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Post by UKantz on May 12, 2012 10:54:08 GMT
About 2 weeks ago wood recommended the Malvern hills as a good place to hunt for ants. Well today I came up trumps when I lifted up a medium sized stone red ants came dashing out and went strait for my fingers. Luckily I didn't get stung  I got my pot and brush and took 2 queens 25-50 workers and some brood  This is my first successfull ant hunting session, and I will return! ;D They currently are in there foraging pot they were put in when I found them, and are in the fridge as I speak to cool them down for the move. I'm cooling them down as I don't intend to be bitten stung and have escapees when I put the test tube in there, which I covered in red plastic to be more appealing to them. Once they have moved into their test tube I will take pictures as the foraging pot has condersensation around the edge so I can't get a clear shot. |
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Post by UKantz on May 12, 2012 11:47:21 GMT
I have decided that they are going to live in my old messor barbarus tank, they have just began the move into it |
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Post by Black Ant on May 12, 2012 12:50:54 GMT
Sounds like you had a good ant hunt. |
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Post by UKantz on May 13, 2012 5:56:30 GMT
Thanks black ant It doesn't seem they like the y-tong as they are moving out back into the soil that they came with in the foraging pot, I think the Ytong is to big for them. They have however had some honey water that workers passed on to each other, soon there was a ring of ants around the bottle cap lid (with honey water in). |
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Post by UKantz on May 13, 2012 5:59:15 GMT
I'm sorry to say that 1 of the 2 queens has died  ! I am moving them into a soil set up now. |
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Post by UKantz on May 13, 2012 6:02:30 GMT
Update
The 2nd queen wasn't dead, I presumed so when a worker was carrying her around and she was curled up. Has anyone ever seen this behaviour before?
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Post by UKantz on May 13, 2012 7:31:57 GMT
I decided to divide the colony into 2
Q1- she is in a test tube with 10 workers
Q2- this queen is in a soil set up with 35 workers
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Post by Wood~Ant on May 13, 2012 7:56:18 GMT
Update The 2nd queen wasn't dead, I presumed so when a worker was carrying her around and she was curled up. Has anyone ever seen this behaviour before? Often! Myrmica are not the only ants that do this; but they are reknowned for carrying their queens. Other species will carry smaller workers around piggy back fashion. ;D I decided to divide the colony into 2 Q1- she is in a test tube with 10 workers Q2- this queen is in a soil set up with 35 workers Why split them up? These ants are polygynous and will do better if the colony is kept with 2 queens rather than just 1. They have lots of queens in wild nests, but their colonies never get too large, even if a colony has 10 queens it may only average about 1,200 |
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Post by TenebrousNova on May 13, 2012 8:39:39 GMT
Wood is right, it is best to keep the colonies together. And on the occasion that I kept a wild-caught colony, I did indeed see the workers carrying and pulling the queens around. ;D
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Post by deansyme on May 13, 2012 9:06:12 GMT
I have often witnessed myrmica carrying there queens to a new nest, this is due to their size, Formica will grab a queens mandibles and drag her to the new nest site.
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Post by UKantz on May 13, 2012 10:08:32 GMT
Thanks for the info, I've noticed that they carry the queens and workers carry each other, strange but fascinating behaviour I will take wood advice and reintroduce the test tube queen ;D |
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Post by UKantz on May 14, 2012 16:12:09 GMT
It seems they have settled into there soil set up well, I havent seen the queens since but that's to be expected (somewhere in the middle of the set up possibly under the pebble) There is always at least 3 workers foraging and the mealworm I placed in there this morning is completely gone  , they sure seem to like there proteins ;D I have high hopes for this colony  |
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Post by Smudge on May 14, 2012 18:37:06 GMT
Good to hear I was always fond of the Myrmica species because of how well they hunt  |
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Post by UKantz on May 15, 2012 6:41:26 GMT
I found the remains of the mealworm this morning only the tail end left  so I decided to put anouther one in. I am 99% positive that they have nested under the pebble I have placed in there, but there is some digging around one side of the tank so I'm not entirely sure. |
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Post by UKantz on May 16, 2012 15:25:04 GMT
Curiosity got the better of me and I lifted the pebble for just a second to check if they were under there, and I can confirm I did see a queen. I didn't have time to look for the second queen as I only lifted it for litrely a second, she may have been there for all I know. It also turns out that is where they are keeping the brood there as well so it's likely that both are there. At least I know they survived the move. |
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