39 replies to this topic

[Aaron567]

Pheidole obscurithorax

 

This colony has 2 major larvae now! This is exciting. This species produces lots of majors. My colony barely has 50 workers and there are already going to be 5 majors!

 

 

 

 

 

Crematogaster ashmeadi

 

I didn't take pictures, but my Crematogaster colony seems so much more lively and active since I started heating them.

 

Today the queen started laying eggs again! She laid around 10 today, and I'm definitely expecting more. They must've been in diapause and just snapped out of it when I started heating them. Here is a video of them yesterday: https://www.youtube....NUVZbwsqg&t=27s

Edited by Aaron567, November 25 2016 - 8:40 PM.

[fortysixandtwo]

 Impresive species diversity and healthy looking colonies. Great pics too. Looking forward to seeing more. 

[Aaron567]

Dorymyrmex bureni

The last time I've updated this colony was November 24. At that time, they had one pupa with several larvae that were about to pupate. And they had 6 workers.

 

One of the workers died, making 5 left, but then the single pupa eclosed. Then, the larvae pupated and hatched within just a few days. There had to be somewhere around 5-6 pupae, and a couple pupae actually died when they tried to eclose, and now I've ended up with currently 8 workers total, and half of them are callow. The queen is also seeming to refuse to eat, which is worrying me. She has always been nice and plump, but now she is really skinny and I never see her gaster get larger anymore. They now have just a few small larvae and some eggs. This colony seems so sensitive. They will probably be easier to keep once they have lots of workers.

 

 

 

Crematogaster ashmeadi

Like I have said, the heat was really benefiting this colony and now they are changing a lot. Just a couple weeks ago they had a small stack of small and medium sized larvae, and now they have 5-6 pupae, several eggs, and probably over 15 larvae. And workers have been eclosing left and right. I've had 4-5 workers eclose the past couple days. The population used to be 9 workers for a long time, but it is now 13-14 workers. And more on the way!

 

 

 

 

Pheidole obscurithorax

Despite me not heating this colony, they are still doing awesome. Those 2 major larvae in the last update, are now pupae. And guess what, there is now another major larvae! There will be 6 majors in this colony. That's awesome. There are also tons of minor pupae, and tons of larvae and eggs. The queen has been laying lots of eggs lately. 

 

 

 

Strumigenys sp.

This queen just died last week. I expected it, since she wasn't eating anymore and she never laid any eggs. Difficult species.

Edited by Aaron567, December 8 2016 - 1:27 PM.

[Leo]

too bad

[Mdrogun]

Sorry to hear about your Strumigenys and Dorymyrmex bureni. I can't wait for your Pheidole obscurithorax and Crematogaster to get larger!

[Aaron567]

I caught new queens today! 5 Cyphomyrmex rimosus. I'm surprised that there are still ants flying in the middle of December. I also saw some Solenopsis invicta queens today. This week has been fairly warm for what time of the year it is.

 

[Mdrogun]

Oh my gosh! They look awesome! I can't wait to see what comes of them,

[Aaron567]

Pheidole megacephala

 

 

I got new colonies of Pheidole megacephala! I was visiting south Florida for a week and I saw some ants I had never seen at home before. Tapinoma melanocephalum, Aphaenogaster sp., Brachymyrmex obscurior, and Pheidole megacephala. Pheidole megacephala was so common that I decided to dig up a colony of them to see if I could find any queens, and within a several thousand worker colony, I was able to find two queens!

 

I separated the queens so I could have two colonies. One colony has around 10 workers, the other has around 20. I do have extra workers in another setup that I could add to these colonies. Each of the colonies have male and female alate pupae that I collected. One colony has over 100 eggs while the other has around 30.

 

Edited by Aaron567, January 7 2017 - 12:36 PM.

[Aaron567]

Brachmyrmex patagonicus

 

I don't have any pictures of these since the glass in their test tube is really dirty, but they are doing great and probably have 60-70 workers and just got a huge pile of 25-35 pupae in just a few days. This colony is different from my others because their workers come in separate generations. The pupae that just appeared will be only their second generation of workers. Most of the workers they have now are just nanitics (There were 7 queens at one point). This colony is about 5.5 months old.

 

I also have just ordered an Atom C formicarium and this colony will be going in it!

 

Pheidole bicarinata

 

This colony has around 30-40 workers now, and still just one major. But, they just got 2 new major pupae! Finally. I also have moved them out of their test tube and into their new Tar Heel Ants Ant Block formicarium, and they are doing great. They had a lot of larvae when I moved them in and now lots of those have pupated. 

