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Post by TenebrousNova on May 18, 2015 10:52:34 GMT
I'm impressed at how quickly they formed foraging trails to the rat pup. Reminds me of my old L.niger whenever they found a cricket. They'd come pouring out of the nest.
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Post by occultus on May 18, 2015 22:43:10 GMT
I really want to know what they are doing with all this meat I provide them with. They never refuse a meal but I cannot imagine them having so much brood that they need to gather a mouses carcass worth of protein just to feed the brood. I did find an interesting article about how Solenopsis invicta stored meat inside their nest as a kind of jerky to use at a later date when food is sparse link . Perhaps Solenopsis geminata do the same thing? It would explain why they're are always hungry I gave the girls another rat pup to feast on this evening, the horde came rushing out from their many nest entrances simultaneously. Incredibly organised. The pup is double the size this time so It should keep them busy for a day or two.
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Post by occultus on May 25, 2015 19:49:48 GMT
The Colony's drinking an entire test-tube of sugar water every 3 days now. I do love this species but they really are keeping me on my feet. Looks to be about 100 of them having a drink as I type this lol. The sugar water is kept on the top of the tree like wooden root in the center of the nest so that its easily removed. I'm going to need an alternative method to this soon as I'm going to eventually get stung...allot.
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Post by occultus on May 29, 2015 6:18:54 GMT
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Post by Wood~Ant on May 29, 2015 7:07:58 GMT
I have often found that oily fish goes down well with ants, as after they suck out the oily juices they then nibble bits of the fish until it looks like sawdust.
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Post by occultus on Jun 25, 2015 0:21:25 GMT
Not much of an update. This colony stays very stable and still has a monstrous appetite. Here is a video of me testing their swarm responses.
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Post by occultus on Jul 3, 2015 18:59:37 GMT
Solenopsis geminata - Nuptial Flight 03/07/15
I had handpicked the Queen from the wild and she has been in my care for a total of 7 months and 7 days. The colony has grown faster than anything I have ever experienced. Their appetite amazes me along with their fearless nature. It really has been an amazing experience taking care of them.
Today was a very special day for my Solenopsis geminata colony. I came home this afternoon to discover lots and lots of Queen and male Alates. The male drones were even attempting to fly outside of the nest.
I decided to try out an experiment and isolated some of the Queen alates and male drones together in the hopes that mating may take place and thus produce fertile Queens. The only reason that I'm even attempting this is because I strongly believe that my two original S.geminata Queens were sisters. They were collected in close proximity to a very large S.geminata colony which showed no aggression towards them and had winged Queens and males scuttling about among them. What I'm trying to say is that they may well have interbred among their own colony and this in turn could mean that my colony has a chance to produce fertile queens.
I have placed 20 winged Queens into separate test-tubes(no easy task, got stung allot), each of them have 3 male drones inside. I shall leave them in complete darkness for a week at around 27 Celsius and hopefully they got their Mojo working .
Who knows, I may have some colonies for sale soon guys lol that would be a first.
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Post by Phasenp on Jul 3, 2015 21:40:54 GMT
Very nice! Looking forward to reading more
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 3, 2015 22:41:43 GMT
I hope they do breed and produce new queens, and you will find willing people to buy them as they are a nice species. Just try not to let inexperienced ant keepers con you out of sending them any, as they will try it and may even want you to send them for free. I will follow this mating experiment with great interest and wish you luck Che.
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Hibernating
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2015 0:04:47 GMT
Do you think you could pm me if you believe you have a lone fertile queen I have booked marked thread
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Post by Jenny on Jul 4, 2015 6:44:16 GMT
They look like they could go into stress mode rather than mating mode, being crammed into a test tube. I feel sorry for the queens in this situation no freedom to get away
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Post by occultus on Jul 4, 2015 17:30:12 GMT
They look like they could go into stress mode rather than mating mode, being crammed into a test tube. I feel sorry for the queens in this situation no freedom to get away I feel a bit guilty now Jen They had good reason to be stressed out mainly because I just plucked them up and dumped them in test-tubes and started filming right after that. I can assure you that today the queens and males are looking very relaxed and contented. None of them are cotton tugging and the constant warmth and darkness is helping too.
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Post by Jenny on Jul 4, 2015 18:36:47 GMT
I'm so glad they have settled down. Maybe something might happen now.
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Post by occultus on Jul 18, 2015 1:41:19 GMT
Well bit of news. All the males that were in the test-tubes are dead A couple of the Queens have also passed away Its not all bad though..? Just discovered that two of the test-tube Queens have started to lay eggs Now this may not suggest that they are fertile as the eggs could be all just male. It is interesting though. There's still plenty of Alates being produced inside the nest set up.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 18, 2015 7:49:07 GMT
Sad about the deaths of the young queens, but such is life as mortality rate is very high in the wild for newly mated queens; and of course males are only born to mate and then die anyway. You may find more mated queens might occur in the nest set up?
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