13 replies to this topic

[Scrixx]

Scrixx's Solenopsis Journal

Hey! Welcome to my Solenopsis species journal. This will cover all my Solenopsis species which is really just two; Solenopsis molesta and Solenopsis xyloni. Both species were collected 07/23/2018 in the Lytle Creek foothills. 

 

Solenopsis molesta

I collected a few dozen queens and kept them in groups of 10 and 5s. It has been 10 weeks since then and only one test tube has workers. The 10 queen test tube has over 10 nanitics but the queen count is down to two. There were three queens last week but the workers culled one. Surprisingly, they culled the queen without wings. There is a winged queen and a wingless queen left. I'm hoping the workers keep both queens so I can have a polygynous S. molesta colony but I'm happy to have one succeed at all. I've had several dozen queens and they all failed. They couldn't even get their first worker.

 

 

 

Solenopsis xyloni

I collected these queens alongside the S. molesta. I separated most queens to single test tubes but kept one test tube with 10 queens and a second test tube with 5 queens. All the queens in the 10 queen setup died but the 5 queen setup has workers! There was a casualty though so there are only 4 queens left, it looks like she was processed by the workers so I assume she was culled. It's been almost 2 weeks since workers and all 4 queens are still alive. I'm hoping they keep all the queens but I also hope they cull at least one queen. The test tube is already looking crowded with how much 4 Solenopsis xyloni queens are producing! It's going to fill out really fast.

 

Edited by Scrixx, September 12 2018 - 9:04 AM.

[TheAntGuy]

Wow you successfully got a polygamous Solenopsis xyloni colony? Great job dude!

[Spamdy]

Posted in wrong topic, can a mod delete this?

Edited by Spamdy, September 11 2018 - 6:29 PM.

[Scrixx]

Wow you successfully got a polygamous Solenopsis xyloni colony? Great job dude!

 

Yeah it seems like it's polygynous but we'll have to wait to see if it stands the test of time.

[Scrixx]

Solenopsis molesta

The polygynous Solenopsis molesta colony did not last very long. Meaning it was not actually polygynous to begin with. The workers culled off the second living queen and exposed the true queen of the colony; the winged queen. This shows that winged queens can be fertile, and in this scenario, she was even deemed the strongest queen by the workers.

[Scrixx]

Solenopsis molesta

This colony is doing incredibly well after the queen massacre. Just take a look at the photo. There's easily hundreds of eggs, larva, and pupa. They have them separated into two piles, eggs and larva in the left by the water, and pupa and larger larva towards the entrance. There's probably only around 60 workers so they must be working hard to take care of all this brood.

 

Solenopsis xyloni

My biggest colony's queen either died or was killed. This was the same colony that started with 10 queens, went down to 4 for my last post, and then one was left standing. This colony was not actually polygynous as I caught the workers killing the extra queens. They attacked all 3 extra queens at the same time. Biting, pulling, and standing on them. I saw a queen with the head removed and it was still moving. I took a video of it but I can't seem to find it. The quality wasn't very good because the tube was dirty but you can still see the extra queens being attacked. Here's the huge brood pile the queen left behind.

 

Since my largest colony had a huge brood pile, I'm going to remove all the workers and connect the tube to the new queen we will be following. She's also Solenopsis xyloni and I caught her during a hangout with my friends so we named her Hard. First queen I've ever named.

 

[FSTP]

What are you feeding your S. molesta? I had a small single queen colony last year but I could never get them to consistently eat any proteins for very long. I'd give them cricket and they would eat and process it, but if I tried to give them another they'd ignore it. So then I'd tried fruit flies. Same thing after the first two the never would touch them again. Then I went to meal worms same thing. Then tried wax worms and they wouldn't even take one. So they slowly died off. They would take sugars though but never proteins consistently. I'd like to eventually try again. I find them quite interesting given how small they are.

Edited by FSTP, October 16 2018 - 7:48 AM.

[Scrixx]

What are you feeding your S. molesta? I had a small single queen colony last year but I could never get them to consistently eat any proteins for very long. I'd give them cricket and they would eat and process it, but if I tried to give them another they'd ignore it. So then I'd tried fruit flies. Same thing after the first two the never would touch them again. Then I went to meal worms same thing. Then tried wax worms and they wouldn't even take one. So they slowly died off. They would take sugars though but never proteins consistently. I'd like to eventually try again. I find them quite interesting given how small they are.

 

I feed them seeds and small pieces of insects like a cricket leg or a single bloodworm. Have you tried seeds? They seem to like seeds. When ants start rejecting foods it probably means they have enough of that specific type of food and they need a different source of food. A different source of food would give them different nutrients or at least a different ratio of nutrients. You should try again, I'm liking Solenopsis xyloni a lot as they're like mini harvester ants. 

[FSTP]

I never tried seeds. That must be what was missing from thier diet. What types of seeds? what is small enough for them? perhaps poppy or some kind of beet or lettuce seed? or a grass seed.

[Scrixx]

I never tried seeds. That must be what was missing from thier diet. What types of seeds? what is small enough for them? perhaps poppy or some kind of beet or lettuce seed? or a grass seed.

 

I bought a seed bag from the dollar store, there's these white painted seeds that all my seed loving ants seem to like. I think it's because it's nice and moist inside the seed. I'm also giving them crushed almonds and nyjer seeds (thanks to Mastrep).

[Scrixx]

It's been a while since the last update! These gals did not go into hibernation and stayed heated this whole time.

 

Solenopsis molesta

This colony didn't really grow that much more. There are definitely more workers now and a bigger brood pile, but for the time that passed being heated, they didn't grow much. I'm thinking it's because I didn't feed as much during the winter for all my colonies so I probably fed just enough to sustain their worker count. 

There's not a lot of activity in the outworld and they blocked off the entrance except for a pinhole sized opening.

 

Solenopsis xyloni

Unlike the S. molesta colony, this colony grew like crazy. Their testtube is fairly full but there's still space for more. The problem is the water is pretty much empty and they're digging in there looking for more. I need to move them to a new nest soon! I'm hoping I can provide water in the outworld while I figure out their new nest.

 

 

[TennesseeAnts]

I want them...

[Scrixx]

Solenopsis molesta

Well, sadly I haven't seen the queen in a few weeks. The worker counts are dropping but the brood pile is the same so it's hard to say if she's dead. The colony have dug into the cotton and I'm hoping she's in there. We'll see how it goes.

 

 

Solenopsis xyloni

So the test tube water supply ran out and the colony lost about 1/4 of its workers. Last week I found that they wore out the talcum powder barrier and successfully found water. There were some open test tube setups on the table. 2 weeks later they're still scavenging the table, they found random pieces of seeds, dead queens, and most importantly water. Finally after a lot of procrastination I finished their new nest and connected it. I'll update once they move out of the test tube.

[Scrixx]

Solenopsis molesta

Still haven't seen the queen so I think it's time to say that this colony will be failing. The queen is MIA and the colony is in its decline now.

 

Solenopsis xyloni

Argh, the new nest dried out too quickly. They moved in but I found them completely dry today. I'll have to adjust the nest design to retain water for longer to incorporate a test tube setup somehow. They were doing so well too with so many majors. The Camponotus sansabeanus in a similar setup is doing okay as they seem to tolerate dry periods better than Solenopsis xyloni. I'm sure ant size was a factor here. 

 

I'm really sad and upset. It was a great colony and they were about to have a population boom as they had a huge amount of brood. Lesson learned and I won't be using nests without extended hydration capacities.