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jimbodw07
Honey Pot Ant
Posts: 46
Country: USA
Pets: A really brat dog!
Favourite Ant: Honey Pot Ant
Likes: 9
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Post by jimbodw07 on Sept 6, 2013 19:52:10 GMT
Date: September 6th, 2013 Update (Honey Pot).
Test tube set up:
Good news! All 13 queens have large clutches of eggs! I haven't feed them anything since this species is fully claustral, but I may feed them in the near future. The queens themselves seem very healthy and are cleaning their eggs.
Dirt set up:
The two queens in this set up dug their claustral chambers and completely sealed off their chamber entrance holes. Yikes! I guess I can't feed them either in the near future. They do however, have nice clutches of eggs as well! Everything seems to be going smooth. I must realize and accept that there WILL be casualties! It's good thing that I collected lots of queens.
Here are some pics!Attachment Deleted
imageshack.us/photo/my-images/153/0m3m.jpg/
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Post by Wood~Ant on Sept 7, 2013 6:51:41 GMT
I will follow both journals with interest, as I have kept both Myrmecocystus and Pogonomyrmex species myself a few years back.
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jimbodw07
Honey Pot Ant
Posts: 46
Country: USA
Pets: A really brat dog!
Favourite Ant: Honey Pot Ant
Likes: 9
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Post by jimbodw07 on Sept 8, 2013 0:31:40 GMT
brilliant! Do you still have the colonies? I know that the Myrmecocystus species are very delicate. Most die regardless of whether or not they were cared for properly.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Sept 8, 2013 6:35:24 GMT
brilliant! Do you still have the colonies? I know that the Myrmecocystus species are very delicate. Most die regardless of whether or not they were cared for properly. Not any longer, as like I said it was several years ago now and the guy who imports them doesn't always get ant stocks in from his supplier in Arizona.
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jimbodw07
Honey Pot Ant
Posts: 46
Country: USA
Pets: A really brat dog!
Favourite Ant: Honey Pot Ant
Likes: 9
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Post by jimbodw07 on Sept 20, 2013 20:17:05 GMT
Date: September 20th, 2013 Update: Myrmecocystus mexicanus
I checked all of the test tubes today and 5 out of the 9 queens have larvae now! The other 4 queens have clusters of eggs, but they seem to never hatch into larvae. I don't know if the 4 queens are eating their own eggs and then laying more or what. Today I decided to feed all of the queens their first meal, which consisted of bread and honey-water placed on small aluminum squares inside the test tubes. Some of the queens have started drinking the honey water. I'll leave the food in the test tubes until I see the first hint of mold.
For now, It's just a matter of patience!
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jimbodw07
Honey Pot Ant
Posts: 46
Country: USA
Pets: A really brat dog!
Favourite Ant: Honey Pot Ant
Likes: 9
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Post by jimbodw07 on Sept 22, 2013 5:34:03 GMT
Date: September 21st, 2013 Photo update
I fed all my Myrmecocystus m. queens bread soaked in honey water.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Sept 22, 2013 6:40:38 GMT
Lovely colour on these queens, a sort of creamy gold. The larvae are coming along nicely too from the look of them in the photo.
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jimbodw07
Honey Pot Ant
Posts: 46
Country: USA
Pets: A really brat dog!
Favourite Ant: Honey Pot Ant
Likes: 9
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Post by jimbodw07 on Sept 23, 2013 6:28:50 GMT
Yep! And the two other queens in the dirt set up also have tons of eggs and larvae. However, I'm afraid the rest of the queens that don't have eggs or larvae will most likely perish. It's a good thing I collected as many as I could handle.
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jimbodw07
Honey Pot Ant
Posts: 46
Country: USA
Pets: A really brat dog!
