[Gemini] Pheidole cf. noda

[TenebrousNova]

Hello!

Kevin from Antdealer has just sent me my first Asian species. 
I ordered a small colony of 30-50 workers and two queens. I received...well, more like 100+ workers and two queens.

Here they are!



Here's one of the two queens:



The larvae cover pretty much everything. The soldiers seem bigger than their P.pallidula cousins.







Callow worker with eggs:



I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this colony does! As usual, feel free to leave comments in this thread.

[Wood~Ant]

I have always found Kevin to give good value for money, and this colony certainly looks a large and healthy one. Plenty of brood too. I will definitely follow this journal with interest.

[TenebrousNova]

I've spent the afternoon escape proofing a tank for the colony to live in. Like my Manica rubida's tank, it's just a thin layer of sand for them to forage in at the moment. There was lots of activity going on with both workers and soldiers running around to explore their new environment but they've stayed close to their test tube for the most part. Earlier a group of workers and soldiers stood just outside the test tube and started grooming each other. Right now there's not many of them outside. It appears that there's two sizes of soldier, the standard brownish ones and the larger, black ones.

Both of the queens have been snoozing at the back of their test tube with the occasional flicker of antennae or turn of the head to engage in trophallaxis.

I've offered them a dried mealworm, a cricket and some honey. Although they briefly attacked the cricket and took very quick sips of the honey, they've paid no further attention to these offerings. But then again, most of the ants have full looking gasters. Perhaps they're not feeling hungry right now?

I've decided I'll mist the tank once a day to keep them humid and keep them on top of my PC tower. I use the computer quite often and it gets nice and warm after a while.



I've contemplated an acrylic nest but they're quite expensive and I'm not sure how humid you can keep them...what do you think?

[Wood~Ant]

If you buy an acrylic nest, go for a medium sized one which has bigger bits of oasis to hold moisture. As you know TenebrousNova I have a lot from Ant House in Spain, and find the small nests don't get as much humidity than medium or larger ones. Any type of nest set up will need more moisture if kept where it gets very warm, so regular spraying or syringing is necessary to maintain this.

[TenebrousNova]

I'm sorry to say that this journal must end before it can even get started. 
The colony was active but they refused to eat anything. Honey, sugar water, plain water, crickets, mealworms, locusts, spiders...ignored. They would subdue any prey creature but then drag it into a corner and leave it there.

Consequently, they have starved out. I'm still at a loss as to how this has happened.