22 replies to this topic

[Scrixx]

I gave my Pogonomyrmex rugosus colony a piece of oat and almond on top of the fish food I offer. I checked on them today and what I saw was pretty cool. Their insides are different colors! The first larva is brown meaning it probably ate a variety of foods. The second larva is yellowish which means it probably ate the wild grass seed, almond and oats. Without fish food. The next two are fairly red meaning they ate mostly fish food if not only fish food. Lastly the largest on the right has insides that are almost the same color as the larvae itself. Not sure what it ate, maybe mostly almond since almond is white? 

 

[Scrixx]

Pogonomyrmex rugosus

This queen now has 9 workers. I'm actually so glad she was able to recover. In one of my earlier posts she had around 40 eggs. It looks like most of the eggs were laid purely as a food source as only 9 workers came out of the pile.

 

The colony looks like it is slowing down now. I know they don't hibernate as they're from the desert but this colony is probably slowing down for the winter. They have one large larva left and I wonder if it will pupate or not.

 

 

 

 

Pogonomyrmex californicus

I have two colonies left. One with 30 workers and the other with 17 workers. I was really surprised when I counted the one with 30 workers. They jumped from 15 to 30. There were a lot of pupa the last time I checked but it's surprising when the worker count doubles.

 

Half of the workers stay with the queen, eggs, and larva and the other half stay with the pupa and larger larva in the outworld.

 

 

 

Pogonomyrmex subnitidus

I forgot to take a picture of this species but I caught over 15 queens a while ago. I placed them all into multi-queen setups hoping for polygyny. I checked on them after a month and I separated the queens without brood and placed them in their own tubes. Now I have two successful polygynous colonies with 3 queens each. One colony has 1 worker with a lot of brood, the other has 3 workers with only a few small larva. We'll see if they're truly polygynous if they keep all the queen after half a year. I also have two single queen colonies, 1 with 1 worker, and the other with a dark orange pupa so it should eclose soon. 

 

[Scrixx]

Pogonomyrmex subnitidus

Well here's a photo of my Pogonomyrmex subnitidus. The first photo is my main colony and the healthiest. They've got a decent amount of larva and pupa. Right now they're living in my custom formicarium with a water tower. It's way too wet by the water tower opening so they're halfway between the nest entrance and the water tower. This colony has one worker but has the most brood. The other colony is in a test tube inside a dirt layered container but it has 2 workers and less brood.

 

This next photo shows one of my single queen colonies with a newly eclosed worker. You can also see a line of eggs just to the right of the queen. I believe she's cleaning her gaster or laying another egg at the time of this picture.

Edited by Scrixx, October 19 2018 - 6:18 PM.