13 replies to this topic

[Spamdy]

 Camponotus Pennsylvanicus Journal

  7/12/17

  On 4/13/17 I was able to catch this queen in a fallen and decaying log. I have always been meaning to start a journal over her but I always procrastinate. But now, I'm bored so I'll just do it now i guess...

  She laid her first egg 5 days after I caught her and soon more to come. But that generation didn't survive or the next, or the next, or the next. This was caused by me stressing her every day and moving her to 3 different habitats in her founding stages. I was very new to the hobby and I was not very experienced, neither am I now. though lol. Only recently was she able to produce her first worker. She accomplished this on 7/9/17. The colony now has 3 workers.

Queen with first nanitic.

 

The first worker, enclosed at about 8:35 AM. The second worker enclosed shortly afterwards at about 9:10 AM. I'm deeming these nanitics, twins.

 Two days pass, and the third worker encloses (7/11/17)

 

 

Colony at 3 workers. (7/11/17)

 

The colony currently lives in a test tube setup, once bigger I will provide a out world and I haven't thought though much further.

 

 Their Test Tube setup shown below. A cotton ball soaked with honey and water(1:1) and even more honey.

 

 

 

  Yesterday I gave them the cotton ball with honey and more cotton and their gasters all ballooned up, especially one worker and the queen. After the workers enclosed I couldn't see any eggs, apparently the ants had mushed them all on top of some cocoons that had already been opened up. Today they abandoned the opened cocoon and I could finally get some clear pics of the eggs, even though not visible. Currently they have 4+ larvae, several about to pupate, some new. egg count isn't clear because the queen is always on them.

 remember I am NOT experienced, this is my first attempt to keep ant colonies and I will make MANY mistakes, if I do please kindly tell me. In the meantime the ants are getting better, and the queen is producing fast, I should have about 2-4 more workers before the month ends.

 

EDIT: My Camera isn't good at all as you can tell, I don't have a better one, Its just my regular phone camera, but in the meantime bear with me.

EDIT2: Shout out to dermy for helping me get these pictures up!

Edited by Spamdy, July 12 2017 - 6:32 PM.

[Ants_Texas]

I'd give them an outworld. Doesn't have to be large, and I wouldn't recommend putting anything in it other than a pile of baked sand in a corner, so they can put it on their pupae if they so desire. I would however reccommend it is, give or take, two times the length of their tube. That way if they can't find food you can move it closer. I'm worried that they won't finish that honey, and mold will grow. Having an outworld prevents that as the food is outside of the tube. Stick the tube down with some clay or play-doh.

Edited by Ants_Texas, July 12 2017 - 7:44 PM.

[Spamdy]

UPDATE 8/1/17

 

 So I haven't updated this journal for awhile. I was on vacation in Canada during this time. Not much has happened, they are still at 3 workers, but now with 4 pupae and a fresh batch of eggs. (4 of them i think) But regarding their nesting space I have been quite busy.

 

 I made an outworld! Actually I'm quite disappointed in myself. My "outworld" is a plastic box with feeders and a tube. The outworld has many negatives.

 Pros: Can provide food and sweets without making a mess      Cons: opening lid is too loud, therefore stressful to the ants and I. Tube rolls around when I open the box.

 

 This is going to be a very temporary outworld, when they get to 10-15 workers, they are getting a new Formicarium, I promise.

 

 

  Here's a picture of their setup.

 

So I gave them 3 spiders before I left, two feeders, a plate their tube and a plastic box.

 

When I go back,.... they plugged the feeders up, probably because their drinking source was too humid for them.\

 

Before: 

 

After:

 

 As you can see I've always got to clean up after them. But regarding their growth, it has been quite steady and smooth, as I mentioned earlier, they now have 4 pupae and 4ish so eggs, yesterday I saw the queen lay an egg, but unfortunately I couldn't get a photo

 

Their brood

The other 2 ants are outside munching on a massive spider I caught the other day.

I estimate that in 2 or less weeks the worker count will be up to 7!

Edited by Spamdy, August 2 2017 - 6:40 AM.

[Spamdy]

UPDATE 8/11/17

1 week and 3 days later...

We are up to 4 workers.       

Ha ha, that's over exaggerating it. My response to the 4th workers expressed better with this one emoji.  (and yes I did go through every one to see which one matched my thoughts the best lol)

 

Other than that, not much has really happened Edit: now that I read my post, a lot of things have happened, so I take that comment back. You can keep reading now. except of the fact that the queen has turned into an egg laying machine. The, eggs the queen laid last update have all turned into larvae, and about 5-10 more eggs have been laid. I was really expecting the pupae to enclose into workers soon, but most of them have only developed eyes, and started to turn black.... guess I have to wait, another week.

 

 Brood count:

 

   -3 pupae, one of them are darkening, and the other 2 have just developed eyes.

