40 replies to this topic

[dean_k]

The preliminary result appears to be negative. The Myrmica sp is doing "I am gonna run" behaviors when their antennae come in contact with the orange which means they aren't interested at all.

 

I will let it sit there for a day until he dries.

[drtrmiller]

Whatever you do, don't throw it away. Different ants may react differently.  

 

I have some Lasius workers feeding on it, now.  Even the same colonies may change their behavior over time.  

 

I don't have any explanation for this behavior, yet.

[dean_k]

Of course, I am not going to throw away. They might accept it later and my Lasius should have its nanitics soon.

[drtrmiller]

While I haven't seen the queen in months, many of the workers and brood have decided to move back into the old formicarium which was still attached.  I see a steady supply of eggs, so I know the queen is hiding somewhere.  I am unable to get an accurate worker/brood count at this time.

 

Observations On Formula Blue 100

 

After an extended period of difficulty feeding Blue 100, during which I switched to sugar-only diets, the ants seem to have been eating Blue 100 for the past 3 or so weeks, without issue.  

 

It remains my opinion that users experiencing difficulty feeding Blue 100 to their ants which once accepted the food, should alternate to another diet, which can include Green 600 or sugar water, and give the ants a break from protein.

 

During this time, Blue 100 may continue to be offered daily, or the user may abstain from offering any protein, as neither workers nor brood will die from starvation as long as sugar is available.  After a few days or weeks, the user may adjust the ants back to Blue 100, which may take several days for the ants to regain interest, however they will do so if given no other food options (and very reliably, in my experience).

 

During the past 4-5 months, this colony has been fed Formula Diets exclusively, and continues to produce brood and eggs.  While there are other insects in the formicarium, they are mostly to eat leftover food, and I have rarely observed the ants carrying around a carcass.  Due to the presence of these insects, however, I have completely eliminated feeding this colony insects designated as feeders.

 

Cleaner Crew and Other Thoughts

 

Recently, a number of the many, many roach egg cases that have been laid over the months have started hatching.  I now count over 70 (!) roach nymphs, but I haven't seen the ants catch a single one—they're very fast and agile.  It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months, as I can't imagine having so many adult roaches without the ants catching and feeding off a number of them.

 

This may be an ideal setup under which the Camponotus colony may mature more quickly, as I currently only feed them 5 g or less of actual synthetic food each month, much of which is eaten by the roaches.  I highly suspect my food input and the competition over food sources by the roaches to be limiting factors in the growth of this colony.

Edited by drtrmiller, February 16 2015 - 9:06 PM.

[SMILEforAnts]

Why does your Camponotus variegatus queen look different than the ones found here in Hawaii? o_O Are there different types of Camponotus variegatus ants?

[drtrmiller]

Lighting may have something to do with it, but it shouldn't look too different from yours. There are lots of subspecies, though.

 

Show me yours.

Edited by drtrmiller, February 17 2015 - 6:14 AM.

[drtrmiller]

I am posting this because I found it interesting:

 

 

About a year ago, I prepared a batch of ant food and stored it in 5 ml pipettes in the refrigerator.  The ingredients are essentially Blue 100, except I added green dye instead of blue.

 

I was going to discard it today, but I decided, since it looked relatively unchanged, that I would try feeding it to my ants.  

 

After squeezing the agar gel out of the pipette, this is the result:

 

Edited by drtrmiller, February 23 2015 - 3:53 PM.

[dspdrew]

I must admit, your ant food does seem to last forever.

[SMILEforAnts]

Lighting may have something to do with it, but it shouldn't look too different from yours. There are lots of subspecies, though.

 

Show me yours.

 

 

This is how the Camponotus variegatus queen looks like from Hawaii (aka Hawaiian carpenter ant)

[drtrmiller]

Looks to me like her gaster is just swollen with fat, as alates and new dealates often are. Queens often have more significant color variation even within the same species, and so keys rely on worker morphology for identification.

 

As for a current note with this colony:

 

About 200 workers are visible in the "Flourish" prototype.  I have not seen the queen for some months, as she is hiding in a piece of driftwood.  I'm fairly certain she is alive, however, as I see brood of all stages, but most of it appears to be in the driftwood, as well.  I think I may try to flush her out, soon.

