173 replies to this topic

[DaveJay]

It rained yesterday and this morning here, but even the sunny days coming are only forecast to be 13c or so, I'm not sure if that'll do it or not but I've got my collecting kits in the car ready to go, initially I will just snag every queen I see and see what I get.
Winter was a bad time to start keeping ants, I don't really know what species to expect because I didn't take much notice in previous seasons, I saw queens but just observed them without trying to pick the species.

Regarding the colony I collected I'm sure I got every ant present so I should have a queen that I haven't noticed or a gamergate that founded the colony. It is possible that it was a satellite nest without a fertile female and the parent nest has been poisoned or destroyed but I don't think it's that likely. It could also be that the queen died in transit unable to free itself from the sand burying it but most inverts don't have a problem with dry sand. All I can do is keep them and see what happens, maybe I'll find a drone but I doubt it somehow, although once I live in the area I might be present for later flights. It's all part of the game I guess.

[DaveJay]

Melophorus are the hypo ants right? I think there are videos on Mark Newtons' channel "Wild South Australia" , check out his website by the same name too, there's some good pictures there.

[CoolColJ]

Yeah she could be the queen that didn't shed her wings, it happens

[CoolColJ]

Melophorus are the hypo ants right? I think there are videos on Mark Newtons' channel "Wild South Australia" , check out his website by the same name too, there's some good pictures there.

 

They move fast and get faster the hotter it is, but their not like the zippy small black Iridomyrmex that just spazz out no matter what

 

Also highly polymorphic ants, with multiple castes and majors

[DaveJay]

[quote name="CoolColJ" post="100899" timestamp="1535700353"

Also highly polymorphic ants, with multiple castes and majors[/quote]
I like that in ants, that's what drew me to Camponotus, and what I find tempting reading your Pheolie colony updates. When I move I'll be where Melophorus live so I should get queens sometime, they could be interesting.

[DaveJay]

Yeah she could be the queen that didn't shed her wings, it happens

Maybe, but it's not like I've inspected every ant to see if it's a queen, and the gamergate theory seems sound. I'm watching them now, they're digging chambers not tunnels trying to escape, it looks like they're getting ready for brood not just aimlessly digging like workers in an old school ant farm so I'll stay optimistic.

[DaveJay]

There is an ant on the wall of the tub, the others didn't climb even when catching them. This ant is either the winged one without wings, or it's the Queen! She seems to be watching and waiting. This ant is a different shape, mainly the gaster is different but she's the only one that can climb so far, I can't check out her pecs but if she's not the winged one sans wings she is the Queen for sure!

[DaveJay]

1st of September 2018
The first day of spring!

Fed all colonies peanut (with salt), almond, sunflower kernel, fresh sweetcorn and gourmet dog food. I used the clipped off end of a cotton tip method to serve the new sugar/honey water batch, they took to it well, I think the last batch ended up too sweet after I added golden syrup. The reason I went back to this method is while the ants didn't drain the feeder through sticking sand to it a feeder leaked a little after I sprayed the enclosure, I guess because the outside was wet. It was in a petri dish in case sand was stuck to it and it drained, which did happen again and the petri dish worked well at containing the wet sticky sand, unfortunately because these hadn't put sand in the dish the leakage plus the run off from spraying caused a puddle and one of my Camponotus sp."Cairns" workers drowned. The puddle wasn't very sticky, it just drowned, the nanitics are very small but it still surprised me.
Other than that every one seems to be doing well.

[DaveJay]

In both Camponotus consobrinus colonies workers have filled up on the new batch of sugar/honey water. This mix was made with one teaspoon of raw sugar, one level teaspoon of honey(well a blob, it's very thick) in a shot glass of water. It's coloured bright red because I'm experimenting with feeders. Last night in bed I could see workers on the glass with swollen gasters and when the light hit them right a red sparkle would appear like they were wearing sequins! I didn't try to capture it in a photo as I knew the star effect like you get in an old disco video wouldn't come out. It looked great though!

[DaveJay]

Dinner's ready!

 

Some updates on the C. consobrinus colonies.

 

Since the Queens came out to eat the mealworm pupae colony number 1 has kept the entrance to the nest blocked and only one worker at a time plays scout/guard although the new sugar water coaxed a couple more out briefly. While I was away they covered everything in substrate, not from the nest, they dug up the surface. It was all a big mess so I took most of the decor out to wash so the enclosure looks a bit trashed atm.

The larvae are looking good!

 

The other colony absolutely trashed their enclosure too but I cleaned it up.

They have brood but I used a reject formicarium from my experimentation so there is too much room and they are hidden atm.

They had all the leaves covered, even right at the top, I saw a bit I missed.

 

 

 

[CoolColJ]

Strange, I wonder why they did that, or maybe it was good place to dump dirt while they were digging

[DaveJay]

Strange, I wonder why they did that, or maybe it was good place to dump dirt while they were digging

It was a bit strange, the plants were washed before and after being added to the enclosure so unlikely that it was like them covering food. I've watched videos of Campontotus in the wild and they never leave piles of dirt or anything else that might give them away near the entrances to their nests so maybe that was their attempt at spreading the debris to avoid detection.

[DaveJay]

I finally took some pictures of my two new Camponotus "colonies" which have yet to move from their test tubes.

