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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 11, 2016 19:38:34 GMT
So this evening I visited Jen and Wood's place (My first time meeting them!) to pick up their silver tank Messor barbarus colony. It is a very well established colony that's about seven years old I believe. If you want to read up on their history, Wood's journal can be found here.I was very impressed during my brief visit. Their kitchen table is literally covered in formicariums containing species of all kinds. I also got a very enthusiastic greeting from the dogs. The colony was very sedate during the journey home, even on bumpy roads. Oddly they immediately started running around when I put the tank on my desk but they soon calmed down. My first action was to remove the lid (About three majors immediately went for a walk on the desk) and apply a thick layer of vaseline just below the lid. I then retrieved the majors without incident and so far, none of them have been able to cross the slippery surface. I then took some damp tissue to the inside walls of the tank because there was algae obstructing the view. I had to stop every few seconds to pick off inquisitive workers that ran onto the tissue. The surface is constantly bustling with activity, mostly around the partially buried seed pot and the cavernous nest entrance. There's also a very large brood chamber on the bottom which can be easily viewed. The brood weren't present whilst I was over there but now that I'm home, I'm seeing a lot of pupae. I haven't been able to photograph it yet. I gave them a stunned brown cricket and it was immediately dragged towards the nest entrance by the workers. I did briefly think it was too large to fit but several majors ran ahead, pulling big clumps of soil to widen the entrance. It was very interesting to see how systematically they carried out this task. Minutes later the cricket was gone and the entrance was being restored to its previous size. Seeds are constantly being carried around: empty shells are being moved out of the nest even as new seeds are being moved in. My massive thanks to Wood and Jen. Hopefully this colony will live for years to come! As always, please feel free to post comments here if you wish, I welcome any input.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 11, 2016 21:38:17 GMT
This colony has always been very adaptive, and well done on cleaning off most of the algae and not getting bitten.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 11, 2016 22:22:50 GMT
Thanks Wood! It turns out that the Messors enjoy my baking. I'm genuinely flattered. I noticed that their seed pot was close to empty and decided to top it up. I expected workers and majors to be all over my hand but only two media workers and a major were inside it at the time. I filled it with canary seed I got from the pet shop and half-expected them to turn their antennae down at it...Queen Upsilon's tiny colony completely ignores them for some reason. Turns out they do like them and the workers were all over the pot as soon as I put it in. It wasn't long before they started carrying seeds out. One of the larger majors was walking near the top and I felt adventurous. I let her walk onto my finger for a while. She initially reacted aggressively, running her open jaws along my finger as though looking for the best place to bite down. She then decided against it and was quite well behaved from then on, returning to her colony with no signs of stress. Some of these majors are very big with bright red heads. I initially mistook them for super-majors but Wood tells me that they are not. Should one of the real super-majors ever venture onto the surface, I'm sure it'll be a sight to behold. Tomorrow I'll probably try and scrape off the last of the algae. I expected the worker activity to drop as it got later but if anything, they're even more active now. There's at least 200 of them on the surface as I type this. Finally, I noticed that the workers are taking empty seed shells and their dead brethren from the midden pile and gluing them to the vaseline layer. It might just be an innocent way of making their nest tidier but I suspect they have an ulterior motive...like building a bridge across the slippery surface.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 11, 2016 22:36:50 GMT
You'll know a super when you see a large ant with an orange head, but mostly they stay very close to the queen.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 11, 2016 22:45:34 GMT
Thanks again! This will be my last update for tonight, but the workers have finally managed to haul that piece of cake back to the entrance. I was amazed to see that they had been digging a nest entrance directly beneath it in case they couldn't move it. This entrance is getting wider by the minute. That's an inventive solution that I didn't expect from them!
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 12, 2016 23:57:51 GMT
The colony has been busy all day on the surface. I think I've spent around three hours today just watching them. I find myself wondering how quickly they go through seeds. Empty seed shells are constantly being carried out of the nest so I'm wondering if they keep them in midden chambers for a while or if they take them out as soon as they're eaten. They've had a few hours with the tank light on and seem to love the warmth it provides. They started chewing their ant bread on the surface and basking on top of the seed pot, grooming each other. I watched a major carrying a seed back to the nest even as a tiny minim rode on her back whilst grooming her.