   -3 larvae

       -1 stage 2 larvae

       -2 stage 1 larvae

    -5-10 eggs, hard to see exact count because the queen is always hovering over the eggs, and some are stuck to the pupae, I want at least 4 of these eggs to be able to mature into workers.

 

Sorry no pictures this time, I am ashamed of myself. 

The pictures I took weren't that good, once I move them into a new formicarium the picture quality should increase by a lot. The main reason the photos I take are bad quality is because I have to take the pictures through a layer of plastic and glass that has insect guts everywhere, and.... my phone.

 

But pics are coming next update no matter how bad they are.

 

On a side note, I forgot to write in the main body of this post, I fed them fruit flies and crickets for the first time, they were getting bored of spiders every day anyway. The nanitic that is always foraging, is crazy, I suppose she drinks too much sugar water, anyway, she's always running around top speed for no reason, and when I happened to dump a bunch of live fruit flies into the outworld, as soon as the fruit flies came out, this serial killer did too. She was running around spraying formic acid everywhere, within seconds she had killed 5 fruit flies.The 2 poor fruit flies that had survived the massacre are now cowering on the lid, it won't be long before the nanitic finds them, and they like their fruit fly friends too, will be fed to the hungry larvae. The End.

Edited by Spamdy, August 11 2017 - 8:35 AM.

[Spamdy]

UPDATE 8/14/17

 

Early update! This time with bigger and better pictures! 

For a 3 day time period, things have been busy. I've attached the test tube to the new formicarium! I wanted them to move in, but after a bit more research, I figured it would almost be impossible to actually get them to move. So I stopped the move, but I didn't detach the tube from the Formicarium, instead I replaced the dinky old box outwold for the new cleaner outworld with actual decorations! I won't force them to move anytime soon, when the ants feel too crowded or something else, they can feel free to move. By the way, the Formicarium is a Tar heel ants fortress, Yeahhhh I'm lazy...

 

 I took a lot of pictures to make up for the last post. With the tube outside, instead of being stuck inside a box, it allowed me to have a better viewing experience and also better pictures!

 

I could get some bad macro pics( Just my phone Camera, no actual macro. )

But it was clear enough so that I could count the eggs.

 

More egg pics, you can see the giant worker/replete in this picture. Its the biggest worker and enclosed last update. I don't even understand why the worker has red fluids in her gaster, I suppose it's Cricket juices.

 

More pics:

Notice in some of these pictures, look closely at the pupae, you can actually see the shape of the worker, which was really cool.

Trophallaxis being performed between a queen and worker.

 

Brood Count:

 -2 pupae, find out what happened to the other two later

 -About 5 larvae all in different stages 

 -15-20 eggs

 

 And yes, we have 2 new members of our colony, 2 new workers!   Which means the worker count is up to 6!

Here is a bad picture of all of them huddled together in the tube somewhat close to each other.

I have high hopes for this colony, the amount of eggs this colony has right now is phenomenal! When all of these hatch, in about 2 months, I think the worker count will be somewhere in the upper 20's and lower 30's. Also since I live in Houston, I don't need to hibernate my ants, so they can grow all year long, even if the slow production, I think the main reason of the queen laying so many eggs, is so that when winter comes, the colony has a bunch of workers to go through, so I'm pretty sure these eggs will enclose before winter. Also school starts this week for me, so updates may be shorter than they usually are.

 

 

EDIT: I forgot to post some pictures. lol, Here they are.

 

 

Um, I forgot to add, but I actually got to watch my 5th worker enclose, I forgot to document it but I still took pictures of it starting when I saw a bunch of workers crowding on one pupae. Sorry for the bad pictures, it wasn't an ideal time to take pictures.

 

I'm ready to enclose!

 

 

 

 

My feet are stuck to the floor...

 

 

Almost there...

 

 

I didn't get a picture of the worker out and ready, but that doesn't really matter, she's out and ready in the other picture where all 6 workers are shown.

I can't believe that I forgot to post this.   

Edited by Spamdy, August 14 2017 - 8:12 AM.

[Spamdy]

UPDATE 8/17/17

 

They finally moved into the new Formicarium! It's a bit big though, they are basically all crammed into one chamber on top of the water tower, and the two oldest and smallest workers love the top two chambers where it's dryer than the rest of the formicarium. The day after they moved in, I fed them a spider, workers rushed out and devoured it. I didn't expect the to be so hungry, I never saw a worker even forage after they moved in. So I fed them another spider and again, half the colony rushed out and ate it. They spent awhile trying to stuff it into the formicarium but they couldn't because it was so big, so they just sat outside and had a picnic. On a side note, another worker enclosed, boosting the worker count to 7.

 

In the morning after they moved I found the queen hanging down like a replete. I don't even understand how she's going to lay eggs in that position, if she even will.

More pictures.

Even more pictures.

And more.

Pictures right before they moved.

Counting brood will be harder because the chambers are deep and these ants decided to block the brood from view so I can only guess and estimate.

