625 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

It’s really easy to culture your own springtails. I have a good culture going in one of those salad greens boxes filled with potting soil and some rotting plant matter.

[CatsnAnts]

My Ph. bicarinata still have their four queens, and they have tons of small to large larvae and a new batch of eggs.

My god, I can’t wait to see what the first batch of workers is going to look like .

[CatsnAnts]

It’s really easy to culture your own springtails. I have a good culture going in one of those salad greens boxes filled with potting soil and some rotting plant matter.

Ya, I should really try to attempt it again. I’ve done it before, but since it hasn’t rained in over a week and a half, the springtails are all gone from where I normally find them. The problem was that whenever I would find some, I immediately fed them to my ants and never had many left over to start a culture.

[TennesseeAnts]

My Ph. bicarinata still have their four queens, and they have tons of small to large larvae and a new batch of eggs.

My god, I can’t wait to see what the first batch of workers is going to look like .

I have them at 82 degrees, so it shouldn't be long! Most of the large larvae are already beginning to pupate!

[CatsnAnts]

Well, my two starter fly cultures have arrived, and one is in good condition with producing flys, while the other had its lid fall off. I’m probably going to just add some flys to it later from the good culture.

[CatsnAnts]

Well, I’m glad to see that my Strumigenys pilinasis colony definitely accepts fruit flys. I have them one and they swarmed it and brought all of their larvae to it. Also, C. Subbarbatus colony #1 (Sygn) was fed a cricket.

My 5 queen Temnthorax ambiguus colony should be getting pupae any day now. These might even be my favorite ants.

[CatsnAnts]

Well, it seems as though there is already a dominant queen among the three Pheidole queens. She has torn some limbs off the other two queens, but I’m still hoping they can found a colony together.

[CatsnAnts]

Well, just kidding, the dominant queen is actually the queen that just avoided the fight. The other two queens were the ones fighting, and they are now as good as dead. I put the healthy queen by herself, so hopefully she’ll lay some eggs.

[madbiologist]

My Ph. bicarinata still have their four queens, and they have tons of small to large larvae and a new batch of eggs.

Lmk what happens once they get nanitics, in Ohio someone got 40 an we're trying to see if they're poly.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[TennesseeAnts]

My Ph. bicarinata still have their four queens, and they have tons of small to large larvae and a new batch of eggs.

Lmk what happens once they get nanitics, in Ohio someone got 40 an we're trying to see if they're poly.
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Will do! They have some pupae now, so not far off.

[CatsnAnts]

Well, time to do a bigggg biggggggg update:

Let’s start of with the oldest of the colonies: my Camponotus subbarbatus:

Camponotus subbarbatus (1) — Queen name: Sygn — No colony name:
— Doing very well with six workers, they are a lot of the cricket I gave them and the queen has laid more eggs. Her workers are absolutely GORGEOUS may I add. The colony seems pretty used to me now and to light. By far one of my favorite colonies (but not as much as the next colony).

Camponotus subbarbatus (2) — Queen name: Topa — No colony name:
— They just had their first protein meal today: some fruit flys (drosophila melanogaster). I gave them 5-6 and they LOVED them! It was so interesting to watch them hunt and kill the fruit flys! Even the queen got in on the action and was sporting a fly of her own. In the end, they decided to make a little stash of them. This colony is my favorite out of all of the C. Subbarbatus colonies. It kind of looks like some of the workers are acting as “repletes” too. Here’s some pictures of when I fed them today (I love their coloration):





Camponotus subbarbatus (3) — No queen name — No colony name:
— I’m probably going to release this colony as it is the worst of all three colonies. The brood boosted workers are fighting with the biological workers. It’s just not good. This will probably be the last update for them.


Now let’s move onto my next favorite colony: my Strumigenys pilinasis:

Strumigenys pilinasis (1) — No queen name — No colony name:
— These gals are doing SUPERB with a worker count of about 65 (I think, I counted wrong in previous updates as well). I fed them three more fruit flys today, and just like last time, they immediately pounced on them and will soon be having a feast. The queen has recently laid some more eggs too. I’m debating on whether or not I can just keep them in test tubes for the rest of the colonies life cycle. They don’t grow that large, and they are doing really well right now (and have been). Here’s some pictures:






Now for the Temnothorax queens:

Temnothorax curvispinosus (1) — No queens names — Noncolony name:
— I released these since they weren’t getting along, each queen took a little bit of the brood pile and went their own seperate ways. It was kinda sad and cool to watch.

