58 replies to this topic

[skocko76]

And a couple of days later she was dead... Seemed to me she died of her injuries, but the workers were ready to accept her.

So being the stubborn guy that I am, I decided to risk my last queen, but with a different approach.

The queen is in her founding stage, has eggs. I slowly introduced the workers, one by one - with intention to let them adopt each others scents before introducing another worker.

The first one was meek, but the queen decapitated it after a relatively peaceful interaction.

The second one went okay - they kept jumping and inspecting each other at each touch.

Then I waited a few hours and introduced another one - no reaction.

She is now having 6 workers that keep hanging with her. They are not taking care of the eggs, but I'm not sure they require any care at this stage.

So far so good!

 

 

 

[ANTdrew]

Cool, brother. I hope this one works out. I love this genus! My two new queens are off to a great start, and I’ll be selling both soon. My big colony is doing wonderfully in their new Nucleus nest. Check out my journal on them when you get a chance.

[skocko76]

She is now numbering 15 workers. They are all peaceful but one. There is always a but.

So this one keeps a queens leg or antenna in its mandibles and bobs its gaster occasionally. It doesn't look like it's doing any damage to the queen... she looks at ease and other workers ignore it.

Still, I wonder if should remove the worker. Not sure how to get to it though...

 

[skocko76]

The adoption did not go too well. The queen stopped caring for the eggs as she was probably stressed out.

The workers seemed to have accepted the queen until the test tube dried out and had to move.

They split into two groups, loyalist and rebels    The group that moved to live in better conditions grew larger and no longer supported the queen.

After a week, when the queen went to move, they attacked her.

I separated her into her own (bigger) test tube and she seems to have recovered. She has new batch of eggs.

I gave up on the adoption idea as this lot has killed too many queens already. They have their own formicarium to live the rest of their days.

The journal will continue, tracking the new queen and her adventures!

 

[skocko76]

The queen has recovered and has larve now.

I have found another C. scutellaris queen hanging on a wall in the street, so now I have 2.

The orphan workers are slowly dying out, living a free life. Drugs, rock and roll, and .... no sex .

 

 

[skocko76]

So the second queen I found (in the previous post) did seem a little different at first... Then I convinced myself they were the same. I knew something was off as soon as I saw her pupae.. they were spun into cocoons. Looks like this girl was actually a Camponotus lateralis ... a Camponotus species that mimics the dominant C. scutellaris. They follow C. scutellaris pheromone trails and are receiving less aggression from them than other species do (parabiosis). Incredible how I got fooled - check the photo in the previous post -it's blurry, but the size, shape, coloring are very alike. 

I got fooled also because, two years past, I have caught a Camponotus queeen I believed was C lateralis, and she was different - much larger, head brown. The queen was injured and died quickly. Here's the photo:

 

And this is the actual (I believe) C. lateralis queen:

 

 

The C. scutellaris queen got nanites and I connected them to an outworld. They seem to be doing great:

 

The orphan colony has dropped to 5 workers. At least, once the last one dies, I will be able to gauge a lifespan of a C. scutellaris worker.

 

[ANTdrew]

Plot twist!

[NickAnter]

We have a species here with similar workers, Camponotus bakeri.

[skocko76]

The orphan colony is now down to its last worker.

 

The bullied queen is founding a colony of her own and might be moved into formicarium of the orphaned colony once it becomes vacant.

She currently has over 10 workers and dozens of late stage larvae.

 

The imposter C. lateralis colony is much more inert, the 8 workers being careful to leave the safety only when necessary.

She has about a dozen brood of varying stages.

[skocko76]

The last orphan worker died a couple of weeks ago. Since the colony was queen-less since May 2019, the worker has lived at least 16 months.

Since it was one of those that I simply couldn't persuade to go into test test tube with the queen, I think it was one of the older, more aggressive workers to begin with. So it's quite probable the average lifespan of a C. scutellaris worker is approximately 2 years.

 

The new colony is progressing nicely. Even though the Autumn is in full wake, they are still craving protein and feeding larvae. Their test tube is on it's last drops of water, but I believe they can go on with an additional water source provided.

[skocko76]

The colony has multiplied nicely. They still have brood, but some workers have been taking the smallest eggs to the trash pile. I am not sure whether those are actual eggs or leftovers from pupae after enclosing.

The C. laterallis colony has stayed small, but has some brood, signaling increase in size.

I wonder what will happen to the brood during the winter. Will they survive until spring, or get eaten?

 

[skocko76]

The test tube the Crematogasters were in has been dry for ages. Unsightly too, as it cracked and was held together with some scotch tape.

I attached a nest to the other end of the outworld, hoping they would move, but nope - for months now. The nest was completely ignored.

As ants are infinitely more patient than humans, so I dumped them into the outworld 

Come morning, they decided to get cosy next to a rock and begun dumping trash into the provided nest 

 

[ANTdrew]

Yup, that’s Crematogaster for you. They are some of the hardest ants to move in my experience.
I just put my mega colony into diapause yesterday.

[skocko76]

I have local ants only and don't heat the room they're in. It's a national sport in Mediterranean coastal area to have your butt frozen off in winter. Usually, only a single room in household gets heated. Imagine night visits to the loo  Sure, my ants are not experiencing the noon highs and dawn lows, but generally I let them do their thing, more or less, naturally.

They stop laying eggs and reduce activity in winter, but even recently the colony has enclosed some workers. They are still pale and discoloured. It has been an unusually warm fall.

 

I attached an additional nest to the other end, and finally the colony has moved into it. The queen was well inside in the morning, but as soon as I turned on the light, she ran into the little piece of connector tubing. It's going to take them a few days to adapt.

 

 

[skocko76]

Yup, that’s Crematogaster for you. They are some of the hardest ants to move in my experience.
I just put my mega colony into diapause yesterday.

 

How old/big is your mega colony?

[ANTdrew]

This is their third diapause. They totally fill a THA Nucleus III with several hundreds up in the outworlds at all times.

[ZTYguy]

Just read this journal an I love it and omg I hated moving my colony of Crematogaster. They took a whole three months to move.

[skocko76]

This is their third diapause. They totally fill a THA Nucleus III with several hundreds up in the outworlds at all times.

Whoa that's huge!!! 

I'll be sure to read your journals with some coffee tomorrow!

Edited by skocko76, November 25 2020 - 11:30 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Here’s the link: https://www.formicul...view=getnewpost
Enjoy!

[skocko76]

Here’s the link: https://www.formicul...view=getnewpost
Enjoy!

Quite a journey you had with them so far!
I like the clever thing EmpireOfAnts has done with their outworlds regarding escape prevention. They have a removable frame underneath the lid (mesh). So you can take the frame off and use the lid only while you re-apply PTFE to the frame. Check them out, they might have a large outworld relatively inexpensively. I have their "small" decorated version - the one I keep my C. scutellaris in actually.