65 replies to this topic

[Hunter]

Dry salt (yes, they have some salt in their setup and occasionally lick from it)? ants don't have tongue.

[Serafine]

A few of my colonies have also joined the NO HIBERNATION campaign, namely Temnothorax, Crematogaster and Brachymyrmex depelis. Quite peculiar behavior, but I'm wondering if I should stick em into hibernation anyways. Do you have any plans to force this colony into hibernation?

I'll wait until they stop having eggs or pupae. It's not a big issue if they suddenly decide that they want a break in March or so, I can always put them into my parents' whine cellar. I've also heard that it isn't too uncommon for some queens to skip their first year of hibernation when temperatures are high enough and food is available.
 

Dry salt (yes, they have some salt in their setup and occasionally lick from it)? ants don't have tongue.

They may not exactly have a tongue but they have their own equivalent. They can just spit a small amount of water on the salt and then lick up the resulting salt water (which is in fact what they do).

Edited by Serafine, November 16 2017 - 12:00 AM.

[Hunter]

 

A few of my colonies have also joined the NO HIBERNATION campaign, namely Temnothorax, Crematogaster and Brachymyrmex depelis. Quite peculiar behavior, but I'm wondering if I should stick em into hibernation anyways. Do you have any plans to force this colony into hibernation?

I'll wait until they stop having eggs or pupae. It's not a big issue if they suddenly decide that they want a break in March or so, I can always put them into my parents' whine cellar. I've also heard that it isn't too uncommon for some queens to skip their first year of hibernation when temperatures are high enough and food is available.
 

Dry salt (yes, they have some salt in their setup and occasionally lick from it)? ants don't have tongue.

They may not exactly have a tongue but they have their own equivalent. They can just spit a small amount of water on the salt and then lick up the resulting salt water (which is in fact what they do).

 

tho it looks like a tongue it is in fact not it is a labiomaxillary

[Serafine]

Don't try to be overly smart, I know what it is and it doesn't matter - it is (part of) their equivalent of a tongue and they can use it in a similar way (to assist at lick up fluids, if required they spit some water on stuff and lick it up the resulting liquid).

Ants only have protuberances of their exoskeleton they use to fly (not actual limbs) but we call them wings anyway and they don't have blood (just hemolymph which is a mixture of blood and lymph fluids) yet you can read people talking about wounded ants (or other insects) bleeding all the time (actually even cars can bleed oil).

Saying it is tongue may not be perfectly accurate but for means of comprehensibility it comes close enough.

Edited by Serafine, November 16 2017 - 10:28 AM.

[Connectimyrmex]

Don't try to be overly smart, I know what it is and it doesn't matter - it is (part of) their equivalent of a tongue and they can use it in a similar way (to assist at lick up fluids, if required they spit some water on stuff and lick it up the resulting liquid).

Ants only have protuberances of their exoskeleton they use to fly (not actual limbs) but we call them wings anyway and they don't have blood (just hemolymph which is a mixture of blood and lymph fluids) yet you can read people talking about wounded ants (or other insects) bleeding all the time (actually even cars can bleed oil).

Saying it is tongue may not be perfectly accurate but for means of comprehensibility it comes close enough.

I was writing my usual trig(onometry)gered response when I noticed this. Thanks for writing this for me ;P.

 

Hunter, if you reread the other post, Serafine clearly said that ants have their OWN EQUIVALENT of a tongue. No need to argue before you finish reading something.

 

Sorry about my response guys, I'm just an angsty teenager being mood-swingy.

Edited by Connectimyrmex, November 16 2017 - 10:33 AM.

[Hunter]

 

Don't try to be overly smart, I know what it is and it doesn't matter - it is (part of) their equivalent of a tongue and they can use it in a similar way (to assist at lick up fluids, if required they spit some water on stuff and lick it up the resulting liquid).

Ants only have protuberances of their exoskeleton they use to fly (not actual limbs) but we call them wings anyway and they don't have blood (just hemolymph which is a mixture of blood and lymph fluids) yet you can read people talking about wounded ants (or other insects) bleeding all the time (actually even cars can bleed oil).

Saying it is tongue may not be perfectly accurate but for means of comprehensibility it comes close enough.

I was writing my usual trig(onometry)gered response when I noticed this. Thanks for writing this for me ;P.

 

Hunter, if you reread the other post, Serafine clearly said that ants have their OWN EQUIVALENT of a tongue. No need to argue before you finish reading something.

 

Sorry about my response guys, I'm just an angsty teenager being mood-swingy.

