1787 replies to this topic

[CoolColJ]

I would suggest getting a good supply of termites for your Ph. antipodum to be colony. They are specialist subterranean predators of termites.

Termites are one thing I don't lack - see my sig I keep a few
and I find a lot of them under rocks all the time. I grabbed a few alate nymphs today for my ants to feed on.

[CoolColJ]

Spring 25th October 2018
 
 
Rhytidoponera aspera Gamergate colony
20mm Test tube with aquarium filter wool dam, cardboard floor substrate.
7 workers - 2 maybe more as Gamergate queens, 1 drone
no eggs - 30+ brood boost larvae

I dropped 6 termite alate nymphs I captured today into their nest
Very cool seeing one worker come and grab each one with her mandibles and sting them.
Then drag back to the rest, and then palced them onto the brood to eat, the larvae feed themselves.
That should keep them fed for a week.

I should have video'ed it... entertaining stuff!  
One worker then went around the outworld inspecting, wondering where the termites came from

 

Rhytidoponera cf aspera queen 8-9mm queen
16mm Test tube with aquarium filter wool dam - in small outworld
12 eggs, 25 brood boosted larvae

She discarded 3 of the brood boost larvae outside. They look dried.
She probably sucked the juices out of them

Gave her 3 termite alate nymphs, which she also dispatched the same way as the above workers.

 

In a way I can use the the above gamgergate colony to look after the brood to cocoons, and then hand them over to her

Edited by CoolColJ, October 24 2018 - 11:53 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Spring 26th April 2018


Pheidole Colony B - Pheidole sp, all black 8mm queen
16mm tets tube, cotton double chamber setup - heatcable
40'ish workers. 2 majors, second one is larger, super major?

 

Third major larvae has shown up, alongside their big brood pile.

Will it be a smaller major like the first one, or a large headed one like the second, or an even larger major?

Edited by CoolColJ, October 25 2018 - 1:31 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Myrmecia nigrocincta 20mm queens x4
 
Queen 1 - tub and tubes - 3 eggs ?
Queen 2 - sealed test tube - 7 eggs
Queen 3 - sealed test tube - 4 eggs
Queen 4 - sealed test tube - 5 eggs
 
Queen 3 and 4, laid another egg each!
Didn't check on queen 1

Queen 1 in the tub and tubes setup dumped her termite alate nymph outside... she doesn't want to eat any protein for now.
The others have no choice, in their sealed test tubes, and have kept it near their eggs

These Bull ant queens are relatively easy to keep so far, compared to the horror stories I read of other species.
But these were foraging queens, when captured, so they might be the good ones.
Unlike say capturing queens from nuptial flights, where the bad ones haven't been culled yet.
That is the advantage of semi-claustral queens, unlike claustral queens where you have to capture them at or near flight times.
And the bad ones can hang around for a while.

The 2 queens I found yesterday, have been moved on.
One to replace a queen that had been stolen from the guy's front yard after it had been delivered from a trade... and he bought the other one.
I didn't have to do that, but I'm a good guy, and it's what good guys do
The thief probably had the shock of his life 
But that queen will likely die

Edited by CoolColJ, October 25 2018 - 3:29 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Camponotus suffusus bendigensis 17mm queen 2
20mm Test tube - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
1 egg

After one day in my ghetto incubator, she has laid at least 1 egg, maybe 2, but it's hard to see inside as the walls are high and I can't get my jewller's loupe to focus from that distance.
She holds it in her mandibles, just like queen 1 first did
Also pretty skittish just like queen 1 when she first arrived, but should eventually should settle like the other queen.

Edited by CoolColJ, October 25 2018 - 3:32 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Pheidole antipodum 14mm queen 2
16mm Test tube - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
5+ pupa, some large larvae, over 40 brood

This large queen is so much more active than the lazy smaller Pheidole species!
And the queen is quite a lot better mum than the other P.antipodum queen I have.
Constantly moving the brood around to the best position near the heat cable, constantly inspecting, feed and cleaning her brood.
I have her exposed to light and she doesn't mind it.

A few more pupa have shown up.
The largest larvae, which is still growing is almost twice as long as the nanitic pupa, and double the thickness.
I suspect this is a nanitic major.

Edited by CoolColJ, October 26 2018 - 4:15 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Spring 27th October 2018

queens in my ghetto incubator
Temperature hits 28+C degrees inside the box, 30 inside the test tube and 34 directly under the heat cable at the end of the test tube.

 

I need a larger setup, right now I have a few test tubes stacked on top each other!
A bigger box could allow me to move some of my tub and tube queens in here

 

 

Pheidole cf antipodum 15mm queen
20mm Test tube with aquarium filter wool dam - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
10+ eggs

Not much change, but those scattered egg see near the entrance look to be half eaten eggs remains

So her actual egg count is around 10.

And she has placed her green poop fluid on the water cotton....

dual black Iridomyrmex queens 8mm
20mm test tube - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
60? brood

First nanitic eclosed last night, I see she is pretty dark right now, just about 3 weeks since they were put in with eggs!
And 12 pupa
Not going to keep them, but it was a fun experiment. May release them tomorrow, or wait till more nanitics eclose.

 
Nylanderia sp. 6mm - 4 queens
16mm Test tube with aquarium filter wool dam, cardboard floor substrate - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
100? eggs
 
2 big stacks of brood, some large larva now

Pupa next week I reckon

I also won't be keeping these

 

4x Pheidole sp., red, darker gaster 7mm
16mm test tube - heat cable
10+ eggs

I moved them into the incubator yesterday.
They already have had 10+ eggs this week.

Camponotus suffusus bendigensis 17mm queen 2
20mm Test tube - in styrofoam and heat cable incubator
4 eggs

Second day in the incubator brought forth 3 more eggs!

