63 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Well most of what I had left were just duds, so no surprise.

[Gregory2455]

They are really hard...

[dspdrew]

Update 7-27-2015
 
I just found a few more of these queens in Landers, California 7-21-2015. I'll probably be putting a couple of them in my dirt boxes. I'm going to be making some for smaller sized ants, so I'll probably use some of those for these.

[dspdrew]

Update 9-1-2015
 
Two of the four queens I have left just got their first workers a few days ago. Unfortunately, one of these lost their queen, so I introduced them to one of the queens that hasn't produced much, and they accepted her immediately. There was no aggression at all, and instead, the workers just started cleaning her. I now have one colony in a dirt box, and two in test tubes.

[dspdrew]

Update 9-10-2015
 
One of the test tube queens died. The other one that was introduced to the workers that lost their queen is still getting along great with them. The queen even laid a new pile of eggs shorty after. As an experiment, this colony also was given a Myrmecocystus cf. mendax pupa, but it looks like it might have been trashed.

[dspdrew]

Update 4-6-2015
 
I still have both colonies. They are both in "dirt boxes" now, and doing okay. The one that was introduced to the queen that wasn't doing much has ten workers and a small pile of brood, so she's producing something at least. The other has ten workers too, but a larger pile of brood. The coolest thing is that the latter colony actually has a replete now. It's about the size of a bb.
 

 

 

[Solenoqueen]

Where did you get my Myrmecocystus yuma?

[dspdrew]

Where did you get my Myremecocystus yuma?

 

Needles, California.

[Solenoqueen]

 

Where did you get my myrmecocystus yuma?

 

Needles, California.

 

Do you have any recommendations on what areas I should find any honeypot colony in?

[T.C.]

Update?

[dspdrew]

Update 1-28-2018
 
This colony is continuing to grow.  I've been trying to get them to move into a new Dirt Box setup for over a month now. They simply won't move until their nest completely dries out, but even then sometimes they still won't move and end up dying instead. I keep adding water because I'm afraid they're going to die when it starts getting too dry and they aren't budging. I'm now going to try a different approach. Since these are connected at the out world surface level, I'm going to see if I can flood them out slowly.

 

I also decided to move them into a new large Dirt Box instead of a small. If I'm going to go through all this trouble, I might as well make sure it's going to last a long time.

[dspdrew]

Update 1-30-2018
 
Well, I accidentally flooded their nest a bit too quickly, and thought I killed a bunch of them at first, but I quickly dumped it all out and the workers that looked like they drowned are all up and running around again. I accidentally popped the largest replete in the process, but I got all the rest moved without hurting them. I was able to get an accurate count on the colony now and it looks like there are about 65 workers.
 
Here they are all dumped into the out world of their new Dirt Box.
 

 
 
Within just a few minutes they were already starting to dig a new nest.
 

 
 
They had quite a bit done by the time I got home from work, but most of the colony including the queen and the brood were still sitting on the surface.
 
This is where they were at when I woke up this morning.
 

 
 
The queen is moved in, and the brood is all being moved into one spot inside their new nest.
 

[sgheaton]

Thanks for the update!

[Superant33]

Nice. I have found it to be equally difficult to move my honey pots. However, I just play the waiting game and let them move on there own. At least I do now. Maybe I accidentally executed a few colonies in the past trying to get them to move. Maybe.

[dspdrew]

Update 6-10-2018
 
I just noticed this colony has a few cocoons about three times the size of all the rest. I'm not sure they are big enough to be alates, so I'm thinking maybe they are going to be majors. I remember being in the Whitewater Preserve and seeing some workers from the same nest that were significantly larger with much larger rounder gasters, and not from being stretched.
 
Not the greatest picture, but you can clearly see the size difference. I'll be waiting to see what comes out.
 

[AntsCalifornia]

You waited 2 years before updating, and the colony is only 65 workers? Do all honeypot species grow this slowly? 

[dspdrew]

You waited 2 years before updating, and the colony is only 65 workers? Do all honeypot species grow this slowly?

 

Most of the ones I have in captivity do.

[dspdrew]

Update 12-5-2018
 
This colony is still doing well. They have around 75 workers and five repletes now.
 

 

 
 
I never found out for sure what the extra large cocoons were. I see another one though, so maybe I will find out this time.
 

 
 
When I have colonies die, I like to split up their brood and give it to other colonies. Sometimes I give a few to colonies of different species to see if any of them will survive, making a multi-species colony. It has been very hard to successfully do this with Myrmecocystus, but lately I have gotten a few to accept brood of different species. I'm thinking those large cocoons might possibly be a larger species of donated brood, and it's possible they just never made it after eclosing. As you can see, it looks like these guys have accepted some brood from the orange and black species I have not yet ID'd. They now have two workers of that species, and one of them has even turned into a replete.
 

 

[B_rad0806]

Update?

[antsandmore]

update?