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Post by Jenny on Jul 13, 2016 5:51:26 GMT
The more seed you put in that pot, the quicker they use it. On one occasion I went to fill the seed pot thinking they had none, and found they had brood in there instead. All the seed had been scattered everywhere, they are very fascinating to watch. You will get seed growing on occasions, you just need to pull it
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 16, 2016 13:39:52 GMT
So I decided a few days ago that one way to increase the longevity of the tank they're in was to give them more room to expand their nest, so I added some topsoil. After a few hours of disarray the colony immediately got to work. Yesterday: Today: And now that their light has been on for a bit, the group grooming ritual on the seed pot can begin. Yesterday they even had some larvae and pupae among them on the pot. It was interesting to watch.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 16, 2016 14:15:25 GMT
I believe I've just met my first super-major. She matches the description. Enormous orange head, almost the size of a queen. I think she was a fairly recent addition to the colony because she stumbled a bit and had a paleness to her body. I've never seen a super-major in person before so I was pretty excited. I compared her to my other Messor queen. Very similar sizes. When I returned her to the nest she was getting a lot of attention from her sisters who groomed her for several minutes before letting her amble off. "So he let me run around for a bit and then compared me to some rival queen, taking loads of photos all the time. I mean, what was that all about?"
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 16, 2016 16:21:07 GMT
Yes, she is a young super-major you've just had the privilege of her making your acquaintance Like I said when you visited the Ant Hill, once you've seen one you'll never forget them for their size and orange heads.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 17, 2016 14:37:24 GMT
So perhaps this portion of chicken is a bit generous. But these are big girls, I'm sure they can manage it. Whilst her sisters are busy cutting off small pieces to bring back to the nest, this major is convinced that if she pulls hard enough that the laws of physics will bend over backwards for her. I even gave them a small bit of my favourite pizza...something I rarely share with my fellow humans, let alone anyone else.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 21, 2016 17:37:00 GMT
This colony is busy as always and has made a lot of passages along the sides of the tank. They are given two crickets a day, plus whatever else happens to fly through my window. Just now I gave them a bluebottle and its fate was sealed as soon as it ran down their main nest entrance. It briefly went back out but flying isn't an option when you're weighed down by a ball of outraged workers. They quickly dragged it back in. I've also given them a few waxworm pupae which they've carried into the nest. I did try them on larval waxworms but it took the Messors hours to overpower them, plus the waxworms would drill their way into the nest with a violent corkscrewing motion in their attempts to get away from the workers. I'd rather not risk damage to the nest...I guess I'll have to stun or kill them in future.
Had to do some gardening for them this morning since a number of their discarded seeds were growing shoots. Got bitten by a major who was clinging to the roots of one of them...that's gratitude for you!
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 22, 2016 17:37:04 GMT
This afternoon the workers started to warm the brood on top of the seed pot. I saw several larvae of varying sizes, about three pupae and even a few callows. I slowly opened the lid to try and get a better photo but the workers were not deceived and immediately started to rush the brood under the seed pot, even bodily carrying the callows. I suspected there's a tunnel leading to the nurseries under the pot. By the time I got this photo, only two larvae were left in view. A few minutes later I quickly peeked under the seed pot to see if my suspicions about the tunnel were true (They were!). Bad idea though, I was quickly beset by about 20 workers. I'm still surprised that none of them managed to bite me, although an hour later I did find a few workers on my clothes. The brood warming was interesting to watch!
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 22, 2016 20:10:07 GMT
Got a look at the main brood chamber at the bottom of the tank earlier. No photos I'm afraid, I did try but they came out very blurry and I was attempting to hold up the tank with one hand which is probably a terrible idea. There's hundreds of brood of all stages in all sizes in there, ranging from creamy white to dark brown. There's definitely a healthy queen at work in there somewhere.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 25, 2016 20:42:22 GMT
Not too much to report. There's over 200 workers on the surface at any given time, it's mesmerizing to watch. One of the wax worm pupae hatched into a moth today so I gave it to the Messors. So far they've eaten everything they're given.
I've just refilled seed pot and immediately had about 20 of them on my hand. I'm desensitized to the biting at this point although the majors seem to go for the sensitive parts between my fingers, which I do feel! I had a peek at their brood chamber and saw loads of newborn larvae, what looks like hundreds. I suspect that the matriarch of this colony is sitting there somewhere on top of her throne of offspring. It's unlikely to happen but I'd love to see her someday.
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