Coming back soon

Hi all,

I will resume the postings next month (or earlier, if I can). :)

Blog Freeze

Due to personal problems, I will not be posting in this blog until at least August. Sorry :(

Stronghold

The Acromyrmex octospinosus have made themselves a stronghold in the Tic-Tac box. They built a gate made of dried leaves and a moat out of old bread crumbs, which they are now using as a refuse pile:

Here is their forage box:

Next week I will add a new tupperware pot so they have another place to relocate to, should they wish to do so.

House upgrade

My Acromyrmex have expanded a lot and thus I have added a foraging pot to their setup, as well as put them in a bigger pot. They have lots of room to expand for the next few months now.

This is their old setup:

The fungus was already coming out of the Tic Tac box.

This is their new setup:

Small Pheidole

The first other Pheidole workers are born. They are tiny and probably measure about 1mm. I will not be keeping this queen as I find ants which are too small boring.

Mess hall

The big Pheidole I have have made a mess out of their nest. They seem to be pretty happy, even though one of the two big soldiers has vanished without a trace.

Here's a short video of them:

The substitutes

The other colony I have has been finally identified. It is Camponotus substitutus. They are growing fast and I really need to speed up the plaster nest I am making for them.

Six becomes five

My Camponotus cruentatus are doing fine, albeit expanding slowly. There were six workers, but one died last week. In any case, there are a few pupae and more workers will be born very soon.

Adoption 2

My reddish Camponotus has adopted a soldier of a much bigger Camponotus species. I think this species (whatever it is) should be renamed to Camponotus adoptivus or somesuch =c]

Sadly it died less than a week after it was born. The other ants didn't kill it, it simply went to a corner and died. Since it comes from a big Camponotus species which lives in trees, I think it needed some sap which was not available. I can't tell, though.

I moved this colony to a bigger box, but I will give them away to a friend in Bahia next week. They expand very quickly.

Notice how the queen is full of food. Her gaster is almost bursting :)

New shack

The Camponotus rufipes like wood, so I gave them some wet toilet paper to chew. They started building a nest with it.

Adoption

I caught a small red Camponotus queen a while back, and she is having her first workers born. I put a pupae which was about to hatch from a black Camponotus queen, and the new callow ant was successfully adopted and has been welcomed in the colony.

Lasius flavus in their new home

I have moved my Lasius flavus this morning to their new home. I had to move them by force in an emergency situation because the cotton in the test tube they were in was showing signs of mold, and I found that this species is particularly sensitive to it. They settled down very quickly, though.

As you can see, they scattered at first, all workers started moving about except for the queen, which stayed very still next to some of her eggs.

After the workers found the underground tunnels and finished exploring, the eggs, larvae and pupae were quickly moved to the first and second rooms. Then two workers started dragging the queen for a bit until she got the message. :)

After about fifteen minutes, they moved lower down to a room on the left, but I did not take pictures by then as I thought they had had enough stress for the day.

Fusca boom

The Formica fusca, despite having only one queen (the other two queens having been killed by their bethren), are expanding very fast (faster than any other colony I have).

Second Callow

The second Camponotus cruentatus callow ant was born yesterday. I was able to watch it all happening, but only took pictures at the end. The queen and first worker carefully took it out of the cocoon and started to clean it. After a few minutes of being tended to by her mother and sister, she slowly started moving her legs... Very beautiful to watch.

The Pheidole Triad

The three Pheidole queens are doing well, and have layed a very big pile of eggs which has turned to larvae. They are so much smaller than their mothers, though. These queens are very docile and do not seem to be very concerned when I open the lid to their temporary home.

First callow

The Camponotus cruentatus queen has had her first callow ant born. It was, in fact, bigger than I expected. She is doing well and she seems to be very healthy and active, constantly tending to the other pupae.

Moving on up

The Camponotus ligniperdus have got a new home (The one which used to house the Camponotus festinatus). They have settled in, but they have also discarded their eggs. I believe this is because they were in hybernation and the eggs were dead, but I cannot be sure.

Coronatus, maybe?

I believe this Acromyrmex is in fact coronatus. She is beautiful and doing well, although I cannot see any pupae yet.

Formica Fight, Formica Funeral

Well, there is only one queen left as the other queen was killed by the workers. I was hoping this would not happen, but alas - it did. Oh well. At least the colony is going strong with almost 20 workers now, and a lot of brood. I won't add another tupperware pot yet, though, as the one they are in will still be confortable for another two or three months at least. Hopefully :)

Here's a video of them feeding on some cake:

Rose petals

The Acromyrmex are doing fine. All 7 queens have fungus, and three queens already have workers. It is great to watch them go about their business. It is almost time to give them more space. They absolutely love rose petals and leaves.

The festinatus is dead

Unfortunately, my Camponotus festinatus queen is dead. I don't know how it happened, I just woke up one morning a few days ago and she was dead.

Big Pheidole

I found three big Pheidole queens which I plan on keeping together. They are very beautiful and calm. I started creating their nest yesterday.

And a short video: