19 replies to this topic

[littlebandicoot]

So I was poked and prodded to make this Journal... LOL, sooo here it is... Hope you all enjoy, and I hope this works out.

 

If all goes well I will set up a care sheet for this species. I have heard that Trap Jaws in general are on the harder side to get past the founding stage, so if this becomes a success I would love to help the community in any way I can.

 

 

 

Got the first Queen on 6/18/2018. I was not sure if she was in fact a queen, but after a little searching on the web I was positive in my ID of her royalness lol.

 

After 24 hours I attached her test tube to a small foraging space with soil from where I found her, keeping it moist. 

 

the next day I studied a mature nest of Odontomachus at my place of work, noting that they were nested very close to a gutter run off from the buildings roof. When I came home I added more moisture to the foraging space and she promptly moved out of the test tube and into the foraging space. 

 

2 days later 3 eggs were found in a chamber under a rock. 

 

As of the time of me making this journal, 6/25/2018,  she has a good clutch going and a few eggs scattered with in the chamber. 

 

About 2 days ago I was hunting for termites to feed this Queen and lifted a piece of wood on my porch (I use the wood as a sort of termite collector) and found another Odontomachus Queen in a very shallow depression in a crack in the concrete. She had a bundle of eggs in her jaws and just stared at me. I scooped her up and placed her into a test tube with some soil. She is a test to see if I'm able to found an Odontomachus colony with in a test tube. So far, not so much luck with her. She has eaten, but has also eaten her clutch I found her with. She has since laid 3 eggs that are stuck to the side wall of the test tube and she seems indifferent to them. 

 

 

My first Queen how ever keeps a majority of her clutch in a nice wad and she moves them around with her, carrying them, or deposits them at her rock entrance and picks them back up after foraging and returns them to her burrow.

 

I'll try to update this as much as I'm able to 

 

Here's to at least 1 successful Odontomachus colony coming out of this. 

 

[Superant33]

So jealous. In 15 years of looking, I have only come across two queens

[littlebandicoot]

Wanted to give every one an update. So far both Queens are doing very well.  The one in the test tube has 2 more eggs and she is now starting to tend to them more. I am, for her benefit, going to attach her tube to a very small out world on Friday.
The queen who has set up camp in her out world is eating like a champ.  I will also be starting a meal worm breeding project with in the next week or so. 

So there are a few small updates and some plans I have for the very near future. 

Edited by littlebandicoot, June 28 2018 - 3:52 PM.

[MegaMyrmex]

Awesome ants, shame that they don't live up here in Maryland...

[TennesseeAnts]

Odontomachus in Arizona? Wow. That is nice! Did not know they were found there.

[AntsAreUs]

Odontomachus in Arizona? Wow. That is nice! Did not know they were found there.

Arizona has the most diversity in North America.

[littlebandicoot]

I was surprised my self Ant dude, but here is a really helpful link I found to everything I have in my state... Feast your eyes on the eye candy   
https://www.antweb.o...tes&images=true

[TennesseeAnts]

Odontomachus in Arizona? Wow. That is nice! Did not know they were found there.

Arizona has the most diversity in North America.

Wow! That is neat!

[AntsAreUs]

antmaps.org is pretty useful too.

Edited by AntsAreUs, June 29 2018 - 7:12 AM.

[littlebandicoot]

7/02/2018 UPDATE!!
We have Larva!!!  WOOP WOOP!!

 

Went to check on the first queen that has the out world and she has fully dug out some chambers, when I checked it from the bottom the egg pile was slightly moving. On closer inspection,  there are larva. I'm so happy!

 

The 2nd queen is not thriving like I was hoping but seems to have stopped eating her eggs and is accumulating a small pile. She has not left her tube for the space of the small out world I connected it to, but she will go out and grab food and bring it back in the tube.

 

Only time will tell how she dose. 

Edited by littlebandicoot, July 2 2018 - 9:59 PM.

[gcsnelling]

Odontomachus is a tricky genus to keep. Some queens do well others not so much, some colonies are very accepting of a variety of food, others want only termites. Although not the most species diverse in the terms of Odontomachus with only one (or two) species on who you believe overall ant diversity is amazing.

[littlebandicoot]

7/16/18 update:

 

After leaving both queens alone for over a week I decided to check there fate. Both seem to be thriving very well. The first queen has quite the amount of brood scattered throughout the chambers she dug. I still believe that there are larva, but like in the last update, all I saw was some movement of white blobs from the bottom of the setup. The 2nd queen has really done a 180 from when I had her in the test tube. I was able to get a little bit of video of her moving her eggs and what I believe is a little spiky larva. 

Hope you enjoy. 

 

[giraffedom]

Nice! I caught one of these queens too recently, and I have her in a test tube with substrate added. Hoping to start a journal soon, yours has been a great guide.

[AntsMaryland]

antmaps.org is pretty useful too.

Wow. Just looked up Maryland. Lot more species then I expected

 

Problem is... locating them...

[littlebandicoot]

I'm sure if you look around you will find some. I didn't have to go far at all to find some awesome ones, right in my back yard. 

[littlebandicoot]

Update 7/24/2018
 

Had my first look at Queen # 1's pupae today. Queen # 2's larva are getting bigger daily. 

Below is the feeding video of Queen # 1, and a quick pic of her pupae.

 

Hope you all enjoy 

 

[EchoMeter4]

Hi. Any updates?

[Rstheant]

Wow. Nice queen.

[neoponera]

odontomachus is a very interesting genus

 

here in nuevo leon, mexico, we, ve only got O. brunneus and O. desertorum

Edited by neoponera, November 6 2018 - 4:18 PM.

[neoponera]

i see you fed them grass hoppers.

 

you are quite lucky having a queen that accepts a variety of foods.

 

i remember that my O. Brunneus queen wouldn't accept anything bigger than her head.