1787 replies to this topic

[Major]

Pheidole is one of the more common species in Australia, while in NY it's one of the rarest, haven't even seen a worker. I know a guy who's willing to trade me some next year.


Also, are you ever gonna keep Myrmecia? I know their pretty expensive so are their any colony's near you? Is their Carabera near you?

Edited by Major, August 28 2018 - 1:57 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Pheidole is one of the more common species in Australia, while in NY it's one of the rarest, haven't even seen a worker. I know a guy who's willing to trade me some next year.


Also, are you ever gonna keep Myrmecina? I know their pretty expensive so are their any colony's near you? Is their Carabera near you?

 

 

Yeah, I have several colonies in my backyard, but the smaller black Iridomyrmex species are even more common, like your typical black pavement/garden ant that each country has

Probably next year my backyard colonies will start to swarm the yard when they have flights.

 

Myrmecina? or Myrmecia? First I have heard of Myrmecina, and for sure there might not be any near me.

Nor have I seen or read of anyone selling one.

But you never know, the diversity of ants in this 10m square area of bush near my house is amazing. I mean I found a spider ant here recently, which I would never have guessed would have a colony here!

Along with countless ants I never knew were in my backyard, but have seen queen/workers in my backyard like Ponera, Rhytidoponera, Camponotus lownei

 

We do have some Carebara species, but most are obscure and unknown.

The most known one and largest here is Carebara affinis, but they are a tropical species, so can only be found in Cairns to the tip of Australia.

I have not heard of anyone here keeping one though, nor have I ever seen any for sale.

Most likely due to them only nesting at the edge of forest regions away from towns and cities.

It would be too cold and dry for them in other Australian states to easily keep.

Edited by CoolColJ, August 28 2018 - 4:13 PM.

[Major]

I meant Mymecia, I'm so used to these US ants

[CoolColJ]

I meant Mymecia, I'm so used to these US ants

 

There are these girls, that I discovered near my house - a little scary as they can jump 3-4 inches and have amazing eyesight, they were stalking me after I pulled the rock out to reveal their nest

They can have gamergates and they are a slaving species

 

https://www.instagra.../p/BktzIOwhIvq/

 

https://www.instagra.../p/Bk4mlXSgdJZ/

 

 

They are kinda scary though with their hops.

Honestly I just don't have the space for these large ones. You really need an aquarium sized outworld for them.

I would like to keep a small species though, they have the look and same eyesight of the larger ones, but more Camponotus sized.

 

People do sell the queens quite cheap from time to time, and recently Ant keeping Depot had a 50% off for a week on all Myrmecia, to clear out stock I guess before the new season starts.

Edited by CoolColJ, August 28 2018 - 3:12 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Winter 29th August 2018

 
Polyrhachis rufifemur 9mm queen
 
No eggs, 1 nanitic. 1 small Camponotus larvae
No changes, till spring
 
The second crippled nanitic is finally dead... I found her dead body outside the nest last night

 

Was just a matter of time, as she was always on her back and couldn't walk

Either she starved to death or the others killed and ate her a bit.

Well her body is mostly intact, but I did see the queen and other nanitic working over her body a couple of days ago

[DaveJay]

I meant Mymecia, I'm so used to these US ants

There are these girls, that I discovered near my house - a little scary as they can jump 3-4 inches and have amazing eyesight, they were stalking me after I pulled the rock out to reveal their nest
They can have gamergates and they are a slaving species

https://www.instagra.../p/BktzIOwhIvq/

https://www.instagra.../p/Bk4mlXSgdJZ/



They are kinda scary though with their hops.
Honestly I just don't have the space for these large ones. You really need an aquarium sized outworld for them.
I would like to keep a small species though, they have the look and same eyesight of the larger ones, but more Camponotus sized.

People do sell the queens quite cheap from time to time, and recently Ant keeping Depot had a 50% off for a week on all Myrmecia, to clear out stock I guess before the new season starts.

I think these would be good, a smaller size than most and good colour. I was tempted to buy one at 50% off but with shipping that's still $91 for an ant with no brood, and that was the cheapest Myrmecia they had. It was still tempting though but the timing was wrong, I only get paid fortnightly.
I used to find them when I had a gardening round but they're not that common in my area, too cold and wet most likely. I've decided that it might be worth a shot collecting workers if I find a nest and hoping for gamergates but a queen would be better of course.