Temnothorax ambiguus (1) — No queens names — No colony name:
— Being honest, all of the ants I have right now I love equally, as I am now only keeping queens that I REALLY love. These ants though have really captured my heart, they’re so fricken cute. They’ve got a lot of larvae (“a lot” by Temnothorax standards). They should be getting pupae now any day. I’m hoping (fingers crossed) that they don’t fight, but I’ve got a good feeling. Here’s some pictures (also, Antdude if your reading this, how are yours doing? If I remembered correctly that you had some of this species?):




Up next is the Pheidole queens! I’m only going to update the very first queen of Pheidole bicarinata and the very first egg laying queen of Pheidole cf. morrisii, although there are currently three Pheidole queens total that have eggs.

Pheidole bicarinata (1) — No queen name — No colony name:
— Doing VERY well! She’s got a HUGE egg pile that should be getting larvae any day now! Pheidole has always been on my bucket list since the beginning of this year, and I can’t describe how happy I am that things are going right ! Here’s some pictures (you can see the eggs a little above the queen’s head, there’s soooo many):


Pheidole cf. morrisii (1) — No queen name — No colony name:
— Also doing VERY well. Has an egg pile that is nearing the size of the queen’s egg pile in the update above. She’s still confusing me on her species because she looks so different, but yet so similar to the other bicarinata queens. Either way I’m happy to have her. Here’s a way over exessive amount of pictures (please, if someone can positively identify her, I NEED TO KNOW for my sake):









Last but most certainly not least is my Colobopsis queens:

Colobopsis cf. impressa (1) — No queen name — No colony name:
— I’ve changed my mind and I’m almost certain she is C. impressa now. She’s got 6 eggs/larvae, but surprise, they’re all scattered around. Here’s some pictures:



Colobopsis mississippiensis (1) — No queen name — No colony name:
— she STILL doesn’t have any eggs, but I’m not giving up on her. She acts fertile in so many ways, but just refuses to lay eggs. I guess time will tell. Sorry, no pictures, not really much to show.


GEEZ that took a while to type, but I’m done, phew.

Edited by CatsnAnts, July 21 2019 - 5:32 PM.

[Acutus]

WOW!! Lots of ant goings on! Congrats on all the great species! Especially the Strumigenys pilinasis! I wanna get these gals  one day.  Well some type of Strumigenys anyways.

Edited by Acutus, July 21 2019 - 5:11 PM.

[CatsnAnts]

WOW!! Lots of ant goings on! Congrats on all the great species! Especially the Strumigenys pilinasis! I wanna get these gals one day. Well some type of Strumigenys anyways.

Thanks! It’s certainly been a great year so far to say the least !

I also forgot to mention in the update above that I have now completely removed any trace of the hickory nut the Strumigenys colony was in and they are in the test tube fully moved in now.

[TennesseeAnts]

My Temnothorax ambiguus died. None were fertile.

[CatsnAnts]

My Temnothorax ambiguus died. None were fertile.

Aww, that’s sad

Edit: Also, with these new pictures, can anybody determine if that queen is P. morrisii? She just seems so much more “bulky” than the other queen.

Double edit: AND I just checked on my T. ambiguus colony this morning to discover that they have a single pupae!

Edited by CatsnAnts, July 22 2019 - 5:30 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

It definitely looks like it's not Ph. bicarinata. It might be morrisii.

[CatsnAnts]

It definitely looks like it's not Ph. bicarinata. It might be morrisii.

Man, I really hope. According to antweb, Ph. morrisii is the only other Pheidole in my area, and it’s really the only other match in terms of features. That would be a dream if it was.

[TennesseeAnts]

Btw, my rare Camponotus subbarbatus  colony is doing great! My more common dark variant is doing ok, but not as good as my rare, light variant!

[CatsnAnts]

Btw, my rare Camponotus subbarbatus colony is doing great! My more common dark variant is doing ok, but not as good as my rare, light variant!

That’s great ! I’d really love to see some pictures of them! (Were the other pictures ever fixed?)

[TennesseeAnts]

I sent you some pics in a PM. No, I know what the problem is, I just haven't fixed it yet.