77 replies to this topic

[antmaniac]

Selected photos in 2014

 

[antmaniac]

22/2/2015

This ant farm has been in the wild for a while now.

[antmaniac]

I decided to put all my Pheidole Sp. in this journal instead. Below are two different queens I caught this year. There is a huge size difference between the two, however.

 

Small red Pheidole Sp.

13/2/2015

19/2/2015

27/2/2015

 

Large red Pheidole Sp.

28/2/2015

 

 

[Gregory2455]

Is she dead?

[dspdrew]

She's just getting a close look at the ground.

[antmaniac]

 

Is she dead?

 

She is not dead. She was just cleaning herself or rather drying herself from the water. I rescued her from a bucket of water. I really like the abdomen on this queen, hopefully her colony will thrive.

[dspdrew]

I will admit, a lot of queens end up this way momentarily while they try to clean both front feet at the same time. I guess it's safe to say ants don't have logic.

[antmaniac]

Yes, it is quite funny and it is perfect moment to take photo. At least they kept themselves clean though, which is a good thing.

[antmaniac]

The small red Pheidole colony has very fast growth rate, so I moved the colony to the new vertical formicarium. The queen is measured at 5mm and is extremely sensitive to lights. I have purposely put a tile in the middle of the formicarium and I am confident that the queen will move to the shaded area soon or later.

4/3/2015

 

On another hand, I doubt this formicarium will able to confine the workers of this species.

[antmaniac]

14/3/2015
Sadly, the small red Pheidole queen has abandoned her brood and escaped. I have put the large Pheidole queen in the formicarium instead.

[antmaniac]

2/9/2015

After almost 2 years outside, the nest has truly became one with the nature. All types of insects can be spotted in the nest and living among the ants. There is even an earthworm in the nest!

[antmaniac]

6/9/2015

So I decided to relocate this colony to the clean formicarium. On another hand, I have put two new red Pheidole queens (initially 3, but 1 died/got killed) in the old mossy formicarium

[antmaniac]

30/9/2015

That night, a mosquito tried to have a meal, but without success. I guess free meal for the ants.

[antmaniac]

6/10/2015

Brood boost seems be working well, lots brood in addition to the extra eggs laid by the queen. However, they have made quite a mess in the new nest already.

[antmaniac]

13/10/2015

Brood Boost Second Round: So due to the recent rain, I have managed to raid some more brood from the wild nest. The way I set it up is place a brick over the wild nest and put the foods around the new entrance. Before that, obviously you will need to find a same species as the one you wanted to brood boost. Then hopefully they will take up the area underneath the brick. I also took one of the ants which is around the brood. Usually these ants are carer workers. Afterward I place the new brood and the carer worker into the formicarium and soon enough, they will transfer the new brood to the nest. The queen communicated with the new comer and seems be accepting her.

[antmaniac]

14/10/2015

The 2 red Pheidole queens outside have laid a bunch of eggs.

 

17/10/2015

Unfortunately, last time when I open up the formicarium outside, one of the queens got squashed. I have decided to move the remaining one to a test tube. At moment, she is in a temporary container. The eggs really helped with settling down of the queen.

 

25/10/2015

Unfortunately, the last queen also died from overheating. I accidently put the container under the sun for too long and she died from condensation.

[antmaniac]

28/10/2015

It looks like the pupae will eclose soon.

[TheAnswerIsTheLogic]

U are so lucky to find pheidole

[antmaniac]

The majors are fun to watch indeed.

[antmaniac]

7/11/2015

Third brood boost, this time heaps more! So it rained quite a bit and I have been feeding the wild nest outside for a while. Surprisingly, under the well positioned brick, there are heaps brood, including the queen pupae. I didn't take the queen pupae and had to try to stop the opportunist meat ants from taking them. So it looks like the wild colony outside may have nuptial flight this summer.