625 replies to this topic

[CatsnAnts]

Ant_Dude2908, on 26 Jan 2020 - 8:58 PM, said:

How many workers/soldiers in each termite colony?

That’s a good question . I actually have no idea but rather a rough estimate of 15-20 workers in the first (it’s all covered in dirt), and who knows how many in the second!

[CatsnAnts]

GUYS! My Temnothorax ambiguus 5 queen colony has TWO eggs! It’s only been about 12-13 days since I brought them out of hibernation, but sadly 2 of the three workers seem to be on their death beds. I’ll just have to hope the last worker can remain strong until the eggs reach the nanitics stage. I’ll get some pictures when there are more eggs (they aren’t bothered by me checking on them anymore ).

[CatsnAnts]

Update time!

Okay. Lots has changed:

I’ll start off by saying that I have released my two Camponotus subbarbatus colonies per request by my parents. HOWEVER, I recently had my 16th birthday, and I asked that I would be allowed to keep ants (specifically Temnothorax, Colonopsis, Strumigenys, other small ant colonies, etc.) inside of my bedroom. Previously, this was why most of my ant colonies would never do well: I was forced to keep them outside/in our carpentry shed, which meant that I usually lacked the motivation to care for them since I couldn’t really enjoy having them. Now, I’m allowed to keep a maximum of 2-3 colonies on my bedroom, which means that I can enjoy their presence a LOT more! So in all, I will only be keeping 2-3 colonies of ants that form small colonies (which I personally like best).

My five queen Temnothorax colony has sadly had one queen pass away, and they have eaten all of their eggs. Short story becomes a long story:

These past few weeks, I have been spending hours upon hours in my woods looking for temnothorax colonies. There are plenty of hickory nuts and acorns present, but no luck ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. THEN, today, I go to the spot I went to last year (which is by our road, very awkward when people drive by and wonder what I’m doing, then I have to explain my ant keeping hobby lol, which is why is waited for this as a last resort). The first TWO hickory units that I open have colonies in them, both Temnothorax curvispinosus. The smaller colony, I had noticed, only had pupae present. No eggs or larvae, which led me to believe that the queen had passed away. I was correct. After isolating this queenless colony, I decided to merge my 4 Temnothorax ambiguus queens with this colony. Though different species, they seem to have accepted each other pretty well. I’ll post pictures later if all turns out well.

NOW, for the second Temnothorax colony that I collected from a hickory nut today. This colony was much larger, and already has a queen. You may be wondering why I was looking for such colonies, and the answer is that I bought a Terheelants Inception Chamber formicarium! The moving process was a little difficult, but they ended up moving in after about 5 hours, oof. Have a look:










(As of now, the entire colony is on top of the water tower)

I do have one concern though. The water tower appears to have “caved in” near one of the edges:



As you can see, the crack is barely noticeable, but I am worried that it will continue to open up further and further to the point where ants and brood fall in! It is also a problem for when I move the formicarium because the water is able to flood that spot, and thus, ants are in danger of drowning. Any input?

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 21 2020 - 11:53 AM.

[RushmoreAnts]

Nice! Temnothorax is one of my targets for this year. I have a good feeling, as I have already found a couple of my target species early on. Unfortunately, we don't have many hickory nuts or acorns around here. I'd have to find them in a twig or something, or under a stone.

[ANTdrew]

Welcome back, man! I’m glad your parents are coming around. I guess that means no termites, though?
I caught two C subbarbatus queens this year and two termite alates as well.

[RushmoreAnts]

ANTdrew, on 21 May 2020 - 11:05 AM, said:

Welcome back, man! I’m glad your parents are coming around. I guess that means no termites, though?
I caught two C subbarbatus queens this year and two termite alates as well.

Didn't he say his parents made him release the subbarbatus? 

Edit- didn't see the bedroom part. I convinced my parents to let me keep my feeders in my bedroom, so anything's possible................ 

Edited by AntsDakota, May 21 2020 - 3:37 AM.

[CatsnAnts]

ANTdrew, on 21 May 2020 - 11:05 AM, said:

Welcome back, man! I’m glad your parents are coming around. I guess that means no termites, though?
I caught two C subbarbatus queens this year and two termite alates as well.

Thanks! And yes, that sadly meant the termites as well. Congrats on the C. subbarbatus queens and termite alates!

[RushmoreAnts]

Unfortunately we don’t have interesting Camponotus like subbarbatus, if you don’t count vicinus.

