22 replies to this topic

[Aaron567]

A few days ago, on May 15, I caught three Temnothorax curvispinosus queens at my blacklight (along with Camponotus, Colobopsis, Brachymyrmex, Pheidole, and Odontomachus) and all three have taken off their wings. These Temnothorax queens are 4 millimeters.

 

I just checked on them today, and one of the three queens has laid eggs. The eggs are a lot larger than I expected, being from such a small queen. There are only 3 eggs. The queen can probably only hold very few eggs in her gaster at a time since the eggs are so large, which likely relates to how small mature Temnothorax colonies are.

 

Edited by Aaron567, December 18 2019 - 12:16 PM.

[Nathant2131]

Wow, I wonder why the eggs are so big!

 

This is one of my dream species to keep. Good luck!

[Aaron567]

This queen has some larvae now.

 

Edited by Aaron567, May 25 2019 - 6:21 PM.

[Aaron567]

Now she only has larvae. I think she chose 4 larvae to raise as nanitics and just ate the other eggs, which is probably typical with this species. She laid around 8 eggs at most.

 

It looks like the largest larva doesn't have much growing to do before it pupates. I can't wait to see what the nanitics look like! I have never seen what Temnothorax workers look like in real life as I was not aware I had this species in my area until I caught these queens.

 

Edited by Aaron567, May 25 2019 - 6:22 PM.

[Aaron567]

First pupa!

 

Edited by Aaron567, May 25 2019 - 6:23 PM.

[Bracchymyrmex]

Do you have workers yet?

[Aaron567]

Do you have workers yet?

 

Not quite yet. There are three pupae now and they are taking a while to hatch.

[Aaron567]

July 6, 2017

 

Yesterday morning, the queen was starting to help her first worker eclose from its pupa.

 

 

 

 

By yesterday afternoon, the first worker was completely eclosed! This nanitic is quite tiny, at about 1.3mm in length.

 

Edited by Aaron567, May 25 2019 - 6:23 PM.

[VoidElecent]

So freaking cute.

[ultraex2]

Awesome, congrats!

[YsTheAnt]

How is this colony doing?

Edited by YsTheAnt, October 1 2017 - 5:31 PM.

[Aaron567]

How is this colony doing?

 

They died. The queen was not really laying eggs and they just had one larva for a while. Four workers was the most they ever had. 

 

Next year I will be sure to combine multiple queens together, this way more eggs will be laid and it won't be as difficult to get a colony started.

[Nathant2131]

 

How is this colony doing?

 

They died. The queen was not really laying eggs and they just had one larva for a while. Four workers was the most they ever had. 

 

Next year I will be sure to combine multiple queens together, this way more eggs will be laid and it won't be as difficult to get a colony started.

 

Too bad

[noebl1]

 

How is this colony doing?

 

They died. The queen was not really laying eggs and they just had one larva for a while. Four workers was the most they ever had. 

 

Next year I will be sure to combine multiple queens together, this way more eggs will be laid and it won't be as difficult to get a colony started.

 

 

I had the same problem last year; I caught one queen, she had a handful of workers, she didn't re-lay and slowly died off for a few reasons (most being my ignorance and mistakes.)  They are some of the quickest from new queen to workers eclosing of the small ants I've kept so far.

 

This season I kept 3-4 per tube (except for one where I lost a couple), and so far so good.  There is a bit of skew, as the test tubes have been treated fairly equally, but some indeed have more workers and larger brood piles than others.  I'll see how they do during hibernation this time around. 

 

When I was researching Temnothorax a bit, I read a paper somewhere that they believe many try to join into an existing colony if possible.  Wish I had the source unfortunately.  In the wild they freely move between colonies; both queens and workers.  

[Aaron567]

May 25, 2019

 

Last night (May 24) I found 3 winged Temnothorax curvispinosus queens at my black light. All three have since shed their wings and I have two of them together and one by herself. In 2017 I made the mistake of separating all queens and I didn't get any successful colonies out of it because of how non-prolific they are. Combining multiple queens should make it a lot easier for them to grow.

 

Last year I did not find any T. curvispinosus at all, so it's been a while.

 

[Acutus]

Nice! Good looking Ants!

[NickAnter]

Hopefully they will be successful this year!

[CatsnAnts]

Good luck, I love this species!

[ForestDragon]

Gl aaron i wish ya luck on this one

[Aaron567]

July 1, 2019

 

First nanitics. These workers are about 2 millimeters long; definitely larger than the nanitics I was getting from my single queens in 2017. Perhaps something to do with having multiple queens and more fat storage. I gave them some sugar water and they drank it up. Third worker will be hatching soon and there are four larvae.