, with around 100 workers. The queen to this colony is the first queen I ever caught, which was on May 10. In the picture below, those are just a tiny bit of their brood. They constantly have a very large pile of pupae and larvae.

Edited by Aaron567, March 23 2017 - 6:37 PM.

[drtrmiller]

Very nice. Much success to you and your colonies.

[dermy]

Nice, I bet that Solenopsis invicta colony is gonna explode in Population pretty soon

[FSTP]

Very cool! those Dorymyrmex workers are really cute!

[T.C.]

Good luck! Thanks for sharing it with us!

[sgheaton]

Nice camera shots!

[Goldsystem]

Please do keep updating

[ctantkeeper]

Awesome, keep up the good work!!!

[Leo]

NICE

[Aaron567]

Here are some updates on a few of my species.

11/19/16

 

Pheidole obscurithorax

This is easily my favoite colony. There are now about 50 workers in this colony, still 3 majors. I have just moved them into their first formicarium a couple days ago. No more test tube! It is a 3" Inception Chamber by Tarheelants. I have been feeding them lots of flies and they are very aggressive! Here is a video of them attacking a fly and bringing it to the nest: https://www.youtube....6Aavr7T8Nk&t=2s

 

 

 

 

 

Pheidole bicarinata

This colony has over 20 workers, and here they are attacking a Drosophila hydei fly to eat.

 

 

 

Dorymyrmex bureni

They still have 6 workers, but the larvae are growing very well. It looks like they should pupate soon.

Edited by Aaron567, November 19 2016 - 12:03 PM.

[AnthonyP163]

Pheidole are so interesting!

[Aaron567]

Pheidole are so interesting!

 

Ikr. I love them so much

[Kevin]

I love those obscurithorax! 

[Aaron567]

Here's an update on 2 of my species.

 

Pheidole bicarinata

I just moved this colony into a new test tube setup. I can now take much better pictures and videos of them! In their other test tube, they were burrowed into the cotton in the middle and I could not see the brood very well and it was hard to get an idea of how many workers there were. There are over 30 workers in this colony and a few pupae. There are more than 10 larvae and the queen has been laying some eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

Solenopsis invicta

I just moved this colony out of their test tube and into a Fortress nest! There are now over 100 workers, and AT LEAST 100 pupae. They have a giant pile of brood on top of the water tower. I am unable to get a good picture of the brood pile because all the ants are in the way. Here is a cool video of them moving: https://www.youtube....sMEaJzG94&t=99s I even recorded the queen moving in. I am surprised by how little space they take up in this nest. They will hopefully fill it in quickly.

Edited by Aaron567, November 24 2016 - 4:58 PM.

[Saftron]

Really nice pictures, I kinda want Pheidole now haha.

[Leo]

i have ordered some after reading this

[Aaron567]

I have now started heating some of my colonies! I have never heated them before and I expect some very good growth. Unfortunately, I put the heat cable too close to the water cotton in my Dorymyrmex bureni test tube, and some water seeped in and I had to move them. They have lost most of their eggs and small larvae. They still have the one pupa and all the larger larvae. I have now re-positioned the heat cable where it won't flood the test tube.

 

These are the colonies I am heating:

Crematogaster ashmeadi

Dorymyrmex bureni

Pheidole bicarinata

Solenopsis invicta

 

Crematogaster ashmeadi

Suddenly, there are 2 large larvae in this colony! They have probably been given a growth boost from the heat. This colony really needs it. They have not gained new workers in 2 months.

 

 

 

Dorymyrmex bureni

The single pupa in this colony is starting to get some color, indicating that it will eclose in just a few more days. If you look at the last update on these, you can see that they did lose quite a few of their small larvae, which is sad. But I still can't wait for there to be more workers in this colony (There are currently 6 workers btw)

 

[Leo]

love this journal

[Mdrogun]

love this journal

Couldn't agree more.