8 replies to this topic

[Aaron567]

On June 17, 2018, at 8:00 AM, I found a queen in my pool that looked to be some kind of Monomorium at first glance. I later identified her as Temnothorax pergandei. This species is unique when compared with other North American Temnothorax because they have a more leggy appearance and therefore look a lot more like Monomorium or Solenopsis than Temnothorax.

 

 

 

 

By June 20, she had shed most of her wings and laid her first egg. I did not take pictures on that day. 

 

 

 

June 30, 2018

 

This is her today. She has shed all four wings and has 10 eggs and 2 larvae. She is very prolific compared to the T. curvispinosus queens I had last year.

 

Edited by Aaron567, August 18 2018 - 10:27 AM.

[Aaron567]

July 9, 2018

 

 

July 13, 2018

 

First pupa. I thought she would be getting a lot of nanitics but it turns out she just laid a bunch of extra eggs to feed the larvae at first. She's so skinny, she looks like a semi-claustral queen now. 

 

Edited by Aaron567, July 13 2018 - 6:53 PM.

[Aaron567]

July 23, 2018

 

First nanitic. 

 

[Aaron567]

August 18, 2018

 

I have discovered that these ants really, REALLY, need sugar immediately after the workers eclose. Just days after the third nanitic hatched, the workers began to die and the colony wasn't acting right. The brood seemingly all died and and two workers dropped dead within the same two days. I had been feeding them cricket legs and they were gladly accepting and eating them. When there was one worker and no brood left, I offered them some sugar water and they sipped it up quickly. It's now been about 11 days since the deaths and the queen and single worker are still alive. There are still no eggs at all. I hope the queen will lay soon. 

 

This is a picture of the queen and worker drinking sugar-honey-water on August 7th with a dead worker next to them.

 

[Major]

I assume that these are housed in a standard test tube setup. How do you get pictures that seem to have no test tube visable.

[Derpy]

Wow, those are very good photos. I wish my pictures could be that good:)

[TennesseeAnts]

Update?

[Aaron567]

They never recovered from the die off, died shortly after the last update. Hoping to catch more this year to try again.

[TennesseeAnts]

Did you get any more of these? I collected colonies of both color variants, and are pretty fun to keep so far. I love how much bigger they are than other common Temnothorax.