 

Edit:

 

Well, I found the queen.  She was hiding in the tube leading up to the "Flourish" prototype.  She appeared very skinny, despite most of the workers constantly filled to the brim with food.  I highly suspect that she was irreparably damaged when the nest was inadvertently overheated.  Her egg laying capacity seems to have diminished, although she still manages to produce.  Unless brood are hiding somewhere, the count appears to be very low.  The alternative is that the colony is waiting for the weather to be warmer, since this is a tropical species, and the room in which they are being kept has been quite cool.

Edited by drtrmiller, March 2 2015 - 9:07 PM.

[drtrmiller]

I think this colony is done for.

 

In November, 2014, about 6 months ago, I mentioned that I accidentally baked the nest, due to a heating malfunction for a prototype test.

 

After that exact time, all brood finished developing, but no new brood developed from eggs laid since about January, 2015.  Clusters of eggs are laid, but they do not even develop into first instar larvae at all.  Many workers have whitish fat stores, which, given their diet of mostly sugar water at this point, points to them cannibalizing the eggs on a huge scale.

 

I would speculate that the queen got overheated, and the sperm she was storing became immotile, leading to her laying exclusively infertile eggs which are eaten after an extended development period and eventual cell death.

 

I'll sustain the colony until the workers are all gone, but at this point, I see no reason to believe that the decline will reverse course.

[drtrmiller]

No picture, but I discovered about two dozen larvae of various stages of development, all filled with the green sugary food I've been feeding the ants, and a large pile of eggs.

 

It is possible the colony went dormant, coinciding with a dry season, since tropical ants don't generally enter temperature-induced diapause.  I guess the colony may not be doomed, after all.

[drtrmiller]

About two months ago, I observed new brood development after an extended 5-6 month-long diapause (I now know that they stop producing brood when the temperatures become cooler and there is less available water or lower humidity).

 

A few days ago, I attached a small plastic box with plaster lining the bottom to their 10-gallon tank.  I've slowly been able to convince them to move into this box, so I could perform a count.  From there, I was able to count over 200 ants, and 300 or more brood, mostly pupae!

 

It is safe to say this is a record high for this colony, which is just shy of being two years old.  I feed them lots of Sunburst Ant Nectar, Formula Blue 100 (currently sold out), and the occasional roach.

 

It's funny, the queen never gets fat (physogastric) despite having a good-sized colony and virtually unlimited food supply, but continues to produce a steady supply of eggs.

 

 

Edited by drtrmiller, May 14 2016 - 10:24 AM.

[Gregory2455]

I may try this...

[drtrmiller]

Colony is alive and doing really well, with lots of eggs and brood.  I hardly feed them anything but Sunburst Ant Nectar, which I've dyed red in this bottle.

 

Here, they are drinking through the mesh lid of their 10-gallon aquarium tank.  The lid is a custom, zero-gap acrylic lid that fits a standard 10-gallon aquarium and has multiple inset lids that may be removed independently.  If anybody wants to buy one, PM me for details.

 

 

[Tspivey16]

If we already have a bottle of the Ant nectar- what dyes can we use to add so we can observe feeding distribution? Simple food dyes from the grocery?

[drtrmiller]

Yes. One or two drops of colorant per bottle of Sunburst is generally sufficient.

The default yellow color of Sunburst is just to differentiate it from other liquids. The pale color is easily manipulated.

Edited by drtrmiller, December 2 2015 - 11:40 AM.

[Myrmicinae]

Any indication of alate brood yet?

[drtrmiller]

I barely feed them enough to keep them alive. No idea how they're growing.

Edited by drtrmiller, May 14 2016 - 10:22 AM.

[drtrmiller]

They are doing quite well living all over this piece of wood in a 10 gallon tank.  They've been living like this for over a year and a half.

 

They had very little brood a few weeks ago because I let their habitat get cooler and didn't feed them very much.  With a little heat and more food, they have hundreds of new workers on the way in just a matter of weeks.

 

 

 

 

Edited by drtrmiller, May 14 2016 - 10:22 AM.