Tetramorium simillimum (2 Queens)

[UKantz]

Finally last but not least is my small colony of Tetramorium Simillimum with 2 Queens, 17 workers and a healthy bunch of around 20 larvae. 

Something that really surprised me is how small the queens of this species are! Only being around 1-2mm bigger than the workers, it can be a challenge distinguishing them apart at times, and I thought Pheidole were small... They are a very docile ant, and really don't mind being moved around at all. I tried hooking up their test tube to an Ants Australia size 1 nest, which is quite tiny, so I thought they would feel right at home, but were not interested after some investigation by the workers. So as of now, they remain inside their test tube set up which is half on top of the heat mat which they seem to enjoy since they are from a more tropical climate. 

Luckily this colony does accept food in both the form of honey and a small fruit fly which I fed them yesterday. 

[UKantz]

The colony was fed some honey and a fly today, which they gladly accepted, dragging the fly to the other end of the test tube to feed the larvae - seems they can be active when food is involved! : )

[UKantz]

The 2 of the larvae have pupated and I expect the rest of the larvae to follow suit soon. I can't see any eggs of yet but its possible they're hidden away in the cotton somewhere.

This colony has become very active recently and always accepts honey and flies readily which is fantastic to see! 

[UKantz]

I bought some fly larvae from the local tackle shop yesterday to see if the ants would enjoy them, and have half white/clear coloured larvae, and half red coloured larvae. I feed my Pheidole and my Tetramorium a clear and red larvae respectively last night. Upon inspection this morning, its apparent that they do massively enjoy them, though what was more interesting was seeing red colouration inside the Tetramoriums abdomen. Seen as they are already a beautiful yellow colouration the contrast to the bright red in the abdomen was really stunning - I'll see if I can get any better pictures later.

[UKantz]

Attempted to capture the colouring

[UKantz]

Picture update:





This colony is going strong and has increased in numbers while I've been away, and a number of pupae are yet to eclose. I imagine the worker count to be around 30-40 now

[UKantz]

I moved this colony into a new acrylic nest that I had purchased from anthouse.es. Since it was much easier to observe them in there, I did a worker count. There are 53 workers and the two queens, plus 13 pupae and 24 larvae. This colony is doing great so far!

[UKantz]

Some pictures, focusing on the queens + nest;


I moved the majority of the nest "forcefully" since their test tube had ran out of water for a while, and they didn't seem to want to move into the acrylic nest. So I coaxed almost all of the workers, queens and brood out with a fine paintbrush and they're all settling in now. 

[UKantz]

While looking at the colony going about their daily business, I noticed one of the queens is missing a leg. It doesn't seem to hinder her movement too much, she just gets around by stumbling around.

The colony also has a few new batches of eggs. It's quite quickly reached the stage of a well oiled machine that churns out generation after generation quite consistently (there are still pupae and various stages of larvae present). Since there is no info as far as I can tell about this species, I'm going to assume they grow quite large quickly.

[UKantz]

9 workers have died over the past two days, though I believe this is due to natural causes, as all the workers that died are much darker in colour (almost red) which indicates these were much older workers than the majority of the workforce which are yellow/orange in colour.

The colony now numbers around 70 in number, accounting for the 9 deaths, and still has numerous pupae, larvae and eggs

[UKantz]

Unfortunately, for some reason, there has been a mass die off of wokers. There are only around 35 alive workers present now. And lately one of the queens seems to like wondering off into the other chambers alone. There are pupae and larvae, but no eggs can be seen present.

[UKantz]

Well there is some bad news today, as both the queens appear to be dead. No idea what happened to this colony, as they were doing so well before. Always accepted food.

Anyway, this concludes this short journal.