Formica sanguinea Blog

[merries61]

Hi Guys,

hello from a Newbie (to this site at least). Very impressed :)with your site and look forward to investigating it fully. In the meantime perhaps you'd like to look at my new Blog (with video) devoted to F. Sanguinea. Apologies if I've posted this link in the wrong forum?

Enjoy

journals.aol.co.uk/merries61/formica-sanguinea/

Merries61

[Jenny]

Hi Merries, welcome to Ant Hill World I hope you enjoy looking around the forum and meeting some new friends

As this is a link to your video on this thread I have moved it to the "Ants video chamber"

[merries61]

Thanks :)for the welcome and I wonder why I never came across your site before?

cheers

Merries61

[Wood~Ant]

merries61 said:

Thanks :)for the welcome and I wonder why I never came across your site before?

cheers

Merries61

Welcome to our Ant Hill, and it is good to see you've found us, as we have been laying down a pheromone trail for sometime now

I am surprised to see that you list 4 different species on your blog video, as I have only ever seen nests of Formica sanguinea containing both that species and F. fusca.
Did you add the others yourself? I know that sanguines will accept rufa, as I have done this in captivity; but I've never seen it in a wild nest

[merries61]

Hello again.

I have come across wood ants as slaves in a strong sanguinea nest only once in the wild at Thusley common during the 1990's. Geoff Allan was with me (late august I believe ) and he confirmed my identification . That was my second visit to the nest (first in july) and during the first visit I was surprised :oby the many hundreds of rufa workers running around outside the sanguinea nest. The closest rufa nest at that time was several hundred yards away by the lake, but that was a very strong nest. Presumably the slaves had originated from a smaller vunerable branch colony but I never came across one in that area. I should add that I have witnessed a few sanguinea raids on strong rufa nests in my garden in Sittingbourne, in fact the big nest I had at that time seemed to specialise in raiding rufa. I have poor quality video of one raid where the terrified rufa escaped so quickly they disintegrated the top of their nest - Geoff saw this video some time ago. I will post the end of that one on the internet when I find out how?

Leptothorax weren't in the breeding boxes I used to culture up the current sanguinea nest. I also didn't come across them in the rotten logs I used for their outdoor nest, but there they are?

I spotted a few dozen adult niger on the nest during late july and these came from niger coccoons I had fed them earlier in the year. This is the second time I have come across niger in a sanguinea nest and presumably results from over feeding the sanguinea. I don't think they survived for vey long after I spotted them because they were barely tolerated by the sanguinea and each looked weak/ confused and had mangled/ missing missing legs and antenna. I don't think they were adult survivers from the niger nests I had fed them or local to my garden but of course I can't be sure - they were not attacked by the larger ants which had plenty of opportunity to do so.

I addition to these species I have also encountered cunnicularia as slaves in the nests when I lived in Sittingbourne (cunnicularia was very common in that area and a few nests were even native to my garden). Interestingly, it wa the aftermath of a raid I witnessed on a cunnicularia nest that shed some light on the colony founding habits of sanguinea dealates which increases the options they have at that time - but thats another story!!

Really enjoying your site guys - keep it up

regards

Merries61

[merries61]

Hi there,

does anyone know how to transfer film from a VHS video tape onto the internet? I have around 5 hours of video tape that could be transferred (edited of course) showing many different facets of sanguinea behavoir. One scene in particular shows some large wasps (german?) interfering in a raid of sanguinea on a largish rufa branch nest. Another shows a host of terrified rufa absconding from their nest and blowing the top of their nest in their haste to escape some very large sanguinea.

any ideas?

Merries 61

[golix]

A quick search came up with this, but it seems quite technical

www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=813&page=1

You could always record the TV screen with a digital camera but the quality would be bad. ;D