31 replies to this topic

[Atom Ant]

Welcome to my journal! 

This anting season is going to be different for me. Usually I just pick up any queen I can find and hope for the best but not this year. Nope. This year I got goals, man. Dreams. Aspirations. I have a set list of queens I want to catch:

Camponotus pennsylvanicus

Tetramorium

Lasius

 

And that's it. 

 

I already caught one queen from my list and it's only June. 

 

Unknown Queen(s) - 

I have no idea what species this is. Looks like Camponotus but I've never been great shakes at species identification. I have 4 in total. Only one has removed her wings and laid eggs. Good for her.









Tetramorium Queen -

Who doesn't have one of these? You can walk outside right now and find one. You could challenge me to find one of these queens per day for the rest of the summer and I would win that challenge.

 

There's not much to say about this little lady. She's small and she's a queen. That about sums it up. I'm sure she's going to be a great mother. 

 

This is a great species for beginners. You just put them in a tube or CD case (whatever you want to use), hide them away for a month and that's it. There's no way you can kill them and they are literally everywhere. Just to drive the point home...

 

I have about 20 them already.

 

 

Edited by Atom Ant, June 13 2014 - 8:46 AM.

[dspdrew]

I don't have Tetramorium. Welcome to the forum BTW, and welcome back to anting.

[LAnt]

Personally i would rather have a red camponotus than black. Is there a reason you want C. pennsylvanicus.?

Andrew, missed your thousandth post!

[Atom Ant]

Personally i would rather have a red camponotus than black. Is there a reason you want C. pennsylvanicus.?

Andrew, missed your thousandth post!

It's hard for me to find them and they are really big. 

 

This is my first time capturing these orange camponotus queens so I'm excited about them too. One queen laid eggs a lot sooner than I expected. One of my tetramorium queens has two eggs too. 

[dspdrew]

Andrew, missed your thousandth post!

Oh, is that a thing?

[Atom Ant]

Thanks to Drew and WeatherAnt I've learned the 4 orange queens I have are camponotus castaneus. Very cool. I've always wanted a queen of that species but I always missed their flights. Here's a picture of the other three queens:

 

I keep three in small containers and one in a giant test tube like thing. Three still have wings. 

 

Two of my tetramorium queens have eggs. You can kind of see one of the queens tending to her eggs in the second photo. 

 

 

 

[Atom Ant]

Camponotus Castaneus Queen #1: 

 

I didn't take any pictures of this queen because she is very, very skittish. All it takes is one sliver of a shadow to pass over her container and she loses her bloody mind. I don't want her to eat her eggs or commit suicide (I'm thoroughly convinced queens carry a tiny arsenic pill in their mandibles to eat whenever they feel like they've had enough of life) so I left her alone. I did see her egg pile has gotten bigger so there's some good news for her. 

 

 

Camponotus Castaneus Queen #2: 

 

I keep this queen in a large acrylic tube I bought at a hobby shop for $1. It's not a test tube but it works well enough. The queen still had her wings when I caught her but she has recently shed them. She also has two eggs which makes me very excited. Her gaster is a brighter orange compared to the other Camponotus queens I have. 

 

 

 

 

 

Tetramorium Queen #1 and #2: 

 

My tetras have eggs. 

Yay.

 

 

[dspdrew]

Those Camponotus have an interesting color; a lot different than any of ours out this way.

[Atom Ant]

Camponotus C. Queen #1:

 

Still as skittish as ever. Her egg pile seems to be the same size as when I last checked. 

 

Camponotus C. Queen #2:

 

Easily my favorite queen of the bunch. Nothing seems to bother her. I actually thought she was dead until I gently tapped her tube and her antenna started moving. Even then she didn't run around or do anything dramatic.  

 

 

 

 

Tetramorium:

 

One of the tetra queens has a lot more eggs than the other. There don't seem to be larvae yet. I don't think I've ever kept a tetra queen that's produced this many eggs on her own before. I've got high hopes for her.

 

 

This is the second queen. Her egg pile is very small compared to the other queen. Maybe she's reserving her resources or something.

 

Edited by Atom Ant, June 24 2014 - 9:47 PM.

[Atom Ant]

Quick update. No pictures this time. 

 

I released one of my camponotus queens. Since she hadn't laid any eggs and seemed unlikely to do so... I let her go. I have three left: all have brood at various stages of development but none of them have pupae just yet. 

 

One of my tetramorium queens has a massive pile of eggs and larvae. The other only has a small clutch of eggs. 

 

EDIT:

I forgot to mention that I captured a queen last week of a species I couldn't identify. She was crawling across by back porch when I saw her. You guys know how Drew puts in tons of time going out to collect queens? I'm the opposite: I'm the laziest anter on the forum . Any queen I find is by pure accident. I never find queens when I go hunting for them so I let them come to me. 

 

I put the queen I found in a claustral cell and went to work. By the time I got back, she was dead. 

Edited by Atom Ant, July 6 2014 - 9:04 PM.

[dspdrew]

No es bueno.

[Atom Ant]

Update!

 

Of the two tetramorium queens I have, one decided to eat her brood. Fantastic. I will be releasing her tonight. 

 

Tetramorium queen:

 

Large pile of brood. No workers yet but lots of pupae. Can't be long now before they eclose. 

 

 

Camponotus C. Queen #2: 

 

One pupa, larvae, and some eggs.  I can't believe it's been a month already. Hopefully the workers won't come for a few more weeks so I can have time to design nests for them. 

 

 

Camponotus C. Queen #3: 

 

The only queen with wings. I don't know why she keeps them but it helps me tell her apart from the other queens. 

 

 

Camponotus C. Queen #1:

 

I dislike checking on her because she acts like it's the end of the world whenever I open her claustral cell. But I had to take some photos. Luckily I got a few shots before she picked up one of the cocoons and started running around with it. 

 

Edited by Atom Ant, July 17 2014 - 8:22 PM.

[Atom Ant]

Just found an aphaenogaster queen in my bathroom. My laziness as an anter has reached an all-time low. 

[dspdrew]

Haha, lucky. I want one of those.

[Mercutia]

LOL, Drew, a bathroom or an Aphaenogaster queen? ROFL

[dspdrew]

Haha, bathroom.

[Atom Ant]

Since I'm not great at ID'ing ants, can someone confirm if she's an aphaenogaster or not? Also: is she parasitic? 

 

 

 

[dspdrew]

As you can tell from my reply (I didn't really mean bathroom), I have no experience with this genus, so I certainly won't be much help.

[Atom Ant]

The queen I found looks just like this one. Same gaster and everything: 

 

 

I'll guess that means she's not parasitic (hopefully) and confirms the aphaenogaster ID. 

Edited by Atom Ant, July 22 2014 - 8:39 PM.

[dspdrew]

I with you on that.