[CoolColJ]

I think these would be good, a smaller size than most and good colour. I was tempted to buy one at 50% off but with shipping that's still $91 for an ant with no brood, and that was the cheapest Myrmecia they had. It was still tempting though but the timing was wrong, I only get paid fortnightly.
I used to find them when I had a gardening round but they're not that common in my area, too cold and wet most likely. I've decided that it might be worth a shot collecting workers if I find a nest and hoping for gamergates but a queen would be better of course.

They are still pretty big, the larger ones I saw were close to 2cm

All AKD queens come with brood, they just don't mention it as it's expected. They don't sell broodless queens

You will notice there is no listing at AKD for queens + brood, it is only queen only or queen with workers.
Since the queen only means with brood.

--

Another thing about larger Myrmecia is the 6 month wait from egg to worker, crazy long for me...
The small 1cm species are much faster

Add the fact they tend to eat their eggs and larvae several times before they get to cocoons, and don't lay in winter, means it can be a good 1-2 years before you even see a worker

Edited by CoolColJ, August 29 2018 - 5:31 AM.

[MegaMyrmex]

Yeah, closest to carebara I can get and pheidole antipodum is THE pheidole...polymorphic, the individuals look very similar to carebara, and the queen's massive bulkiness...almost like army ants!

[CoolColJ]

Yeah, closest to carebara I can get and pheidole antipodum is THE pheidole...polymorphic, the individuals look very similar to carebara, and the queen's massive bulkiness...almost like army ants!

How big is your Pheidole queen?

[CoolColJ]

I got my Rhytidoponera species of a 9mm queen and 4 workers.
Plus 7 larvae

Unfortunately I do not think these are Rhytidoponera aspera

I'm pretty sure these are not the aspera I invision, with the easily seen red legs.
These ones only appear to only have red legs under flash, otherwise they just look black all over.
The worker I found in my backyard had easily seen red legs in the shade.
And aspera from what I have seen are usually a green/blue/purple look under flash


click to enlarge



Prepared a new fresh 16mm test tube with aquarium filter wool, and a cotton double chamber entrance from one of the queens setup, I released last week.
Dumped them onto a foil, and they wouldn't enter it...
So I had to manually place all the larvae and each worker, and then finally the queen in with featherweight forceps.
Since they can't run on smooth surfaces it was easy to keep them in as I worked.
But once they hit the cotton double chmaber entrance, they naturally crawled into the chamber and didn't come back out again.

Put them into a small tupper ware outworld with red dirt etc.
Then a worker came out of the chamber and fetched all the brood.
Now it's like nothing ever happened

Two workers have come outside and explored a bit.
I left a small bit of wood roach, but they have ignored it so far.


---

anyway I may sell them on, as I really wanted the green/blue/purple aspera.....

Edited by CoolColJ, August 29 2018 - 9:05 PM.

[Leo]

pretty nice!

[CoolColJ]

pretty nice!

yeah, but not the one I wanted


This is the one I want

[CoolColJ]

Winter 31st August 2018


Pheidole Colony B - Pheidole sp, all black 8mm queen
 heatcable
17 workers. 1 Major

The major is darkening up.
Saw her in action for the first time a few days ago. I replaced their foil/wax paper combo dish that holds the raw honey (which they dump rubbish on) with a 3D printed test tube bowl.
Small dabs of raw honey on 2 corners, and a small peice of cricket and raw almond at the bottom.
As soon as I put it in the major came rushing up and grabbed the cricket bit, and dragged it back




Banished Phediole sp. red head/black body 9mm
heatcable

second pupa is online

 

Pheidole sp, light red head, dark red body, 6-7mm

Queen 1 - heat cable - 2 pupa. big clump of brood, over 20, some small and medium larvae
double chamber setup, exposed to light

Queen 2 - 3 large larvae, 4 ist instar larvae
I have her in my double test tube modded setup, with a polystyrene foam chamber entrance
in red test tube rack

 

Queen 1 finally has some pupa. Possibly two.

 

 

Edited by CoolColJ, August 31 2018 - 2:16 AM.

