Post by philip369 on Aug 15, 2013 21:47:37 GMT
Hello one and all!
I bought this colony from eBay and it included two queens and around 25-ish workers they are a tropical species that can be found in Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Southern Portugal and Madagascar usually in very dry sandy environments. As always the information is only what I have managed to find out and I am by no means an expert, take everything stated here as a rough guide. As you can tell they are a Polygyny species (multiple queens) with the queen being around 7mm-8mm in length and the workers being 3.5mm to 5mm in size. They are a shiny black colouration with muddy red heads and thorax. The queens can be easily noticed from the workers by their massive gasters. They should be kept around 28-30- oC (remember that if you have a test tube set up then the temperature should be 3-4 c lower to account for the heat soil would normally absorb) with a cooler 2 months between December and February although not to much cooler as these ants don't hibernate.
For a habitat I would suggest a desert set up with a couple of desert plants like cactus (the mini ones are fantastic) and maybe Aloe Vera plants (these would have to kept in plant pots) but with some creative sand manipulation would be easy to hide. A couple of sand blasted wood branches would finish the effect. These additions are not needed but these ants are not true desert dwellers and inhabit a lot of different climates.
Since obtaining these ants, they have grown in number but very slowly I think this is because I have them in test tube set up they won't do better until they get a nice set-up. On the other hand there is a lot of brood at different stages at the moment and they seem to be doing better than worse. My set up should be ready in the next week or so.
Here are some pictures of the colony I will upload ones of the set up as it is completed! Enjoy!
P.s. comments in this thread:
queenant.proboards.com/thread/7815/phlip369s-monomorium-subopacum-colony-comments
I bought this colony from eBay and it included two queens and around 25-ish workers they are a tropical species that can be found in Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Southern Portugal and Madagascar usually in very dry sandy environments. As always the information is only what I have managed to find out and I am by no means an expert, take everything stated here as a rough guide. As you can tell they are a Polygyny species (multiple queens) with the queen being around 7mm-8mm in length and the workers being 3.5mm to 5mm in size. They are a shiny black colouration with muddy red heads and thorax. The queens can be easily noticed from the workers by their massive gasters. They should be kept around 28-30- oC (remember that if you have a test tube set up then the temperature should be 3-4 c lower to account for the heat soil would normally absorb) with a cooler 2 months between December and February although not to much cooler as these ants don't hibernate.
For a habitat I would suggest a desert set up with a couple of desert plants like cactus (the mini ones are fantastic) and maybe Aloe Vera plants (these would have to kept in plant pots) but with some creative sand manipulation would be easy to hide. A couple of sand blasted wood branches would finish the effect. These additions are not needed but these ants are not true desert dwellers and inhabit a lot of different climates.
Since obtaining these ants, they have grown in number but very slowly I think this is because I have them in test tube set up they won't do better until they get a nice set-up. On the other hand there is a lot of brood at different stages at the moment and they seem to be doing better than worse. My set up should be ready in the next week or so.
Here are some pictures of the colony I will upload ones of the set up as it is completed! Enjoy!
P.s. comments in this thread:
queenant.proboards.com/thread/7815/phlip369s-monomorium-subopacum-colony-comments
