Post by occultus on Aug 28, 2015 23:13:39 GMT
15/08/15
Whilst visiting the Khmer cultural village in Siem Reap, Cambodia I found a beautiful bright green Oecophylla smaragdina (Asian weaver ant) queen just standing still on the floor near some leaves.
It was precisely 17:30 and just after a heavy rain had stopped(wet season).
I was more than prepared for just such an occasion and used a large test-tube from my backpack to safely extract the queen.
The first thing that struck me about this ant apart from its beautiful colouraion was that it possesses amazing eyesight. The queen turns to face me every time that I approach her test-tube and she opens her jaws in a threatening posture..Amazing
20/08/15
I checked on the queen after 5 days and could see that there is a nice clutch of 20 eggs next to the queen. I carefully placed three large ant larvae taken from a local O.smaragdina nest just to see if she would adopt them. The idea behind this was that the queen could have a little extra help raising her first workers and thus increasing her odds of surviving the long travel back to the UK.
Within only a few minutes she carried these larvae and placed them on top of her own egg pile.
She's now back in the UK alive and well. No baby workers just yet.
The weaver ants are a totally arboreal species and never nest in the ground however I did see them foraging on the ground regularly.
For the nest set up I'm not totally sure what I'll use early on. I will try to use the standard test-tube and tub for this colony until the queen has 20+ workers. After that I think I'll be brave and put these ant on a tree in my living room with a tray of water underneath so that the ants cannot escape the Island. It would be a nice feature not having the ants inside a tank.. if it works out and they don't escape ha ha.
Whilst visiting the Khmer cultural village in Siem Reap, Cambodia I found a beautiful bright green Oecophylla smaragdina (Asian weaver ant) queen just standing still on the floor near some leaves.
It was precisely 17:30 and just after a heavy rain had stopped(wet season).
I was more than prepared for just such an occasion and used a large test-tube from my backpack to safely extract the queen.
The first thing that struck me about this ant apart from its beautiful colouraion was that it possesses amazing eyesight. The queen turns to face me every time that I approach her test-tube and she opens her jaws in a threatening posture..Amazing
20/08/15
I checked on the queen after 5 days and could see that there is a nice clutch of 20 eggs next to the queen. I carefully placed three large ant larvae taken from a local O.smaragdina nest just to see if she would adopt them. The idea behind this was that the queen could have a little extra help raising her first workers and thus increasing her odds of surviving the long travel back to the UK.
Within only a few minutes she carried these larvae and placed them on top of her own egg pile.
She's now back in the UK alive and well. No baby workers just yet.
The weaver ants are a totally arboreal species and never nest in the ground however I did see them foraging on the ground regularly.
For the nest set up I'm not totally sure what I'll use early on. I will try to use the standard test-tube and tub for this colony until the queen has 20+ workers. After that I think I'll be brave and put these ant on a tree in my living room with a tray of water underneath so that the ants cannot escape the Island. It would be a nice feature not having the ants inside a tank.. if it works out and they don't escape ha ha.