 

Brood count:

 -2 Pupae

  -1 has eyes, the other just developed into pupae

 -5-10 larvae

  -2 stage 2 to 3 larvae

  -5-10 stage 1 larvae, some of them just turned into larvae

 -15-20 eggs, these just keep coming.

 

I made a few short clips of this colony.

 

 http://<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lm6jJVmJv6E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

http://<iframe width...creen></iframe>

(at the 15th second you can get a glimpse of the queen going into the formicarium.)

 

That's all for this update.

 

EDIT: I don't think the links work, try this:

https://youtu.be/lm6jJVmJv6E

https://youtu.be/tjcUQ7eZL-w

Edited by Spamdy, August 19 2017 - 1:14 PM.

[Spamdy]

UPDATE 8/30/17

 There are 2 reasons why I haven't updated this journal, not because I don't have time but but because nothing exciting has happened with this colony.  There has not been any worker boost since the last update. Lets do a brood check.

 

 Brood Count

  -7 Pupae, one is black and is almost ready to enclose

  -7ish Larvae 

     -About 7 stage 2 and 3 larvae

     -About 20 eggs

 

Now all they do is sit around the nest... doing nothing. So I don't have much to report on. But outside of that I've got some more stuff. I caught 4 Pheidole cf. constipata queens. 3 have died already, but they were infertile. 

 

 After Harvey I walked in my neighborhood trail and found some ant species that I've never seen before. I'll be posting their ID threads later today. 

 

I just saw the 8th worker enclose so yay. Sorry for the short post, when something more exciting happens I'll be posting pictures.

[YsTheAnt]

How are they doing?

[YsTheAnt]

How are they doing?

[Spamdy]

How are they doing?

Ill update this soon. They aren't really doing well. They've lost several workers due to mites in my Fruit Fly culture. Have not gotten past 20 workers yet. 

[Connectimyrmex]

UPDATE 8/30/17

 There are 2 reasons why I haven't updated this journal, not because I don't have time but but because nothing exciting has happened with this colony.  There has not been any worker boost since the last update. Lets do a brood check.

 

 Brood Count

  -7 Pupae, one is black and is almost ready to enclose

  -7ish Larvae 

     -About 7 stage 2 and 3 larvae

     -About 20 eggs

 

Now all they do is sit around the nest... doing nothing. So I don't have much to report on. But outside of that I've got some more stuff. I caught 4 Pheidole cf. constipata queens. 3 have died already, but they were infertile. 

 

 After Harvey I walked in my neighborhood trail and found some ant species that I've never seen before. I'll be posting their ID threads later today. 

 

I just saw the 8th worker enclose so yay. Sorry for the short post, when something more exciting happens I'll be posting pictures.

Uhh, pheidole... constipata? pff...

[Spamdy]

 

UPDATE 8/30/17

 There are 2 reasons why I haven't updated this journal, not because I don't have time but but because nothing exciting has happened with this colony.  There has not been any worker boost since the last update. Lets do a brood check.

 

 Brood Count

  -7 Pupae, one is black and is almost ready to enclose

  -7ish Larvae 

     -About 7 stage 2 and 3 larvae

     -About 20 eggs

 

Now all they do is sit around the nest... doing nothing. So I don't have much to report on. But outside of that I've got some more stuff. I caught 4 Pheidole cf. constipata queens. 3 have died already, but they were infertile. 

 

 After Harvey I walked in my neighborhood trail and found some ant species that I've never seen before. I'll be posting their ID threads later today. 

 

I just saw the 8th worker enclose so yay. Sorry for the short post, when something more exciting happens I'll be posting pictures.

Uhh, pheidole... constipata? pff...

 

I made a separate journal here: http://www.formicult...idole-colonies/

 

It was mis identified, still not 100% on what species though.

[Connectimyrmex]

 

 

UPDATE 8/30/17

 There are 2 reasons why I haven't updated this journal, not because I don't have time but but because nothing exciting has happened with this colony.  There has not been any worker boost since the last update. Lets do a brood check.

 

 Brood Count

  -7 Pupae, one is black and is almost ready to enclose

  -7ish Larvae 

     -About 7 stage 2 and 3 larvae

     -About 20 eggs

 

Now all they do is sit around the nest... doing nothing. So I don't have much to report on. But outside of that I've got some more stuff. I caught 4 Pheidole cf. constipata queens. 3 have died already, but they were infertile. 

 

 After Harvey I walked in my neighborhood trail and found some ant species that I've never seen before. I'll be posting their ID threads later today. 

 

I just saw the 8th worker enclose so yay. Sorry for the short post, when something more exciting happens I'll be posting pictures.

Uhh, pheidole... constipata? pff...

 

I made a separate journal here: http://www.formicult...idole-colonies/

 

It was mis identified, still not 100% on what species though.

 

The name just gets me every time. I wonder if it was first discovered on a toilet...

[T.C.]

They have actually made pretty decent progress for Camponotus. Especially compared to mine.