23 replies to this topic

[Spamdy]

 Nanitics 9/16/17

  

  I caught this queen on 8/4/17 and the queen just got her first Nanitic today, 9/16/17. The queen is absolutely tiny, only about 3 mm and the worker is almost unnoticeable. I want to clarify that photos are not going to be good, at least for now, I plan on investing in a macro clip in the near future. Today I also introduced an emergency outworld for them. I didn't realize that the queen would get workers so soon, so its basically a bunch of stuff taped together with holes. These ants have not been documented before when keeping these ants, only a few documentations even exist finding this ant species, they are pretty rare here, so I'll be documenting all their behaviors throughout this journal.

It's not pretty, I know. Here's a pic of the queen.

And heres a picture of her nanitic.

As I said, almost unnoticeable, I had to point it out.

Brood Count:

 2 pupae( with eyes at least)

 ??? larvae

 ??? eggs

 

 Counting brood is especially hard, they are tiny!

Note the cf. in the Latin name, I don't actually know the exact species hence photo quality but I can only see using basic appearance. 

So before I noted that I was going to invest in a macro clip in my price range, $1-$20. If any of you have any suggestions please tell me, I have been finding what to buy and I found this one: https://www.amazon.c...rds=pocket lens

 

One question about the macro lens listed above, is 10x zoom enough for taking pictures of these tiny ants? Thanks in advance.

 

 I also just recently won a giveaway on Ant mate's channel (Ants Australia Community) and I plan on moving these gals in once they are big enough.

Edited by Spamdy, January 16 2018 - 9:47 AM.

[Spamdy]

Added some better quality photos:

 

 

 

I actually have two queens, one is in founding stage the other one (this one) has nanitics. Will be updating both in this journal.

Edited by Spamdy, September 17 2017 - 5:59 AM.

[Goldsystem]

Good luck with your Queens

[T.C.]

Oh, that's a nice outworld! How much you gotta have for it?

[Spamdy]

10/20/17 Update finally!

 

  I never forgot about any of my journals first of all, I've been very busy these past few months so yeah. I also turned this all into one journal about all my Pheidole colonies. Anyway, update on all the queens: The other queens I caught died, I assume they were all infertile. I found this entirely black Pheidole queen but she passed too with all her eggs left behind. In all the loss I still gained a colony besides the one shown in the previous post. I also gained another yellow-orange Pheidole colony from a friend.  As you might have seen I posted an ID thread on 2 of my Pheidole queens. I went through all 51 native Pheidole species in Texas and heres what I found: my new yellow colored colony is Pheidole cf. nuculiceps and my original Pheidole queen is Pheidole cf. floridana. A little more info on the Pheidole cf. nuculiceps colony, they currently have 7 workers, 6 larvae and tons of eggs. They were caught a long way back and only have produced one generation of workers so far for some reason. They are currently in a plastic test tube in an AC outworld with sand.(Also given to me by Ants Texas) Now, update on the Pheidole cf. floridana colony. They are still only at a single worker.  This is entirely my fault for peeking too often. They have 1 nice sized larvae and a batch of eggs, I will try not to peek at them and will hope they will grow faster. Anyway I feed both colonies fish food and I'm not even sure if they are accepting it, they never dragged it in the nest. I really need a reliable food source that I can feed them. If anyone has ever kept a Pheidole colony ever before can you please give me some tips on what to feed them? Thanks! 

 

Black queen that died a while back:

 

Next up is the Pheidole nuculiceps:

Potato photo of Pheidole floridana:

I did make a macro lens so that's why some of the photos look a bit better.

[Spamdy]

Good luck with your Queens

Thanks!

 

Oh, that's a nice outworld! How much you gotta have for it?

What do you mean? I trashed it because the workers could get out because of some small crevices.

[LC3]

the head of the yellow Pheidole queen looks a lot like the head of P. lamia majors, or other majors of the Pheidole lamia group. (Not sure what P. lamia queens look like)

 

Just something I wanted to point out

[Spamdy]

the head of the yellow Pheidole queen looks a lot like the head of P. lamia majors, or other majors of the Pheidole lamia group. (Not sure what P. lamia queens look like)
 
Just something I wanted to point out

Yeah, I did think about this, the only scientific record of this species seems to be far off from Houston. The queens head does look like lamia, I really hope it actually is, I guess I'll have to wait for majors!

[LC3]

According to Alex Wild Pheidole lamia is found sporadically around the Southeastern US. All hope is not lost yet. Only majors will tell at this point, I don't think there are any pictures of  P. nuculiceps majors, so either way it's a win win.

[Connectimyrmex]

Beautiful colonies!

[Mettcollsuss]

I have wanted Pheidole forever. I'm really jealous. Good luck!

[Spamdy]

Heres what I've been up to recently...

This will be for the Yellow Pheidole.

[Derpy]

Cool . I just wanted to know if all Pheidole species are polygnous. I just got my first colony of Pheidole californica, so I want to know if I can add more queens as the nuptial flights start.

Edited by Derpy, November 14 2017 - 5:01 PM.

[MegaMyrmex]

Nice!!! I still really want pheidole but I can't find any queens...I found a P. cf tysoni and a P. Bicarinata colony, but the P. Cf tysoni and p. Bicarinata are dormant for the spring and only come out in late summer and early fall. I found another P. bicarinata colony but it was in the middle of tetramorium territory(surrouned by satellite nests) and after that, I've enever seen that colony again...

[Connectimyrmex]

Gonna be really random for a sec.

 

Taxonomist: Darn, I shouldn't have left the ex-lax at home. 

*sees ants walking on bathroom floor*

Taxonomist: I wonder if those ants need ex-lax as well..

 

That is how Pheidole constipata was named, children.

 

By the way, how is your P. constipata colony faring?

[Spamdy]

UPDATE 1/7/18

 

New years resolution,  Update more often.

 

1. Original queen is dead, as is d e a d.  

 

   I don't know why she died nor do I really care for the reason but I have a couple ideas why.

 

     1. Fruit fly mites that I found killed her.

     2. Gave up on life, after I moved her forcefully and worker died.

    

 

2. Pheidole cf. lamia colony is doing ok. They are up to 11 workers up 4 from last update and about 6 larvae. They have been growing pretty slowly but thankfully her workers live for really long. For a while I thought that this colony was going into hibernation since none of the larvae have hatched into pupae since Winter. But looking at other species outside, ants here don't seem to hibernate. So what I think is that here, either larvae don't pupate or grow like in hibernation but the workers are active (usually). The workers are also prone to drowning in honey and sugar water, I've lost 1 worker already from that, so I'm not really sure how to feed them right now. They still do take fruit flies after they are defrosted so I do have a stable protein source, but I need a easier way to feed them sweets as they don't take honey. I would by Sunburst if ByFormica did have them in stock, unfortunately they don't. Here are some pictures and I'll end it here for now.

 

EDIT: Oh yeah, I upgraded to a point and shoot with some macro filters.

Edited by Spamdy, January 7 2018 - 11:43 AM.

[Ants_Texas]

You could try syrup or another honey brand.

Edited by Ants_Texas, January 7 2018 - 12:24 PM.

[Aaron567]

Those lamia... my favorite.

[Connectimyrmex]

That terrarium is absolutely beautiful. I try to make mine with materials from my backyard, which is next to impossible right now under the foot-and-a half layer of snow and the freezing weather (especially for a guy who's used to Hawaiian weather )

[LC3]

The phragmotic part of the queen's head is a lot more evident in the recent pics. Since P. lamia is subterranean, I  think you might never see them again once they're in the terrarium.

I mean they're doing a fine job of hiding from myrmecologists and hobbyists alike.