 

Firstly the Camponotus sp. "Cairns". These seemed very panicked when I got them, and very small and fragile looking. Initially I housed them in a vented tub with a sand substrate. I placed a piece of electrical tape along the test tube to make them calmer, they immediately plugged the entrance with sand and did not venture out as far as I could see. When I placed them in the enclosure they blocked the entrance with sand again but after a week or so I would see one scouting around, never more. Unfortunately because of me spraying which lead to the feeder leaking I think the one brave soul drowned.   (more detail in a preceding post)

 

I took some very average pictures of them in the tube, it doesn't do them justice.

I left part of my thumbnail in this picture as a size reference, my hands are an average size.

These pics aren't great, my first time dealing with small ants in a test tube but I'm learning. You can't see the different browns in the Queen very well, she's got a subtle pattern with tones blending from light caramel to a dark coffee colour, she looks like she's taste great! lol

Lot's of brood now!

This is their home

 

 

It looks bare because it is missing this plug. It's something like one of Drews'  dirt boxes with a reservoir of wet sand inside, I want evaporation from the top of the nesting substrate not from the top of the reservoir so I made plugs. Also handy for cleaning and maintenance to be able to remove the decor, plus the added bonus of being able to change the theme of the formicarium easily, I've already decided I'll make another plug for their formicarium to give it a more tropical look and I'll use this plug in another enclosure. The plug should be where the food dish is in the centre, there is another indentation for the food dish in the back corner but it's filled with sand atm.

 

  

    

Edited by DaveJay, September 3 2018 - 12:54 AM.

[DaveJay]

This is my Camponotus aeneopilosus "colony". Again I only see one out exploring, probably the same one. The only time I see two is when I spray, they go into panic mode for some reason. When in the tub set up they had their tube plugged with sand to leave a small entrance, unlike the "Cairns" which completely plugged their tube. Interestingly in the tub they had tunnels under the sand so they could go from the entrance to the food without being exposed, I have seen pictures of this in the wild, tunnels very much just under the sand, in a picture you can see their tunnel as a small rounded ridge so they must fortify it somehow, perhaps cementing the sand with saliva? I don't know. Now that they are in the formicarium they don't block their tube and only one comes out, totally different behaviour to in the tub when four would be going backwards and forwards through the tunnel, I guess they don't feel safe now.

 

Here's their home.

 

The plug in this case is the taller grass in the back corner.

Edited by DaveJay, September 3 2018 - 2:05 AM.

[DaveJay]

 Rhytidoponera metallica

 

I thought I'd start by showing the tub set up, this is basically how I had the two new Camponotus colonies set up, only with just a thin layer of sand and the test tube in the middle.

I only got a couple of ant pics, they didn't want to come out after being moved around.

 

This picture here.....

 

 

.... made me think of this, 

" Do you think ants go to discos? "

"Vyvyan, it has been proved that ants are highly intelligent with a well ordered society-the last thing they'd go to would be discos."

"Well, why's one of them wearing a silver boob tube then?"

 

 

"Did you know that humans can actually build bridges?"

"Really? But have they ever been to a disco?"

 

 

 

[DaveJay]

And just some pics of my formicariums

I decided the ones this size might be hard to deal with if the ants try to escape so I put a little Phlogius crassipes in there instead.

[DaveJay]

A quick update on the R. metallica I collected, after feeding them I shone a torch around their tunnels and chambers and found a brood chamber with a small pile of eggs and a small pile of larvae. They panicked of course, picking up eggs and larvae so I contented myself with a brief glimpse. I couldn't see if there was a queen or if the winged ant was present, I thought maybe it might be less intrusive looking in the day rather than startling them going from black to torch light at 1am. If a gamergate founded the colony then I'd never pick the layer anyway. Good to know that they have brood and the various tunnels connect to a brood chamber, at least they're acting like a colony not a bunch of stray workers.

[DaveJay]

Oh, and finally there is some movement in the C. "Gold bum" camp! Excavation has commenced on a new nest! Only one worker (nanitic) digging while the others laze around the tube but it's a start! I wonder if it is the same ant that comes out all the time or if it just seems like it is?

[DaveJay]

Feeding the ants tonight I noticed one of the C. consobrinus (colony 1) larvae was bright pink! I have die in the sugar water so it must have been fed some by a worker. Only one larvae had colour, the rest are still normal. It's been 5 days since I replaced their food so perhaps protein stocks were low.
The Queen in colony 2 has taken to sitting outside of the nest again, much as the first one did before the workers restricted the nest entrance to block her in. From my limited observations I think that the nest being too moist is the problem. I've restricted spraying to one rear corner which was my intention anyway, but I sprayed liberally before and after going on holiday.

[Ikerrilove]

 

Strange, I wonder why they did that, or maybe it was good place to dump dirt while they were digging

It was a bit strange, the plants were washed before and after being added to the enclosure so unlikely that it was like them covering food. I've watched videos of Campontotus in the wild and they never leave piles of dirt or anything else that might give them away near the entrances to their nests so maybe that was their attempt at spreading the debris to avoid detection.

 

 

The noveboracensis here have the neatest trails covered in leaf/needle litter. They're visible if you know what to look for and you can see them moving through little open parts here and there. They have trail tunnels like that all the way from their nest tree (a cedar I think) to the taller pine. A few more  trails are around that area too, just neat to see the big majors walking through them. But if they know you're watching, they start to cover over the open spots with more dirt. Such characters and so visible with workers roaming the whole property to find something interesting.