Favourite Ant: Honey Pot Ant
Likes: 9
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Post by jimbodw07 on Oct 3, 2013 4:22:01 GMT
So today I checked my queens and lo and behold, 1 out of 4 queens have pupae! Well just 1 pupae, but still, I'm so excited! The 3 other queens have larvae and they are getting big so I suspect that they will pupate pretty soon. The rest of the queens (11) are either laying and not producing anything or are not laying at all. See this is why it's so important to collect more than just a few queens. The four queens that have larvae are in two different setups. The first 2 queens are in test tube setups while the other 2 are in dirt setups. Here is the interesting part, the 2 queens that are in test tubes don't have any pupae yet, whereas the 2 queens in the dirt set up have pupae. In other words, the queens have more larvae in the dirt set up than the queens' in the test tube set up combined! These queens seem to do better in dirt setups than in test tube setups. However, I won't jump the gun and say that these queens do better in dirt setups because well, these queens are still in their early developmental stages of starting a colony. Now switching gears here, my 2 Pogonomyrmex californicus queens aren't doing too well. One isn't laying at all and the other is laying, but the eggs seem to be infertile. Such a pity because I really wanted a Harvester ant colony this year. Oh well. Here is a photo of the queen with larvae. The one with pupae is in the dirt set up and it's hard to get a picture of her.
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jimbodw07
Honey Pot Ant
Posts: 46
Country: USA
Pets: A really brat dog!
Favourite Ant: Honey Pot Ant
Likes: 9
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Post by jimbodw07 on Oct 4, 2013 21:15:18 GMT
Date: October 4th, 2013 Update.
So today I checked on the 4 queens and 2 out of 4 queens have pupae!
The 2 queens that have pupae are in dirt setups and now I'm waiting for the larvae in the test tubes to pupate. I decided to place all 4 queens on top of my computer tower to provide them with warmth because fall is here and it's already chilly outside!
Patience, patience! hehe.
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jimbodw07
Honey Pot Ant
Posts: 46
Country: USA
Pets: A really brat dog!
Favourite Ant: Honey Pot Ant
Likes: 9
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Post by jimbodw07 on Oct 18, 2013 6:55:28 GMT
Date: October 17th, 2013 Update: Pupae
I now have pupae from all 4 queens! So far so good! It looks like I'm going to have 4 colonies this year. Of course, the last 2 queens to have pupae were from the test tube set up. The 2 queens in the dirt setups have tons of pupae now. The only thing that is worrying me is that the pupae are taking forever to hatch. One of the queens have already unsealed her chamber and now there is a small opening so that I'm guessing the ants will be able to forage. All queens are on top of my computer tower for warmth.
How long does it take for pupae to hatch? It's been like 3 weeks already.
Dude Halloween is coming up! I love Autumn!
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Post by Wood~Ant on Oct 18, 2013 7:49:27 GMT
Date: October 17th, 2013 Update: Pupae How long does it take for pupae to hatch? It's been like 3 weeks already. From what I remember of my M. mimicus brood the pupae started to eclose around 3 weeks after the larvae pupated. Some ant species have quite fast developing brood, while other appear to be frustratingly slow. Myrmecocystus unfortunately do seem to be rather slow to develop, but speed up once the first workers are born into the young queen's colony.
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jimbodw07
Honey Pot Ant
Posts: 46
Country: USA
Pets: A really brat dog!
Favourite Ant: Honey Pot Ant
Likes: 9
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Post by jimbodw07 on Oct 19, 2013 2:20:14 GMT
Well that's good to hear WoodAnt. I thought the pupae would never eclose! I just have to be more patient then. Thanks WoodAnt!
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jimbodw07
Honey Pot Ant
Posts: 46
Country: USA
Pets: A really brat dog!
Favourite Ant: Honey Pot Ant
Likes: 9
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Post by jimbodw07 on Nov 3, 2013 6:13:05 GMT
Date: November 2nd, 2013 Update: Callow workers
Finally, patience has paid off and now I have been rewarded with the arrival of the first callow workers in the (drum roll please) dirt setups! I was checking the queens this evening when I noticed about 5 callow workers running about inside the chamber. The second queen in the other dirt set up had about 3 callow workers in her nest. So in other words, both queens now have callow workers! 2 down, 4 more queens to go!
The queens in the test tubes still have pupae and are progressing nicely. I should expect workers from them in about 3 weeks.
I don't want to speak to soon, but it seems like these queens do remarkably well in dirt setups compared to raising them in the test tube setups. In the future, if I decide to collect more queens of this species, I may end up keeping about 80% of the queens in dirt setups and the 20% in test tubes.
I tried taking pictures of the dirt setups, but the image quality wasn't good so instead, I am going to videotape the action and post the video here.
I'll make another post with the video by Monday.
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