[2021] Camponotus mutilarius (Xiangban)

[TenebrousNova]

As you know, until recently I had a colony of this species that was doing well until they lost their queen fairly recently. They are known for being hard to raise from lone queens, but I saw a colony of 50+ workers for sale on ExoticAntStore, run by the same Peter who runs AntsFromAsia. I have bought from Peter before so I emailed him to check availability and now have a colony on the way from Thailand! According to the tracking service they have left and are en route to the UK. I'm hoping they'll arrive before next week but it really depends.

I will post again once the colony arrives. As always, feel free to comment!

[Wood~Ant]

I have to be honest and say that I will no longer buy any ants from Peter. He made some very nasty comments on how I buy ants from other people and not from him. His prices are extortionate and after seeing a video of how he collects and keeps ants for sale, he is just a complete rip off merchant. I hope you get a nice colony, but this seller is now banned from the forum and blocked on my Facebook account group.

[TenebrousNova]

The colony is here! There's 60-70 workers, the queen and a small amount of larvae and cocooned pupae. I'm very impressed by the size of those majors, since my old colony never produced any despite having hundreds of workers. They were surprisingly easy to move into the outworld and went straight into their formicarium.



Queen:

[TenebrousNova]

The colony is still very shy, but they have taken two small crickets into the nest and drank some sweet liquids. I'm hoping that before long the queen will start to lay eggs.



I keep mistaking this big major for the queen!

[TenebrousNova]

The queen has produced a new clutch of eggs but I'm having trouble getting the colony to accept crickets. Hopefully when those eggs hatch they'll have more of an appetite? They do go for sugary liquids though.

[TenebrousNova]

This colony is very shy and hardly ever sends foragers out. And when they do, the workers are quick to run back into the nest as soon as the lid is opened! They will drink sugary liquids but they still don't seem very interested in prey despite having eggs and larvae.

[sausage]

When you say " the lid is opened" what do you mean? 

[TenebrousNova]

Aug 18, 2021 16:51:28 GMT sausage said:

When you say " the lid is opened" what do you mean? 

The formicarium has a little plastic lid over the foraging area that can be removed to put food in (and stop them from escaping). The vibrations from the lid being removed and replaced alarms the ants half the time.

[sausage]

I am really sorry but I used that set up in the past and I don't have much to say on the good side of things. Firstly the filth that will build up in the corners, adding water causes it to spread along the floor. White woodlice seemed like the solution but the colony flipped them upside down and killed them.

You can fridge the colony and paint flueon on the foraging area walls using virtical brush strokes, X4 the length of the worker

[sausage]

Please be patient with me. Search the net for flueon, not the above misspelled name. I just ordered Antlab ptfe liquid flueon. I can't find the stuff I used to use. Perhaps they went out of business or got rebranded. Only £9 for 30 ml

[sausage]

Sorry once chilled. Push a quick tip into the enterence of the foraging area. Ants warm up fast 

[TenebrousNova]

Today the colony has finally deigned to bring a cricket into the nest. Here's a glimpse of their brood pile, which is growing nicely. There's quite a few eggs now.

[TenebrousNova]

Here's the queen and the brood today. The pile is slowly getting bigger and today they took two crickets into the nest. I'm glad they're getting less fussy.

[TenebrousNova]

The queen has laid two clutches of eggs. I'm rather pleased with how their brood chamber is filling up, considering they didn't arrive with a lot. They're still eating heartily.