14 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

1-17-2015
 
I found a bunch of these Crematogaster queens while running a black light just after dark on July 26th 2014, in Pinyon Pines, California. These queens were fairly large Crematogaster queens, at around 11 mm. Some of them tore their wings off by the next day, and some left theirs on. The vast majority of these were fertile, and they produced pretty quick.
 

 
By now many of them have died, and a few have been given away or sold. I now have three colonies of these left, and two of those aren't doing too bad. I've been keeping them in small test tube-sized foraging containers, and today I just moved the best colony into one of my regular foraging containers. This colony has about 10 workers, and a pile of about 35 larvae.

[Gregory2455]

Do Crematogaster larvae always look empty for you too?

[dspdrew]

I don't understand your question.

[Gregory2455]

Does it look like they have food in their gut, or do they always look hungry?

[dspdrew]

Not sure. I thought I remember seeing food in them usually.

[Miles]

My Crematogaster's larvae always look "full".

[Gregory2455]

Mine always look empty, but they are growing. Oh well, whatever works for them I guess...

[drtrmiller]

Mine always look empty, but they are growing. Oh well, whatever works for them I guess...

 

The gut content could be yellowish, which would cause the larvae to appear "empty."

[Gregory2455]

It is yellow. Is it normal to have a yellow gut content from eating Aqua 300?

[drtrmiller]

It is yellow. Is it normal to have a yellow gut content from eating Aqua 300?

 

I've explained this previously, that my observation has been that some ants will eat these foods containing dye, and their larvae will grow, but for an unexplained reason, the larval stomach contents do not turn the color of the dye.

 

I noticed this phenomena particularly in Pheidole dentata, but I also fed these ants small insects at the same time.  They consume both insects and Formula products voraciously.  Now that the colony is living in my bathroom wall, I can leave a whole 1x1 cm cube on the counter, and they will reduce the thing to nothing more than a stain within hours.

[Ants4fun]

update?

[dspdrew]

Update 4-10-2015
 
I still have all three colonies. Two of them are small and only have a few workers and brood. The larger one now has about 50 workers and a big pile of brood.
 

 

 

[Jonathan21700]

Nice!

[Gregory2455]

Update 4-10-2015
 
I still have all three colonies. Two of them are small and only have a few workers and brood. The larger one now has about 50 workers and a big pile of brood.
 

 

 

Looking exactly like my Crematogaster colony.

[dspdrew]

Update 9-2-2015

 

I eventually only had one colony left, that got up to about 100 workers, but I sold it today. I just have too many colonies to take care of.