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Post by Wood~Ant on May 13, 2011 20:41:55 GMT
Not that I have this colony yet, but should have by next Wednesday; and as several members will be keeping this same species (called Sugar Ants), then I will be happy for anyone to post comments or questions about my journal on them once it has started  Here is a photo of what these ants should look like, as they are quite a pretty species by the look of them  Attachments:
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Post by lotsofants on May 13, 2011 20:57:56 GMT
The ants in that picture are very orange, mine have a black,brown,yellow abdomen, black thorax and red heads. Show how much this specie differs in coloration. |
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Post by Zarbi on May 14, 2011 9:16:21 GMT
I've been looking at pics of this species, and they do seem to come in a variety of different colours ranging from chestnut brown to fiery orange.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2011 13:52:17 GMT
I did quite a bit of research on this species and discovered that there are now nearly 40 named variants recognized! This is an amazing number for a single species and suggests that they are still actively evolving. Different variants will be dominant in different locations but on the edges of their range they probably interbreed with other variants creating a bit of a confusing mixture.
The species variant from Northern Thailand is very similar to the one seen in Wood Ants first two videos.
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Post by Wood~Ant on May 16, 2011 8:16:37 GMT
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Post by Wood~Ant on May 16, 2011 8:35:45 GMT
I also wonder if my colony gets this big, what set up will I need that is large enough to keep them in? ;D Attachments:
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Post by kalistes on May 16, 2011 11:09:43 GMT
I think I'm gonna go with a soil and wood nest. The flat pieces of bark that I can collect locally work out really well for my pallidula colony, and it looks great!
I debated getting some really thick bamboo and slicing it down the middle, but... hmm, yeah I'm still debating it ;D
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Post by Black Ant on May 17, 2011 18:16:25 GMT
Nice to hear you've got them okay I suppose they are fast due to the warm weather we are having, as if it were cooler it would slow them down a lot? |
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Post by lotsofants on May 17, 2011 18:28:48 GMT
I hope my colony of camponotus nicobarensis gets bigger then the one in the photo as I have the space to add on more Ytong nests as they increase in size |
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Post by lotsofants on May 19, 2011 17:14:08 GMT
Hi Wood~ant,
you said on your journal about it being weird that your colony is making an male alate, well you have to remember Peter took the 2 queens and workers out of a massive colony with hundreds of queens so the queens are acutely mature.
Hope this helps,
lotsofants.
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Post by Wood~Ant on May 19, 2011 17:42:30 GMT
Funny really, as most European Camponotus are monogynous and only have 1 queen per nest. So nicobarensis must have very large colonies in the wild if they have a few dozen queens per nest, much like our own Formica rufa nests here in England which can grow up to around 250,000 or even 300,000 in a few highly populated nests which may contain 100+ queens.
Considering there are only 2 queens in this colony they have laid a lot of eggs, which is nice to see ;D
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jun 18, 2011 9:53:26 GMT
Hi Green Ant, I could provide a heat mat if I had one, but as this colony is in an all plastic Worm World set up which stands upright on feet, placing a heat mat on or near it would be rather difficult. They don't require very hot temperatures and can live comfortably at around 21C., but their brood develops faster above 24 Celcius (75F.) and our airing cupboard is always between 72F. and 77F. which provides enough warmth for any of my ants which may need a bit extra  |
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Post by Black Ant on Jul 3, 2011 17:02:17 GMT
Love the video and pics, shame the other queen isn't around but the colony is looking well |
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Post by Zarbi on Jan 30, 2012 19:03:33 GMT
Great news about this colony, it sounds like a major population explosion is going to happen soon. |
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jan 31, 2012 8:45:00 GMT
Great news about this colony, it sounds like a major population explosion is going to happen soon. It certainly looks like that's the way things are going. ;D |
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