Spanish Messor barbarus colony.

[Blem12]

Good morning,

here I will be keeping a journal of one of the queens (now colonies) that I bought from Wood several months ago. The reason why I wanted to keep a journal is that one of the colonies is doing great!

This colony's statistics are as following:

- 1 healthy, big queen.
- 50 - 60 workers (This includes majors, medias and minors).
- 30+ larvae (5 of the larvae are very large so I am assuming that they will be majors).
- 20- 30 pupae.
- 2 big batches of eggs.

This colony is kept on top of a heat mat, although they do not necessarily need it I find it quite good as is speeds up brood development.

I have to say that out of all ants that I keep raising Messor barbarus from scratch is a tad difficult but once the colony is established I found out that they are in fact the fastest to develop in numbers.

I shall be putting up some pics of their set up this afternoon.

Thanks for reading,

Blem12.

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[Blem12]

Good morning,

I am very sorry for the tardiness regarding the pics. I have uploaded some and here they are:





You may be able to see in the last photo a bare pupa under a leaf , if you can, you will be able to see that it is very big, hence, making me think that it is a major.

Sometimes they like to put their brood and themselves in the tubing as it is just above the heat mat (tubing is probably the warmest place).

Hope you enjoy.

Thanks,

Blem12.

P.S The dates shown on the pics are wrong.

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[Blem12]

Good morning,

here's and update:

Well after a bit of thinking I decided to move my Messor barbarus into a new set up yesterday.
This set up is like Wood's. It is a small plastic tank which has a lid with small slits for ventilation.
The plastic box contains three types of substrate:

- Vermiculite.
- Soil.
- Sharp sand.

I have also glued all the slits with a hot glue gun as the slits where quite big meaning that the Messor barbarus workers could get up.

After doing this I thought, ''hang on, I need some kind of ventilation'' so I got a small pin and with the help of the heat from a flame I poked small holes throughout the blue plastic lid.

When checking on the this morning I was astounded by their progress as they had already made a chamber on the underside of the tank showing a new batch of eggs and other brood. I have noticed that when the Messor barbarus start to expand their nest, their surface, as Wood said seems that of a Lunar landscape

They also buried their small pot of seeds and their water supply (test tube full of water bunged up with a small cotton bud).

I am glad I changed their set up as they seem to do better in it and it looks much more natural

I shall post 1 or 2 pics later on.

Thanks for reading,

Blem12.

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[Blem12]

Good afternoon,

here are some pictures attached regarding their set up. I am very sorry for putting up the pictures up late.





As you can probably see in one of the pictures I am pointing at something, this is the seed pot which has once again been covered with soil.

Thanks,

Blem12.

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[Blem12]

Good morning,

The colony is really thriving as of today. I think the reason for this is the soil set up.
Since transferring them to the soil set up I have only seen improvement in this colony.

Their brood numbers have astonishingly increased as the only thing that can be seen on the underside
of the tank is brood of all sorts; eggs, larvae and bare pupae ready to eclose within the next days.

This colony's food intake has also increased as more seeds, insects and sugary liquids are taken.

I have not seen her majesty since transferring them to this set up but I know that she must be fit and healthy
due to the brood present and how active and healthy the colony seems to be.

Also, it seems that I have finally won the never ending game involving the seed pot being buried!

Thanks for reading,

Blem12.

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[Blem12]

Good morning,

here is an update:

The colony is still doing very well.
I was able to catch a glimpse of the queen this morning!

Brood wise, there is much more bare pupae than other stages.
Most of the bare pupae seem to be ready to eclose within the next few days as they have a hint of brown to them.

They have been taking seeds and insects as always with the odd exception of sugar water/honey water soaked in small pieces of bread.

I have also received a couple of bites from these little girls .
I must say they do have a rather powerful bite.

Thanks,

Blem12.

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[Blem12]

Hello,

here's an update:

Today I was very surprised as the plastic floor was entirely covered in brood!
Most of the brood were either plump larvae or pupae ready to eclose.

This really made me happy as I knew that everything was going well.

I have noticed that they have excavated much more, resulting in many tunnels and chambers.

They happily take most insects but it seems that their favourite insects are crickets that I locally buy from the pet store.

As my other colonies, I fed them some sponge cake crumbs which they hurriedly took away within the depth of the soil.

Blem12.

( If you have any questions or comments, please post them here: queenant.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=nativecomment&action=display&thread=4675 )

[Blem12]

Good morning,

here's an update:

I must say that this colony is thriving and it may be one of my biggest if not the biggest colony.
I have observed that although they may be quite slow at developing in the founding stages, later on they grow much, much more rapidly.

There is easily more than 150+ workers (minors, medias and majors) . I have not seen the queen once since transferring them onto a soil set up but the huge amount of brood indicates that she must be doing well.

Also they coped very well when I took them into school for an ant presentation which I did for Columbus day.

Their brood averages at about the 50+ mark. They have many larvae and pupae which can be seen on the plastic floor. I will try and take a picture of this.

I can also see a chamber which seems to be the storage area for seeds as it is obviously, full of seeds and seems to be rather dry to the eye.

Their diet consists of:

- Finch seeds.
- Crickets or Wax worms.
- Pieces of chicken every week-end.

Thanks,

Blem12.

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[Blem12]

Good morning,

Being a southern-European ant species and by reading Wood's journals I would think that they would not slow down but on the contraire, they are finally hibernating.

When observing the colony most workers seem to be quite sluggish and have not collected seeds for about 2 - 3 weeks now.

I have been lucky and have seen the queen several times on the bottom surrounded by dozens and dozens of larvae and workers, all huddled up.

Best regards,

Blem12.


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[Blem12]

All I can say is WOW! This colony has done superbly as numbers range the 300 mark. Their set up has been upgraded as a new plastic tank has been added to their two previous ones and currently they are moving pieces of dirt to the new tank.

I was astounded to see the size of the majors within this colony, some are nearly as big as the queen herself!

The only thing which I find a bit annoying is feeding time as everytime I open the lid, the little buggers climb up the tank and attack

Thanks for reading,
Blem12.

[Blem12]

Good morning,

again, this colony is doing amazingly! Population has exploded as numbers range the 400+ mark with the appearance of new majors. The floor still continues to be covered with all types of brood.

This colony just does not stop collecting insects or seeds as they will happily take several insects and leave the milk cap clean of seeds in a matter of minutes.

I am happy to say that I have been able to see the queen in one of the deepest chambers which is in a corner of the plastic tank.

Attached is a picture showing some of the brood and you can roughly see one of the majors (orange head). Sorry for the poor quality



Thanks,
Blem12

[Blem12]

Good morning,

these ladies are doing very well. They continue to take large amounts of seeds and insects. Unlike the Formica fusca colony, I will be introducing them to hibernation at the beggining of December. There is still brood present, mainly larvae.

Thanks for reading,
Blem12.

[Blem12]

Hello,

despite the season, this colony remains fairly active as they continue to take in seeds and insects. I have noticed a reduction of foraging workers thus taking in less food. However, from yesterday's dinner, I gave them a small piece of cooked chicken which was gladly taken.

Thanks for reading,
Blem12