mattg
Leaf Cutter Ant 
Posts: 63
Country: UK
Likes: 1
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Post by mattg on Mar 21, 2008 11:17:12 GMT
Hi, Just thought you might want to see some new photos of my Pogonomyrmex barbatus colony. I started the colony back in September 2007 with a single queen. There are over 100 workers now. Really slow to get going, but once you have a few workers they really take off. There are also some new photos of my Messor capitatus colony. I've moved them into a newly adapted home and you can finally see the queen well now (the biggest ant I have at the moment!) www.flickr.com/photos/13392514@N00/MattG |
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Post by Shawn on Mar 21, 2008 11:37:38 GMT
Hi, Just thought you might want to see some new photos of my Pogonomyrmex barbatus colony. I started the colony back in September 2007 with a single queen. There are over 100 workers now. Really slow to get going, but once you have a few workers they really take off. There are also some new photos of my Messor capitatus colony. I've moved them into a newly adapted home and you can finally see the queen well now (the biggest ant I have at the moment!) www.flickr.com/photos/13392514@N00/MattG Some very nice photos. I just got a new camera so I'll try some new shots soon  You got some ants in a old CD case? never thought of that lol Shawn |
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Post by jumbo992 on Mar 21, 2008 14:24:18 GMT
Nice photos, good work |
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Post by Wood~Ant on Mar 21, 2008 17:14:52 GMT
No matter how I try to copy the link, it just refuses to work and this is all I get  Oops! Looks like you followed a bad link  |
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Post by Shawn on Mar 21, 2008 17:30:40 GMT
No matter how I try to copy the link, it just refuses to work and this is all I get Oops! Looks like you followed a bad link You need to copy the whole link and it worked for me www.flickr.com/photos/13392514@N00/ copy and paste making sure @n00/ is after the numbers Shawn |
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mattg
Leaf Cutter Ant
Posts: 63
Country: UK
Likes: 1
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Post by mattg on Mar 21, 2008 20:34:33 GMT
Yeah, sorry about the link. I have tried all sorts of different things to code the whole link, but I think the @ in the middle of the link confuses things.
Anyway, glad you liked the photos.
MattG
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jun 16, 2014 7:25:16 GMT
Do you still have your Pogo colonies Mat? I remember you did so well keeping them here in the UK.
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mattg
Leaf Cutter Ant
Posts: 63
Country: UK
Likes: 1
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Post by mattg on Jun 16, 2014 7:43:16 GMT
Hi,
Yes, still going, but some unusual things going on with it. Last year they produced several queen alates, slightly smaller than the mother queen. The queen died a couple of months ago and since then, one (maybe more?) of the alates has laid eggs that will undoubtably be males. There's some very interesting dominance behaviour going on with a single new queen clearly dominant, but with maybe two others in secondary positions. All three have some ovarian development. Not really sure what's going to happen long term. P. barbarus has pretty specific lek mating behaviour, so it's unclear whether any resulting males will get the necessary triggers to mate. Funny though since I used to regularly dig up colonies of P. barbarus as a kid in CA and remember finding these smaller queens, but have no idea whether they were reproductively active. I'm not holding out much hope that there will be any mating behaviour to be honest, but it's all very interesting.
Will let you know how it turns out...
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Post by Jenny on Jun 16, 2014 7:54:26 GMT
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mattg
Leaf Cutter Ant
Posts: 63
Country: UK
Likes: 1
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Post by mattg on Jun 16, 2014 9:10:24 GMT
Yes, think that was a photo of my Messor capitatus - much bigger colony now with super majors. Their heads are so ridiculously big they have trouble walking.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jun 16, 2014 12:37:56 GMT
Yes, think that was a photo of my Messor capitatus - much bigger colony now with super majors. Their heads are so ridiculously big they have trouble walking. Sounds like we may have to start a Messor keepers club soon  |
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mattg
Leaf Cutter Ant
Posts: 63
Country: UK
Likes: 1
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Post by mattg on Jun 16, 2014 12:52:21 GMT
They are great ants. Love my Pogonomyrmex, but wish they had different castes like Messor (think P. badius from Florida does, but have never seen them available).
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