5 replies to this topic

[Mettcollsuss]

A few days ago, I caught two Ponera pennsylvanica queens. All I know about their diet so far is that they are mostly predatory and supposedly don't like sweets. I've tried giving them pre-killed fruit flies (the only feeder insect I currently have available), but they ignored them. Has anyone raised this species before and have recommendations on what they might eat?

 

EDIT:

One of the queens accepted a live fruit fly larvae just now.

 

I have a couple more questions that just popped into mind. 1) I remember hearing that they do better in setups with dirt. Should I give them a petri dish setup, or would adding some substrate to their test tube work? 2) AntWiki says they are polygynous. Can anyone confirm this? If so, I'd like to try mixing the queens.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, September 7 2018 - 5:19 AM.

[noebl1]

I had a queen last year I was keeping, made it thru hibernation, but died during the summer.  She initially would only take live fruit flies and gnats (she would actively hunt them).  Later she started to accept dead foods such as mosquitos and other small insects.

[AntsAreUs]

I got several queens to raise workers inside a soil setup and living off springtails. They are quite simple ants. They are NOT polygynous in the founding stage and I'm unsure how colonies become polygynous. It may be secondary polygyny with smaller gynes as queens are quite aggressive towards each other. As for their diet, they are scavengers/small arthropod predators in the soil. They can feed upon dipterans, diplurans, and collembolans or even centipedes and symphylans. I've found a group of around 50 workers surrounding a dead earthworm, so maybe they consume those too?

Edited by AntsAreUs, September 7 2018 - 5:47 AM.

[Mettcollsuss]

I got several queens to raise workers inside a soil setup and living off springtails. They are quite simple ants. 

By soil setup, do you mean a tube w/ soil, a petri dish, etc.?

 

How do I set one up?

[TennesseeAnts]

I have had these recently. The colonies I had had between 2-5 queens each. They LOVE small live foods like crickets or baby mealworms. They sipped honey every once in awhile, but for the most part ignored fruits. The number of eggs grew extremely quickly for the five queen colony.

[AntsAreUs]

 

I got several queens to raise workers inside a soil setup and living off springtails. They are quite simple ants. 

By soil setup, do you mean a tube w/ soil, a petri dish, etc.?

 

How do I set one up?

 

Well I've tried all of what you described. Right now I'm preferring to use deli cups with something to absorb water at the bottom. Then you can add organic material (I use rice) to feed the springtails inside their setup.