Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Jul 22, 2009 2:45:56 GMT
In just one location I have managed to collect alates of 4 different species. The alates of these four don't interbreed. When alates gynes of different species are placed together in close proximity they attack one another. Female alates of the same species tolerate each others presence.
Eggs are laid usually 1 day after the de-alated gyne seals herself in a nest dug some 4 to 6 inches into the ground. The dealated gyne placed her eggs on the bottom of the abdomen while sitting on the top her abdomen. She maintains this position throughout until her first brood matured and takes over brood care.
Under ideal conditions eggs hatch in 6 days and pupate 15 days after hatching.
Adult worker appear from the 24 to 26 days after the gyne mated. Majors are found around 45 days after founding of new nests. Supermajor matured into adult ants slightly over 60 days after the nest is founded. These are under ideal conditions.
Foraging typically starts from day 30 onwards.
|
|
Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Aug 14, 2009 1:19:45 GMT
Ninety days on this Pheidologeton nest I am documenting now has some one to two hundred workers not counting 8 major workers and 2 super majors.
This is kind of small for a nest of this species at ninety days. The reason for this is some sort of mishap. (I am considering abandoning this nest as my original intention was to document the normal growth rate of this species until they produce alates).
Some three weeks ago for almost ten days the nest was not successfully converting larvae to pupae. During the metamorphosis process from larvae to pupae, the pupae were either not viable or have some how failed to survive the process and were eaten by the workers. For close to a period of a week the nest only had larvae and eggs.
It was only near the end of last week that pupae started to appear and since then the nest has doubled in size with many new workers emerging the last two days.
My suspicion is on the food I fed them as this nest was not the only casualty. My Anochetus, Oligomyrmex, Strumigenys nests are all but wiped out. None of these have any brood but only workers left and even a few queens died. So far the Pheidologeton and the Pheidole are the only nests that seem to have recovered.
I intend to confirm this suspicion with some experiment but that has to be much later after I start a few new colonies and have grown them a bit.
|
|
Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Aug 26, 2009 0:48:58 GMT
103 days on the nest has more than doubled in brood size since I last posted. Counting the number of major workers is now not possible (due to the none stop movement) but they still number around twenty or so.
No new super major worker, larva or pupa has been observed despite an abundance of food.
|
|
Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Sept 2, 2009 3:36:03 GMT
Day 105. Finally spotted a larva of a super major which might even turn out to be a mega super major if it continues to grow for another three or four days before stopping.
This larva was probably developing since day 98 but until it reaches a certain size to differentiate it from the larvae of other workers and major workers you really can't tell that it is going to be a super major.
Will update this again when this larva pupates.
|
|
Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Sept 7, 2009 1:16:17 GMT
Day 108 the supermajor larva has changed into a mega super major pupa. Two more super major larva are also in various stages of growth.
Will need to move this nest soon as it getting too large for its present housing.
|
|
Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Sept 15, 2009 0:51:41 GMT
Day 115, at last though one month late, but finally a mega super major worker has eclosed (thanks Wood for introducing this term). This is the second largest worker in a Pheidologeton diversus colony. I probably did not catch the metamorph from larva to pupa in time at day 108 as it normally takes 9 days from pupae to eclosion (emerging as adult). So counting backwards the actual day would be day 106.
Another mega super major is in the early pupa stage and one more in the final larva stage. Both of these are even larger and are largest in Pheidologeton diversus nest (workers that is).
I hope to be able to upload photos of these end of next week.
|
|
Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Sept 18, 2009 2:36:11 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Wood~Ant on Sept 18, 2009 7:12:01 GMT
WOW!! That is going to be one very big girl when she becomes an adult ant. Nice photos Quah
|
|
Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Sept 23, 2009 1:20:26 GMT
WOW!! That is going to be one very big girl when she becomes an adult ant. Nice photos Quah Thanks Wood. The nest now is five times the size it was at day 90. I hope to be able upload photos of the whole nest by the end of the week. I got them to move out from the old container into a new container. I made an error in my previous entry on the number of days from pupa to eclosion, the orignal entry was correct. I forgot that major workers takes a longer period from pupa to eclosion. I have uploaded a new page (with the nest as of last week) on Pheidologeton in my termites and ants blog site at: termitesandants.blogspot.com/2009/09/asia-army-ants-pheidologetons.html
|
|
Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Sept 30, 2009 1:14:46 GMT
An unusual development took place with this Pheidologeton nest. A larva has began developing into an full fledge alate gyne.
As I induce the nest to relocate into a new container I observe a large larva which at a glance appears as developing into another mega super major worker, but on more careful inspection looks more like that of a gyne.
As I have not kept this species for a while I was unsure whether my observation was correct (not trusting the reliability of my memory) until the larva metomorph into a pupa and true enough it was a gyne.
This nest is way too small to be producing alates, so my best guess for this turn of events is the super abundance of high protein food I have been feeding them.
|
|
Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Oct 19, 2009 5:40:42 GMT
Some twenty days away has taken a slight toll on the Pheidologeton nest and all the developing larvae of super major workers were cannabalised.
Can't be sure on the overall impact on nest growth but otherwise the nest appears to be growing maybe a bit slower.
The gyne pupae had eclosed but the gyne was not readily accepted and was finally killed.
|
|
Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Oct 29, 2009 0:04:55 GMT
At 5 months now the nest has tripled in size from a month ago. I will need to move them to larger quarters again soon.
|
|
Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Nov 9, 2009 0:32:48 GMT
Introduced the new container to the Pheidologeton nest last Tuesday. The ants started moving into the new container two days later and yesterday finally all the brood have been moved by the workers to the new 'nest'.
The old nest consisted of three containers and were already filled to the brim with brood.
As usually the queen was reluctant to move to this new nest even after been physically carried by the workers into it a few times. She kept going back to the one particular container that she was comfortable with.
It was quite funny to watch as the queen struggled to go the opposite direction and the workers were in a panic finally dragging her backward into the nest opening.
Finally I decided enough is enough and took an air blower (the type for blowing dust off a camera lens) and blowed air into the entrance of the old container convincing the grand matriarch to abandon her cozy home.
Will see if I have time to upload the photos of the new nest this week.
|
|
Quah
Ant Photographer
Outstanding Ant Photographer
Posts: 226
Country: Malaysia
Likes: 10
|
Post by Quah on Nov 23, 2009 0:55:04 GMT
175 days on the nest is relatively small with several thousand workers. This is most likely due to a earlier feeding misadvanture that stalled the nest growth for around two weeks, added to that was a three week period where the nest was not fed (I was away).
As an accurate record of a typical Pheilodogeton diversus nest growth, this current journal is a big failure. I will most likely start again with a new nest in April (the period where they usually release alates in bulk).
I will continue to maintain this journal until this nest starts to produce alates which should be in another three to four months.
|
|
|
Post by Wood~Ant on Nov 23, 2009 9:11:59 GMT
This is one exotic ant species I've often fancied keeping, but they are so expensive to buy over here, so I never have In our cold climate they would need heating, but in Malaysia you are lucky enough to have a warm climate all year round, so I expect heating isn't a problem I've moved the topic into journals
|
|