18 replies to this topic

[FeedTheAnts]

This is my second wild caught formica colony. it has around 20-25 workers and is currently being housed in a test tube setup set into a small outworld. I plan on just giving it more and more test tubes to live in as the colony grows larger. These are some of the most beautiful ants I have ever seen and they're gasters look just like tiny lemons. They were captured under a few large trees and around a lot of leaf litter. They are smaller than most formica ants and are very bright yellow in color. I have fed them a small cricket, some watermelon and a beetle so far, but one died in the watermelon juice .If anyone has any idea what specific species this is than I would love to know.

 

 

Edited by TennesseeAnts, September 17 2017 - 3:57 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

Update:

 

The colony now has around 10 more workers that are newly eclosed. I have moved them into a new tube because the old one got moldy. My intentions for this colony is to perhaps try the tubs and tubes method of keeping them, this was talked about in an AntsAustralia video (link, How to Build an Ant Nest | Tubs & Tubes - YouTube). Their diet has been pretty much katydid/grasshopper nymphs and red-colored honey, which colors their gasters and is very pretty. Since my other colony of Formica ants sadly passed I am hoping that this one can kinda take its place. One strange thing I've noticed about this colony is that they don't forage, I just simply put food into or just out of their test tube. Very rarely do I see ant ant out foraging, is this normal, I'm guessing it might just be the fact that this is such a young colony.  

[ultraex2]

Yep - either that, or they may wait to forage more at night/when it's dark and that's why you don't see them foraging.  Once the colony starts getting 100+ there will be a lot more foraging activity.

[FeedTheAnts]

Update:

I've decided to move this colony into the ten gallon aquarium that used to house my other Formica colony. They moved in under the large rock and so far have been very active. As a update to the size of the colony it is perhaps 50 ants strong.

[FeedTheAnts]

BTW, the colony's name is the abdolemons(abdomen, lemon). Figure it out.

[FeedTheAnts]

Update: 

The large rock in the middle I switched with a different rock because it wouldn't stop molding. They have built a rather impressive mound, but today I noticed them actually moving the colony under the rock in the middle. Here are a lot of pictures of them, the last couple of ones are pictures of the colony migrating under the rock.

Edited by TennesseeAnts, July 23 2017 - 12:56 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

Update:

Fed them a giant wasp, they loved it.

[T.C.]

Awesome journal. I am a fan of the natural setup. Kinda want to do one myself.

[AntsMaryland]

Same

[FeedTheAnts]

Update:

Not much to update about except that they have moved under the large rock. They usually forage in large groups every 4 days because they are still such a young colony. Here is what the entire setup looks like.

[VoidElecent]

Beautiful!  

 

You should change the species name in the thread title to Formica cf. pallidefulva.

[FeedTheAnts]

Beautiful!

 

You should change the species name in the thread title to Formica cf. pallidefulva.

Are you sure it's pallidefulva, you know how yellow Formica ants are.

Edited by TennesseeAnts, August 11 2017 - 9:58 AM.

[Krogzaxants]

Nice setup. Cute colony you have there TennesseeAnts

[FeedTheAnts]

Update:

 

Feeding time!

Their name is the Abdo-lemons but I've been feeding them green honey lately so maybe it should be the Abdo-limes. If I ever feed them red honey then I might call them Abdo-apples, maybe I'll just change their name to whatever color honey I'm feeding them at the moment.

[Salmon]

The giant wasp looks more like a giant fly.

[FeedTheAnts]

Feeding Time!

I fed them some grasshoppers after I noticed them walking up to the top of the big rock looking around for honey that is usually there. It was actually really funny and I guess it is interesting to think about ants having a memory to know where they usually find food

                                                    ^Abdo-Apples^  

Edited by TennesseeAnts, August 20 2017 - 7:05 AM.

[FeedTheAnts]

Update: Feeding time!

I went into a forest looking for a colony of Aphaenogasters but ended up finding a huge colony of termites. There are easily nearly 2000 and lots of nymphs and eggs. I threw about 150 of them into the Abdo-lemons tank. Within a few minutes then they found the termites and created a line of ants that would just leave the nest, grab a termite, kill it and bring it to the nest. this went on for 25 minutes.

[FeedTheAnts]

Update:

I put some eco earth in the tank just to find out later that it had been sitting in a box full of spilled reptile enclosure cleaning chemicals

I immediately took as much of it out as I could but since it was very wet when I put it in then it had already soaked into the dirt. I decided to go the risky route and see if I could lift up the rock the Abdo-lemons were living under and corral them into a tube, then clean up the tank a move them back in. When I lifted up the rock though, I soon discovered that they had a lot of tunnels leading to many different chambers, and that there were a lot of ants and brood. I then left everything alone and decided to just let them live in the tank and see if anything happened to their health. Fast forward an hour, they had built lots of new tunnels and chambers and I could see the brood from under the tank, then I left for another hour or so and all the brood was gone, I could see lots of workers digging in various places though. I noticed that they were digging a tunnel to a pat chamber that they used to live in, and it looked like they had already broken into it, but then, I decided to do something stupid. I poured a little bit of water down the hole hoping that ants carrying brood would come out and that would solve the mystery. But even though there were a lot of ants going into this tunnel, when I poured the water in then no ants came out, I was so worried that by pouring the water in then I had closed off the tunnel and trapped the ants in, and that they were drowning, even the queen. I watched the tank for an hour or so after this and finally decided to scrape dirt away from the entrance to this tunnel, and it revealed that the tunnel I had poured the water in had another tunnel attached to it that led to the main chambers and an area that I with even more chambers I had never seen. So I had not drowned any ants, they just took a detour when the water came in, either that or they just were never in the chamber I was flooding in the first place.

 

So there you have it, that is what I spent my sunday doing

Ps. I took this opportunity to redesign the tank, how do you like it?

[FeedTheAnts]

Update:

It looks like they are getting ready for hibernation, probably won't update again until spring.

This is what the tank is looking like