 

These pictures are from the day after I put them into their ant block, exactly one week ago.

 

 

And here are pictures from yesterday. I adjusted the lighting on the second one so you can see the brood easier.

 

Notice the major pupa in the top left corner. The other one is at the top of the picture and you can only see her gaster.

 

 

 

Pheidole navigans

 

This used to be Pheidole moerens, but I have recently found out that they are actually Pheidole navigans. The two species are very similar.

 

This colony had around 30 workers, but after I took these pics, more than 5 workers died, including the only major. They also don't have a lot of brood, but the majority of the colony is callow (recently eclosed).

 

The queens of this species are about 3mm. 

 

 

 

Pheidole obscurithorax

 

My P. obscurithorax colony is doing awesome! In their last update, I believe they had 2 majors and 3 major pupae. Now they have 6 majors and several major larvae and pupae. I don't know when this colony will stop making more majors! The newest ones are quite a bit larger than the first majors, and they have a different coloration. They are starting to look more and more similar to the ones in the wild. This colony also has tons of larvae and pupae. Just overall, doing awesome. I'm hoping they will have a minor worker population boom instead of so many majors.. it seems like they still have around 50-60 minors.

 

Pheidole megacephala

 

These are not doing good. One of the colonies appear to have eaten all of their eggs. The other colony does have some eggs and a pupa that will hatch soon. There was also a female alate pupa that hatched a couple days ago, but they killed her after only one day. I expected that, lol. Still interesting to see an alate eclose in a tiny colony.

 

I'm hoping the other colony's queen will start laying eggs again.. 

 

Solenopsis invicta

 

My oldest colony, my S. invicta colony which is now 9 months old, has over 200 workers now. They would have several times as many workers as this if I would've been heating them their whole life. But I don't need this colony to have a population boom. I like their gradual growth.

 

I have also been catching new S. invicta queens this winter, and I have a 2-queen colony that just got their first nanitic, and it look like there will be around 10 more on the way. It was 78 F degrees today so lots of colonies of this species were having nuptial flights and I caught more queens.

 

Dorymyrmex bureni

 

This colony was doing very well for a while, but that all suddenly crashed down as the queen stopped eating and they slowing ate their brood, and more workers died. After about a month of them not doing well, the colony has now passed away. RIP: July 2016-December 2016

 

Crematogaster ashmeadi

 

If you've been following this journal, you may know that this colony was not growing for while but suddenly were doing great once I started heating them. They had lots of pupae hatching every day, and I was so excited for them to explode in population. But in December, the queen of this colony died. I was in shock, because this was probably my favorite colony at the time and this species is so rare to find. The entire summer, I only saw 2 queens of this species, and this queen was one of them. The colony had 20 workers and they were doing the best they have ever been. RIP: June 2016-December 2016

 

[Mdrogun]

Sorry to hear about your dead colonies. I really hope the Pheidole megacephala do well.

[antgenius123]

Nice ants. What camera do you use?

[Aaron567]

Nice ants. What camera do you use?

 

Canon EOS Rebel SL1 (Called 100D in Europe) with a macro lens.

[Aaron567]

Pheidole obscurithorax

 

This colony is still doing awesome, as always! There are now 9 majors since 3 more have hatched. There are also 3 more major pupae so there will soon be 12 majors.

 

Here is a picture of a them feeding. In this first picture, you can see a worker hanging onto a piece of mealworm and hanging from its mandibles.

 

 

This is the first major that was ever born in this colony. She eclosed from her pupa almost 4 months ago, when this colony had around 20 workers. The older majors like this one are smaller than the newer ones, and also have different coloration. The younger majors have lighter colored heads than the rest of their body. As this colony grows, they will get larger and larger majors. I've seen wild Pheidole obscurithorax colonies with majors up to 10mm. The young majors in this colony are about 5-6mm.

 

 

 

Brachymyrmex patagonicus

 

This colony has at least 80 workers now, and I just got a Tar Heel Ants Atom C nest for them to move into. They are unfortunately able to escape the nest, as I found out while I was trying to move them in. They slip right under the plastic on the front. So, until I work something out, they are still in the test tube that they've been in since I got the founding queens, which was July I believe. But, I did connect the outworld to their test tube so they can at least forage now. I also have not been able to get good pictures of them because the glass on their test tube is so dirty. There will be some great pictures of them once I get them in their nest. They also have just got lots of new pupae, so there will be over a 50% population boost soon.