Hmm I may move my first suffusus queen in here as well

 

---

Camponotus consobrinus 16-17mm - black thorax colour scheme
in Minihearth - heat cable
No eggs

Still no eggs from her and her nest is heated

And spring is almost over....
Might put her back in a test tube, or even the Minihearth itself, into my ghetto incubator that hits 28-30 degrees, and see if it gets her to lay some eggs like all my other ants

Edited by CoolColJ, October 26 2018 - 4:14 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Pheidole Colony B - Pheidole sp, all black 8mm queen
16mm test tube, cotton double chamber setup - heatcable
40+ workers. 1 majors, 1 super major?, big stack of brood, third major larvae pupating 

Third major larvae has started to pupate already!
So it should eclose in 2 weeks time at most.

There is a big stack of pupa ready to eclose soon, so should crack 60 workers by then

Edited by CoolColJ, October 26 2018 - 4:37 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Myrmecia nigrocincta 19-20mm queens x4
 
Queen 1 - tub and tubes - 3 eggs
Queen 2 - sealed test tube - 7 eggs
Queen 3 - sealed test tube - 5 eggs
Queen 4 - sealed test tube - 6 eggs
 
Queen 3 and 4, laid another egg each!
It does seem the sealed test tubes in the small closed box lay more eggs than the queen in the tube and tubes setup....


I've sold queen 1, and will move queen 2 into her setup when I post her off.

Edited by CoolColJ, October 26 2018 - 5:00 PM.

[Leo]

bruh. my queen freaks whenever I feed on check on her. Then she eats some eggs.

[CoolColJ]

bruh. my queen freaks whenever I feed on check on her. Then she eats some eggs.

Probably the species you have, seems like the ones I have are easier to look after.
They don't stress to much, I mean if they lay eggs in transit, then they are pretty calm

[CoolColJ]

released dual queen Iridomyrmex colony above


Camponotus suffusus bendigensis 17-18mm queen
20mm Test tube with aquarium filter wool dam - heat cable - red film
4 eggs/larvae

RIP.... she looks to be on her death bed, lying on her back and only able to move her two front legs
 
I wondered why she was ignoring her brood after burying then under the wool overhang a week back...
and then saw her jittering her legs the last few days... Guess she was sick....
 
Damn it, I just have no good luck with suffusus queens - this is my third of 4 that has died... and this one was so pretty!
 
At the very least I can maybe move her 4 brood across to the other queen which has laid 4 eggs of her own.

Edited by CoolColJ, October 26 2018 - 9:23 PM.

[DaveJay]

Damn, that sucks, at least you have another but it's not good odds. Maybe they are not as claustal as other Camponotus? The one I had was often roaming around the tub. Maybe you should try a different set up for them or feed them? Something obviously needs to change with a 75% death rate.
Hopefully you'll be successful with the one you have now, and hopefully she'll take the brood, if they all survive you'll have a great little colony in no time!

[CoolColJ]

Damn, that sucks, at least you have another but it's not good odds. Maybe they are not as claustal as other Camponotus? The one I had was often roaming around the tub. Maybe you should try a different set up for them or feed them? Something obviously needs to change with a 75% death rate.
Hopefully you'll be successful with the one you have now, and hopefully she'll take the brood, if they all survive you'll have a great little colony in no time!

She looked at the brood, grabbed and dumped it at the entrance, so I guess they are dead.
They were already small larvae so died since they were not fed at a guess.

The dying queen is not dead yet, but she sure doesn't look healthy or normal right now.
Maybe she can pull through... I put her in a petri dish with wet cotton and some sugar water soaked into the cotton.

These are definitely claustral, but maybe they are just more prone to get sick

Edited by CoolColJ, October 27 2018 - 1:59 AM.

[DaveJay]

It's just that while C. consobrinus are claustral both of my queens come out of the nest quite a lot, and they always come out to eat insects themselves even though each has 5 or 6 workers, but the other two Camponotus queens never do.

[CoolColJ]

It's just that while C. consobrinus are claustral both of my queens come out of the nest quite a lot, and they always come out to eat insects themselves even though each has 5 or 6 workers, but the other two Camponotus queens never do.

Yes but your Camponotus have workers so that changes things a lot.
Camponotus usually just dig a hole, seal it up and don't come back out until there are enough workers, usually at least 6

2 of my dead suffusus already had workers, so it's not from lack of food that killed them.

[CoolColJ]

Spring 28th October 2018

Camponotus suffusus bendigensis 17-18mm queen

Petri dish with wet sugar water cotton

no brood

Well she's not dead yet!

She is standing upright, unlike last night.

Not quite normal I think.... but she just may bounce back... not putting my hopes too high though

Edited by CoolColJ, October 27 2018 - 1:24 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Myrmecia nigrocincta, bull ants, 19-20mm queens x4
 
Queen 1 - tub and tubes - 4 eggs - SOLD
Queen 2 - sealed test tube - 10 eggs
Queen 3 - sealed test tube - 7 eggs
Queen 4 - sealed test tube - 7 eggs
 
Since yesterday, Queen1 laid an egg, queen2 3 eggs!
Queen3 2 eggs, Queen4 1 egg.
Only queen1 gets to feed on raw honey whenever she likes, which I see her come out and do so once a day.
The others only get honey when I put a dish in once a week.

[CoolColJ]

After selling and trading away 11 of my 14 Myrmecia nigrocincta queens I found over the last 2 weeks, here are the 3 I have left, proudly showing off their eggs in sealed test tubes

Queen 1 with her 10 eggs

click to enlarge




Queen 2 with her 7 eggs



Queen 3 with 7 eggs, while she pulls on the cotton

Edited by CoolColJ, October 27 2018 - 3:28 PM.

[YsTheAnt]

Are you going to keep a few?