[CoolColJ]

Melophorus sp.- red black 6-7mm queen

refillable gypsum plugged test tube attached to outworld - heatcable
1 minor worker, 1 egg

 

Holy crap after months and months of no eggs, one of my Melophorus has finally laid a new egg... and she was down to one worker... damn

One day before official start of spring.... hell of a body clock!

 

Suprised how bloated the gaster of the worker, as she barely touched the raw honey outside, maybe once in the last 2 months, but she dragged in a small piece of cricket I left in front of the test tube that was all dried up by the time she started nibbling on it. I see her feeding the queen

 

They placed the egg right on the heat cable now. As you can see from the pics, is running on the top back side of the test tube, and that's where they placed the egg

 

 

click to enlarge

 

Edited by CoolColJ, August 31 2018 - 2:04 AM.

[Leo]

congrats!

[CoolColJ]

There was a small rock on the side of the bush trail near my house, it didn't look any different from any other rock.

I decided to pull it out, and woah lots of large angry black and orange things can bursting out of the hole where the rock was!

 

Man these things are big. I think they are Camponotus nigriceps.

 

I noticed some of the majors have off coloured gasters, instead of pure black like the rest.

 

I captured one major, and she measured over 15mm

 

The minors are only like 2mm smaller than the majors, so it's just a bunch of very large and chunky ants

Hell, I think they are larger than my Camponotus suffusus workers!

 

 

click to enlarge

 

[DaveJay]

An easy 15, 16 more like!
You really gotta keep your eyes peeled for a flight!

[CoolColJ]

An easy 15, 16 more like!
You really gotta keep your eyes peeled for a flight!

 

 

Camponotus intrepidus fly next month and they have 2cm queens and probably similar sized majors, but with a maroon coloured thorax.

I have seen a few workers around with maroon thorax, that move really fast, in the same area.

 

But these type of ants are nocturnal and also fly at night so unless your willing to go walk through there with a torch it can be hard to get a queen

Although you can dig them out of claustral chambers later on if you can find the dirt mounds from the digging.

 

This area is pretty dense with diversity - the C.consobrinus I found earlier is from here, so add C.nigriceps and intrepidus to the list!

Also saw a black and orange Myrmecia today as well climbing a small tree

Edited by CoolColJ, September 1 2018 - 2:48 AM.

[CoolColJ]

The major is so large, thicc and cute.... she became quite docile after a while.. I could lift the lid of the petri dish she was in, and she would just sit there and groom herself

Anyway I took her back to release her, and the colony is still there, but retreated further into the tunnels but they did come out to greet me when i took a peek

The whole area seems to be filled with nigricep nests under most the rocks there. I lifted a few more and most do not have any brood, only the largest 24x12 inch rock had like 5-7 extremely large and fat larvae.

There was also a small black ants colony on one side the rock, which appeared to be an old termite nest, which had a ton of brood.

They probably didn't know they were nesting next to a nigriceps nest under the same rock... and fights erupted all over the place, but the large Camponotus can't do much against the 2-3mm sized black ants when they latch onto the legs, apart from spraying formic acid.

Then again the small ants don't do much damage either.

Well at least I know where to look come nigricep flying season for a queen if I ever wanted one

It looks like they don't fly far, but none of these colonies had any alates.... but I didn't see the queen so maybe they are in a different chamber

They fly in January

 

 

---

yikes, i just found a nigriceps major on my sleeve?!

 

She is now sipping the raw honey in the same petri dish the other one did yesterday

I'll have to take her back tomorrow...

Edited by CoolColJ, September 1 2018 - 11:08 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Someone I know just caught a Camponotus nigricep queen in Western Australia, it was wandering around...

WTH, well out of flight season!

 

Gives you an idea how big they are

Very similar looking to a C.consobrinus, except without the orange band around the gaster, and a bit more chunky

 

 

Here is what my "black" version of the C.consobrinus queen looks like - still eggless

They normally have an orange thorax

She's around 16-17mm, so slightly smaller than the C.nigcriceps

The nigricep major I have here looks way chunkier and with a much larger head than her

With a larger gaster as well, suprisingly... but I haven't seen a consobrinus major in person yet to see if her majors will be chunkier than her as well

 

old pic

 

Edited by CoolColJ, September 2 2018 - 4:13 PM.