March 3 – Updates

The Myrmica sp. colony is going strong.  They have been eating an entire pinhead cricket every other day and there is now a large cluster of at least 20 eggs in the tube.

 

The Camponotus vicinus colony seems to be doing fine.  There is one large larva that appears to be well on its way to pupation, as well as a few small larvae and a little over a dozen eggs.

 

I took a few photos of the pair of unidentified Lasius queens today too.

 

The third Lasius neoniger queen laid her first eggs last week.  Neither of the other two queens have any larvae yet, although both are tending to large clusters of eggs.  The test tubes have begun to grow a fair amount of mold.  I’m hoping this won’t have any negative effects on the ants.  They didn’t take kindly to the sudden change in light, so I haven’t managed to get any photos.

A Huge Mistake

I was recently informed by several members of the Myrmecology Forum that the “mites” in my Tetramorium sp. E colony may have only been large groups of specialized cells that occasionally become apparent beneath the skin of the larvae.  Tragically, by the time I became aware of this, I had already placed the entire colony in the freezer.  At least I have learned something from the experience.

Mite Infestation in Tetramorium Colony

A couple of days ago, I was looking at my Tetramorium sp. E colony underneath an 8x magnifying glass and noticed that a few of the larvae were speckled with minuscule white dots.  After closer inspection, I have become convinced that the dots are in fact extremely tiny mites.  Since the discovery, it seems that the infestation has gotten much worse.  Now all of the larvae (including the smaller ones) are completely coated in possibly hundreds of mites.  These aren’t the typical mites that I am used to.  They aren’t latched on to the bodies of the adults.  They seem to prefer the larvae.  In fact, I haven’t seen a single mite on any of the workers.  Additionally, these particular mites are much smaller than the common ones.  Surprisingly, the colony as a whole still seems to be doing rather well.  The queen has grown relatively fat and there is a large pile of new eggs.  Despite this, I am very concerned.  Does anyone have any advice or knowledge on this issue?  I am considering the idea of freezing the entire colony, so as to prevent the spread of the mites to any of my other captive colonies.

Unidentified Lasius First Eggs

I am excited to report that a pair of the unidentified Lasius queens from last fall just laid their first batch of eggs.

The strange thing is that each egg is almost as large as the head of either queen!

Myrmica Colony Out of Hibernation

I pulled the Myrmica sp. colony out of the fridge a little over a week ago and since then they have been doing very well.  All of them (including the queen) are quite plump and extremely active.  I dropped a small live cricket into the test tube several days ago and it was almost entirely eaten overnight.  A few larvae have grown very large over this past week and the queen has laid roughly five eggs.

Late last summer, I noticed that many of the ants had tiny mites clinging to their bodies.  I thought that hibernation at low temperatures would fix the problem, but it hasn’t.  I’m not really that worried about it at the moment.  The ants aren’t showing any signs that would suggest the mites are hurting them in any way.  I’m sure they have to deal with this problem frequently in the wild.

Here is a picture I took earlier today.  You can see the head of the unfortunate cricket at the bottom right.

Lasius neoniger Laid Eggs

I uncovered the Lasius neoniger test tubes today and was pleasantly surprised to find that two of the three queens had laid small piles of eggs.  I thought about taking some photos, but I decided not to, since I didn’t want to disturb the ants any more than I already had.  The test tubes are draped in two layers of washcloths, encircled by a length of heating cable.  I’ll check on their progress again at some point next week.

Quote of the Month

I never posted a quote for February, did I?  Well… here it is.

“Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual satisfaction.”

-E. O. Wilson

The End of Hibernation

This post is for record-keeping purposes only.  On February 4, 2012, I began waking up the Lasius neoniger queens (mentioned in the last post) from their period of hibernation in the mini-fridge.  Of the four of them, only one did not survive.  The three remaining individuals appear quite healthy and seem to be adapting well to the change in temperature.  Thus far, I have not seen any evidence of eggs, but I am guessing that won’t be the case for much longer.

An Aphaenogaster occidentalis queen, the Camponotus vicinus colony, and a small group of Solenopsis molesta queens were also among the ants removed from hibernation on February 4th.  I will publish more details on them at a later point.

Lasius neoniger Queens

In early September, I ran into a large nuptial flight of the common ant, Lasius neoniger, often called the labor day ant for their habit of staging nuptial flights around labor day.  The queens of this species are quite massive in comparison to the tiny workers… more so than most other common ants in Colorado.  I know that most new L. neoniger queens require a long period of hibernation before they begin laying eggs.  The five individuals in my care are hibernating in a mini-fridge in the basement.  I’m excited to see if they will succeed in producing colonies this coming spring.

These photos give you a general idea of what these queens look like.  They were taken shortly after the ants were collected.

If you look back at this post, it becomes apparent how dramatically different the unidentified Lasius queens are from their L. neoniger relatives.

Unidentified Lasius Queens

In the evening of September 11, 2011, numerous colonies of ants belonging to multiple species released their winged reproductives into the air outside of my house.  Oddly, it had not rained the day before. Most ant species stage their nuptial flights on the day after a large rainstorm when the ground is moist, making it easy for the new queens to dig their first burrows in the soil.  The reasons for the chosen date of these nuptial flights is unknown to me.  Among the ants flying that day, most belonged to the genera, Lasius and Aphaenogaster.  On the pavement, numerous strikingly bright yellow queens scurried about.  They were of the genus Lasius, a common group in North America to which many different unique and interesting species belong.  They were quite small compared to the queens of other Lasius species I have seen in my area, no more than 6 or 7 mm in length.  I collected four of them and put them in standard test tube setups to see if they would raise any workers.  Two of them were experimentally placed in the same test tube; thus far, I have seen no evidence of aggression of any sort and they seem to prefer to stay close to each other.  Dr. J. Trager has suggested that they are Lasius crypticus, but no one can be certain until workers emerge.  None of the unidentified Lasius queens have yet laid eggs.  The new queens of most species of Lasius that fly late in the year tend to wait until the spring to begin laying their first batch of eggs, so I’m not concerned.  They are currently hibernating in a mini-fridge in the basement with my other ants.

These are some photos taken on September 16, 2011 of one of the five Lasius sp. queens I collected.  I’m hoping that they will all begin laying eggs when they come out of hibernation.