80 replies to this topic

[T.C.]

Man, look at that condensation.

[Mettcollsuss]

Man, look at that condensation.

Yeah, just attached the heating cable to the nest and it created a lot of condensation. This happens whenever I attach a heating cable to a new nest; it usually clears up in a few days.

2-1-18

Three pupae today. There will probably be more by the end of the day.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, February 1 2018 - 4:17 AM.

[Mettcollsuss]

2-4-18

Okay, so I moved them back into a test tube since the queen was having trouble walking on the smooth acrylic. 

• Queens: 1
• Workers: 5
• Eggs: 0
• Larvae: 4
• Pupae: 6 (two cocoons, four exarate)

[TennesseeAnts]

I pour grout in my plastic and acrylic nests. It helps with traction and it absorbs any excess water.

[Mettcollsuss]

I pour grout in my plastic and acrylic nests. It helps with traction and it absorbs any excess water.

That's pretty smart.

[TennesseeAnts]

Thanks! Make sure you don't use plaster or sanded grout!

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, February 5 2018 - 7:07 PM.

[Mettcollsuss]

2-7-18

Only two larvae are remaining; the rest have pupated. There are also four new eggs.

 

My fruit fly culture finally arrived yesterday. I placed a single live fruit fly into the tube. As expected, the "crazy" worker found it first. She grabbed it in her mandibles and dabbed it with formic acid. She then dropped it and a different worker picked it up and did the same thing. This repeated for about a minute —a worker would pick it up, spray it, and then drop it for the next one— until they decided it was dead enough. They then dragged it to the brood pile for the larvae.

 

The "crazy" worker stood at the cotton plug and stayed in a defensive position (antennae waving, mandibles open, abdomen tucked under) for ten minutes after everyone else had calmed down.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, February 7 2018 - 5:36 AM.

[Mettcollsuss]

2-11-18

Eyes are beginning to appear on the exarate pupae. Only two larvae haven't pupated yet. There's a small pile of about 10 eggs.

[Mettcollsuss]

2-13-18

Yet another fruit fly for this colony. They still love them.

 

A few months back, I remember having a conversation with Connectimyrmex about Formica queens. In specific, about how Formica queens aren't exactly the brightest ants in the nest. I remember more than one instance when I exposed an F. subsericea colony by flipping rocks on a queen hunt. While the workers would abort brood and panic, the queen would just stand there, oblivious to what was happening, then proceed to run AWAY from the nest.

 

Now that I have a captive colony, I had meant to record the queen's behaviors, but had forgotten until today. As Connectimyrmex pointed out, while most queens lose their maternal instincts, Formica queens lose all instincts. In fact, earlier today when giving them their fruit fly, it walked right underneath the queen and she didn't move a muscle. I even crawled right on top of her before the workers finally seized it. So now I going to be recording the queen's behaviors more closely.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, February 14 2018 - 4:07 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

The Formica pacifica queens I caught last year are doing extremely well. I caught too many so I put two queens in each tube. Now I have one polygynous colony with a huge first brood of around fifty eggs and larvae. My largest colony is a single queen colony of Formica pacifica who's queen was caught in the summer of 2016 and has 155 workers and around 100 eggs and larvae. I hope your colony has the same success as mine.


Good luck!

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, February 14 2018 - 8:26 PM.

[Mettcollsuss]

2-16-18

The pupae are mostly a mixture of minor and major pupae with a couple media pupae. The minor pupae are already darkening and should eclose soon. The media and major pupae will probably eclose in a week or two. There are also now about twenty eggs.

 

 

 

[TennesseeAnts]

Honestly, I am a little jealous of your Formica subsericea colony. Nice colony!

[TennesseeAnts]

Do you have a journal for your Formica cf. incerta?

[Mettcollsuss]

Do you have a journal for your Formica cf. incerta?

I don't usually start journals until a queen makes it to workers, because then I know I'm not just cluttering up the forum with journal threads that will only be around for a few weeks. I guess I can make an exception this time.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, February 17 2018 - 4:24 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

Thanks!



P.S. I like your new profile pic.

[Mettcollsuss]

2-18-18

Two minor workers eclosed this morning. With them now taking over most of the brood care, one of the larger workers is now almost always stationed at the entrance and tries to bolt out whenever I open the tube to feed them. I'm getting a founding formicarium ready for them.

[Mettcollsuss]

2-23-18

Eight workers now. Most of the eggs are now small larvae.

[Mettcollsuss]

2-25-18

Ten workers now. The larvae are already medium to large. Only two of the pupae from the last batch haven't eclosed yet.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, February 25 2018 - 3:34 PM.

[Mettcollsuss]

3-3-18

They are now living in one of drew's dirt shacks. They are at twelve-ish workers now.

 

These ants are a bunch of little troublemakers. They piled all the soil they excavated into a single pile, to try and get over the barrier. I have to keep wetting the mound of dirt to stop it from reaching the ceiling. They've also started trying to stick sand to the barrier.

[Mettcollsuss]

3-5-18

All larvae have pupated or are close to pupating. For some reason, all the new pupae are exarate despite them having no shortage of sand to place on the pupating larvae. Very impressive tunnels so far. Images coming soon.

 

I also have two F. subsericea queens in my ant drawer that I caught last summer. I hadn't included them in this journal since I thought they were infertile. However, one of them now has larvae, so I'm hoping she's mated.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, March 5 2018 - 6:07 AM.