 

Here they are feeding on some honey.

 

 

Solenopsis invicta

 

This awesome colony is still doing amazing. Looks like once colonies get to a certain point in their population, they do great forever and are much less sensitive. There are around 300 workers now and the colony is 9 months old. Wild S. invicta colonies will normally have thousands by now, but I wasn't heating mine for a while.

 

Pheidole bicarinata

 

My P. bicarinata colony has around 40 workers now, and two new majors just hatched, making a total of three! This is exciting because for all this time, they've only had one major and now they are finally getting more. They also have lots more larvae, which look like will give them almost a two times population boost, so that's awesome. Doing great in their Ant Block Formicarium. I'm lovin' this colony right now.

 

Pheidole navigans

 

So, I just moved these to a new test tube a couple weeks ago due to the insane amount of mold, and the mold is already growing back quickly. This is their third test tube. They also lost some workers, including their only major, for an unknown reason. So they have around 20 workers now. Also some eggs, a few larvae, and a few pupae. I will probably eventually move them to an Atom formicarium because I cannot stand the mold blocking my ability to see them and take pictures of them.

 

Pheidole megacephala

 

These are dying. I did combine the queens together and they stayed like that for a few days until they killed one of the queens. They have no brood, and workers continue to die. I am not sure if they are eating either. It is almost certain that this colony will die unless the queen starts laying eggs.

 

 

[antgenius123]

 

Nice ants. What camera do you use?

 

Canon EOS Rebel SL1 (Called 100D in Europe) with a macro lens.

 

nice

[Gabraime]

Beautiful photos

[Leo]

[Aaron567]

Pheidole obscurithorax

 

This colony is doing great, and won't stop getting majors! They have around 25 majors now, and have around 20 major brood. There are about 100 workers in the colony total. Recently I have found a pile of lots of tiny larvae and eggs. Here are some pictures.

 

This small major worker is either the first major or the second major to ever eclose, which is about 5 or 6 months old now.

 

 

 

Pheidole navigans

 

This colony has had a few setbacks, which has caused them to lose many workers. Right now, they are gaining workers and doing well. They just got their second major, which is kinda like their second first major because the actual first major of this colony died. Their test tube always gets extremely moldy very quickly, and it is only with this colony. I don't know why. I want to move them into a formicarium but they are very stubborn and I am not sure that they will actually move. But for now, they have a reasonable amount of brood and are doing fine besides the mold.

 

 

Pheidole bicarinata

 

This colony is doing awesome with 70-80 workers now and 3 majors. I just got them an outworld and they are enjoying it. The brood pile is getting larger.

 

 

Solenopsis invicta

 

These haven't changed much. 400-500 workers now. They have also been getting majors.

 

 

Camponotus floridanus

 

Some of you may have seen my new Camponotus floridanus queen. She has a separate journal here: http://www.formicult...s-have-hatched/

Edited by Aaron567, March 12 2017 - 10:47 AM.

[Leo]

nice

[Aaron567]

Pheidole bicarinata

 

I've been feeding this colony a lot lately, so they are doing great. They still have only 3 major workers, but they now have more major larvae and major pupae.

 

 

 

 

Pheidole navigans

 

This colony is now in their first nest, and not in their moldy test tube setup anymore. I've been feeding them more than usual and now I just need the queen to start laying more eggs.

 

 

 

Solenopsis invicta

 

This isn't the typical S. invicta colony. They do not grow at an explosive rate like others do. This colony has around 500 workers still, but are doing fine.

 

 

 

Brachymyrmex patagonicus

 

This colony got very stressed out and is basically barely a colony now. They went completely downhill. The queen died, so I combined them with an extra 3-queen colony that I had, and all but one queen died after that. Now there are around 10 workers, no brood (I'm pretty sure), and one queen.

 

 

 

Pheidole obscurithorax

 

This colony is constantly getting more and more majors, with around 30 of them now. This colony is always doing great.

 

 

 

Dorymyrmex sp.

 

For the first time this year, Dorymyrmex flew as a result of the 88F temperatures yesterday. They love to have nuptial flights when it is very warm. I caught this new queen yesterday and I am still not sure if she is fertile or not. She had wings when I caught her, but she took them off just minutes after putting her in a test tube setup. I checked on her today and she has not laid eggs. 

[Antennal_Scrobe]

Do you still have the P. bicarinata?