22 replies to this topic

[caswal]

Update Time:

 

So a couple of weekends ago I went on a hike up the trails. One thing I learnt is I will never be short on finding Prolasius again. Every rock I turned over has a colony under it.

 

So using a home made puter, I sucked up 2 queens from a 5 queen colony, some eggs, 20-30 workers and put the rock back. Also on my hike I thought I found a small nest of what I think is Pachycondyla castaneicolor. It was in a semi rotten log that was too hard to break apart in the field. So broke it up enough to take home. But it was just a satellite nest, or the queen was deeper underground, as I only got about 40 workers and some eggs. Which I am keeping to see what they are like to keep. So far they seem to die like flies. . The entomylogist I emailed to, says he had no luck with them, with the queens dying in 24 - 48 hours.

 

Anyway, onto the P. Advenus.

 

So the original 4 queen colony, always seems to be stressed. Always tightly huddled, any vibration on the table panics them, etc. So I got some red celaphane to cover my modules to keep them happier. 

 

I have also got some new outworlds laser out of perspex for all of them. So this is the current setup:

 

 

 

Since that picture, I have added some soil to the bottoms of the containers, a little to much to one of them, as in one corner it is about 8mm deep, which apparently is deep enough for them to decide to dig a nest in. I'm not too concerned, as I'll just let the soil dry out.

 

But happier news, the stressed colony has appeared to of laid some eggs :

 

 

 

So, I'm pretty happy with that.

[caswal]

So the younger colony with the captured eggs, have a few larvae:

 

[AntsNewZealand]

 

out of curiosity doesnt new zealand have no native ants species?

 

New Zealand has 11 endemic species, and 1 unique genus only found here (Huberia). That are about 26 or so Invasive species, mostly arrived from Australia.

 

I would really like to find a Huberia striata colony or queen. They are commonly found in beach forests, which luckily surround the hills around me. Just been busy or bad weather the last few weekends to go on another anting trip.

 

The other common species I would like to also get is Monomorium antarcticum. 

 

There is a nice factsheet website here on all species found in NZ both Invasive and Endemic: http://www.landcarer...tsnz/Factsheets But that is also basically the sum of all public knowledge, apart from a few white papers published here and there. I've asked various professors of Entomology about nuptial flight times, and they have no idea.

 

A quick update on the advenus:

 

They seem to like the new setup. Instead of sleeping all the time, they go through waves of 10-20 workers out exploring. Gave them a small piece of apple and a few seemed to go and take a bite. The talcum powder is keeping them in.

 

i have huberia striata and h. brounii my huberia striata has 3 queens