 

yes i did but its still not a tongue

[Connectimyrmex]

*Inhales*
boy

DO ANTS USE THEIR PALPS LIKE A TONGUE? 
Any person with a basic knowledge of ants would say yes.

Again, sorry. I hope that I don't start a flamewar.

Edited by Connectimyrmex, November 16 2017 - 10:43 AM.

[Serafine]

yes i did but its still not a tongue

Dude, learn to read before posting useless junk for the sole purpose of beating a dead-born argument.

I never said ants had a tongue I only said that they lick from the salt. YOU were the one who started with this whole "ants don't have a tongue" junk talk and then you're not even capable of properly reading the responses when I said they do have the EQUIVALENT of a tongue - so here is a special answer formulated as simple as possible just for you: Yes, they do not have a tongue but they have something that can work exactly like a tongue does.

 

Now please stop spamming my journal.

Edited by Serafine, November 16 2017 - 2:12 PM.

[Connectimyrmex]

Well said.

Sorry if this is a bit rude to hunter, but he does this on my posts too.

[Serafine]

 

 


Um, well... okay?

Edited by Serafine, November 19 2017 - 3:32 AM.

[Connectimyrmex]

They're still laying?

[Serafine]

Yes, they're still laying eggs, larvae are still pupating (that batch of sand is pupating larvae), the whole thing.

[Serafine]

Most of the larvae from the last picture have pupated and some of the eggs hatched. Looks like there's no callow on these pictures (which is kinda unusal because normally there's always one).

They have a kinda funny way of pupating - first the workers stick lots of sand onto the larvae and after they pupated the workers remove all the sand from the cocoon as can be seen in the lower part near the cotton (they're halfway done).

Their tube is getting kinda dirty which makes taking pictures a bit more difficult. They have a fresh tube in the outworld but I don't expect them to move anytime soon.

 

 

Edited by Serafine, November 22 2017 - 11:52 AM.

[Noah Norman]

I caught a queen this year, but she has been struggling, she had some pups but ate 90% of them, but she is finally laying new eggs and I was wondering how much heat they can handle, I have her in room temperature right now, but what is the max I could heat them up to.

[Serafine]

Lasius niger doesn't need anything above room temperature (which I guess is somewhere between 20 and 26°C). Heating test tubes can cause heat accumulation inside the tube and condenstation (which can even lead to flooding). They need it calm and quiet though, I looked at them about once every 2 weeks until they got nanitics.
 
Lasius niger usually takes about 6-8 weeks to go from egg to worker and once the have first workers the colony just keeps rolling.


p.s. I'd recommend putting the tube into a small outworld and offer some sugar water, sometimes the queen will walk out during the night and look for food (my queen took a huge nip from the sugar water feeder when her first workers arrived).

Edited by Serafine, November 25 2017 - 8:55 AM.

[Mettcollsuss]

Man, I REALLY want Lasius now. I had a L. alienus queen who died just days before her nanitics eclosed  . I'm super jealous. Where did you catch her (forest, beach, roadside, ect.)? Where should I look for this species?

[Serafine]

In Germany Lasius niger is basically THE pavement ant, they utterly dominate most urban areas. When they fly in July/August they fly in such ridiculous numbers that it is hard to NOT find a queen. Some areas in my city had 3-4 queens per m² for about 2 days in a row.

Edited by Serafine, November 25 2017 - 10:11 AM.

[Connectimyrmex]

I caught a queen this year, but she has been struggling, she had some pups but ate 90% of them, but she is finally laying new eggs and I was wondering how much heat they can handle, I have her in room temperature right now, but what is the max I could heat them up to.

Hehe.. pups?
Sorry, I just had a friend that called larvae "pups" for some reason.

I wouldn't heat up my ants, in my experience heating cables encourage mold and mite growth.

 

You should probably have your queen hibernate, it's way too late in the year for adequate brood growth, especially for a hibernation-lover like Lasius.

Edited by Connectimyrmex, November 25 2017 - 10:53 AM.

[Noah Norman]

Lol I ment pupae. I gave my ants an early hibernation due to my schedule, I was just going to put my colonies that have workers, but ended up putting all of my ants in. I'm usually on top of mold outbreaks and try to keep my ant nests as clean as I can.

[Connectimyrmex]

Lol I ment pupae. I gave my ants an early hibernation due to my schedule, I was just going to put my colonies that have workers, but ended up putting all of my ants in. I'm usually on top of mold outbreaks and try to keep my ant nests as clean as I can.

Oh, lol.