174 replies to this topic

[Gregory2455]

Just a brand that me and Drew use as foraging containers.

[dspdrew]

All the formicariums I'm designing are built using them too.

[Gregory2455]

Update: 2/6/2015

Well, finally, here is an update to the two large colonies! Lots of junk hoarded by them in their test tubes, but both of these colonies have now produced eggs!

Here is one of the colonies:

 

Here is a video showing both:

[Jonathan21700]

Nice!

[DesertAntz]

These gals are a little messy aren't they? 

[Gregory2455]

Very.

[Foogoo]

Just a brand that me and Drew use as foraging containers.

Where do you get them?

[Gregory2455]

The container store.

[dspdrew]

I really need to make the ant keeping supplies links thread I've been planning to make.

[Gregory2455]

Update: 3/17/2015

The first queen I caught of this species, from my anting trip on 7/9/2014, died alone in her test tube today.

[Gregory2455]

Also an interesting finding, the colony that started producing those submajors seemed to um... scrap them as food over the winter. I guess they found them to be useless when they were provided Blue 100 which obviously does not put up much of a fight. I want to start giving them a larger variety of food, including live foods, so maybe they will make some majors in the future.

Edited by Gregory2455, March 17 2015 - 8:49 PM.

[kellakk]

Do Solenopsis make majors in response to food quality/availability? If they do, that's really cool.  I assumed they just made them once the colony was large enough.

[Miles]

Do Solenopsis make majors in response to food quality/availability? If they do, that's really cool.  I assumed they just made them once the colony was large enough.

Many ant species do this.

[kellakk]

Do you have any references? I'd love to read some papers on how ants decide when to make majors.

[Miles]

Do you have any references? I'd love to read some papers on how ants decide when to make majors.

I can look tomorrow. It's not completely related to food/insects, but if I remember correctly, they do play a role.

I think this article contains related information.

Edited by Miles, March 17 2015 - 9:24 PM.

[Gregory2455]

I was actually going to test it, because it seemed most likely to be the case, but I lost 2/4 of my colonies before I could test it.

[Miles]

I was actually going to test it, because it seemed most likely to be the case, but I lost 2/4 of my colonies before I could test it.

You'd need a larger testing group than that for a definitive or near-definitive conclusion.

[Gregory2455]

 

I was actually going to test it, because it seemed most likely to be the case, but I lost 2/4 of my colonies before I could test it.

You'd need a larger testing group than that for a definitive or near-definitive conclusion.

 

Of course, but 4 would have been the minimum. I was not going for professional results, but I was aiming for one control group and three groups exposed to different factors. If you go back in this journal there is a post with the details, but anyway that was busted when I lost two colonies within I think two weeks of each other.

[Etherwulf]

 I guess they found them to be useless when they were provided Blue 100 which obviously does not put up much of a fight. 

 

The issue here is a not because a lack of live food but rather a lack of an abundant source of protein. Whether Blue 100 is able to dance a jig or not is not important.

 

In order to induce the production of majors, one trick that I've done with my late Solenopsis geminata colony was to provide a diet containing mostly carbohydrates (P:C 1:6). After they were well out of the founding stage (2 to 3 months), I provided a large source of protein by inverting the PC ratio 6:1. This induced the production of the largest majors possible while keeping the colony at a containable level (say 200~300). Of course the downside is that I don't get to see the full range of castes but I wasn't planning to keep them long term anyway.

 

Blue 100 has a PC ratio of 1:2 so it has more sugars than protein. What I would do is to keep a liquid feeder filled with sugar while giving them a lot of protein food (e.g insects).

 

Also, there was a study that showed that Solenopsis invicta did not thrive on the diet which Blue 100 is based upon. They cited the reason being that because adult workers fed the larvae the same food as what they ate, the workers would find it hard to get the required amount of carbohydrates and the larvae did not receive enough protein.

 

That said, more research needs to be done on a suitable synthetic diet for Solenopsis. But until then, give my suggestion a try. 

Edited by Etherwulf, March 18 2015 - 12:28 AM.

[Miles]

The presence of live protein sources has been shown to increase the production of majors. That was the point I was attempting to make.