[CatsnAnts]

^^^ myrmentoma sp. are my favorite

Okay, the morning has come and the results from last night are in:

I’ll start off with the temnothorax colony in the THA formicarium:
- I gave them some honey, and about 12-15 workers were out at a time. I think it’s safe to say they loved it! Have some more pictures as they are all now together, so you can see the full extent of their brood pile:


(Having a professionally made formicarium just makes things so much easier. I think I might just attempt to glue the mesh on the water tower, as previously mentioned.)

Now! For the exciting results:
- The four queen Temnothorax ambiguus colony has successfully merged with the queenless Temnothorax curvispinosus colony. Everything seems to be going well, however, there is the occasional bite from a worker, but things are usually resolved fairly quickly. I seriously hope these queens found a successful colony now, because I’ve had them for about 10 and a half months. Have a look:




(You can see how one worker has taken hold of one of the queen’s legs, so they still have a few tensions. I did, though, see trophalaxsis earlier this morning between a worker and a queen!)

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 21 2020 - 5:08 AM.

[madbiologist]

Is it just me or do the ambiguus have alate brood?

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[CatsnAnts]

madbiologist, on 21 May 2020 - 2:28 PM, said:

Is it just me or do the ambiguus have alate brood?

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

That’s what it would seem to me too, nice catch! I hope it doesn’t cause too many issue since the alates will be a different species •~•

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 21 2020 - 7:00 AM.

[CatsnAnts]

Just fed the T. ambiguus/curvispinosus colony some honey! Also, just realized that somehow a piece of plastic managed to work it’s way into the test tube, going to need to figure out how to remove it (it’s right on top of the brood pile).


(Here you can see the plastic shard)



EDIT: I have since removed the plastic shard by using a toothpick with a tiny amount of honey on the end to pick it up.

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 21 2020 - 8:00 AM.

[CatsnAnts]

Update:

Sadly, my four queen T. ambiguus colony has begun to collapse in on itself as the workers and queens unexpectedly began fighting. I thought everything was going well, but apparently not

- that means that I will have to euthanize or release them sometime in the near future if things don’t shape up.

[RushmoreAnts]

Too bad. I hope they recover.

[Ants_Dakota]

This is an interesting journal. temnothorax is a really cool genus. Do we have any around here? Also, what is their size?

[madbiologist]

Ants_Dakota, on 23 May 2020 - 03:07 AM, said:

This is an interesting journal. temnothorax is a really cool genus. Do we have any around here? Also, what is their size?

Workers are ~3mm and queens are ~5mm. You probably have 5-10 different species there. They live in acorns, sticks, and hollow reeds usually.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[TennesseeAnts]

Great to see you back!

[CatsnAnts]

Ants_Dakota, on 23 May 2020 - 03:07 AM, said:

This is an interesting journal. temnothorax is a really cool genus. Do we have any around here? Also, what is their size?

^^^
Kind-of building off of what Madbiologist said:
- In my experience, I cannot find a single temnothorax colony in our entire woods, but near our road (on the edge of a woods) we have lots. My theory for this is that water drains a lot better by the road from the gravel present, so I would assume they prefer to be in a well-draining area. Look near the edge of woods or in any clearings that you might find, because they prefer to be in a shaded spot, but still in a spot that is not exactly “crowded” with vegetation or leaves. I tend to find a majority of my colonies in hickory nuts, but acorns/hollow sticks do the job as well.

Ant_Dude2908, on 23 May 2020 - 04:56 AM, said:

Great to see you back!

Aha thank you!





UPDATE (might as well):
- Just so everyone is clear, I only have one colony at the current moment: My T. curvispinosus colony that I found in a hickory nut and is currently in an inception chamber.

-Speaking of inception chambers, I recently purchased two more of the same kind, as well as convinced the owner Mack to send me some of their mixture (or ingredients, to then mix) to fix the current water tower that has slightly caved in. These formicaria are hefty in price, but are seriously worth it after all of my failed attempts in the last few months alone.

[RushmoreAnts]

I also got an Inception Chamber, for my parasitic Lasius colony. But nothing compares to the museum glass of the Palladium.........

[CatsnAnts]

AntsDakota, on 23 May 2020 - 1:23 PM, said:

I also got an Inception Chamber, for my parasitic Lasius colony. But nothing compares to the museum glass of the Palladium.........

Tell me about it lol. Museum glass sounds really nice, but at least the acrylic provides much better viewing than my test tubes haha.