Quote of the Month

“My religion is very simple.  My religion is kindness.”

-The Dalai Lama

Myrmica sp. Colony Filmed with New Macro Lenses

On Christmas day, I pulled the Myrmica sp. colony out of hibernation for a short period of time to test out the new macro lenses I obtained recently.  I still need to work on the lighting and focus, but overall it is a significant improvement on my last attempts. Unfortunately, it seems that for whatever reason this colony ended up eating the majority of its brood during the months it has been in hibernation, leaving only a few small larvae. This may be typical for the species, as I know many ants will not care for brood over the winter.

Camponotus vicinus Colony History

On June 18, 2011, while I was on a camping trip in Estes Park, Colorado, I managed to find a young Camponotus vicinus foundress queen beneath a large flat rock near our campsite.  Her gaster was swollen with eggs and she appeared to be in very good health. After experimenting with multiple varieties of nests, I found that she seemed to prefer just a simple test tube setup.  She laid here first eggs on June 23, 2011.  They were very large and bright yellow in color, which is unusual for most ants.  Her first worker appeared on August 18, 2011.  By August 20, 2011, there were four workers and multiple pupae, along with a number of new eggs.  Unfortunately, I made the mistake of acting too quickly and moving these ants into a nest that was too large for them (a Small AntsCanada Habitat Nest).  They lost the majority of their eggs during the transfer and, once they arrived in the new nest, became very stressed and ended up eating one of their own pupae.  After they had been in the new nest for a period of time and were still not showing signs of improvement, I attached a new test tube to the nest entrance.  Within less than a few hours, they had relocated into the little glass test tube, carrying what was left of their brood with them.  During this process, I observed workers eagerly pulling their sisters to the new nesting site to speed up the relocation.  At a few points, the queen herself was carefully guided to the new chamber as well.  Once the whole colony was in the new tube, I disconnected it from the large nest.  There are currently six workers in the little colony.  They are hibernating in a mini-fridge at a temperature of 4-7 degrees C.

These are some photos of the queen with her brood on July 31, 2011.

 

This is a short video of the colony that was shot on October 22, 2011.

Tetramorium sp. E Colony History

Tetramorium sp. E (often known as the pavement ant) is an extremely common ant in most urban areas in North America (including Colorado).  They are classified as an invasive species and they were originally from Europe.  In July, they have massive nuptial flights in which thousands of queens and males take off from the ground and mate in midair.  After mating, the new queens alight on the ground and shed their wings.  The majority of them die during this period, due to predators and hostile workers of the same species.  The few that survive find a nesting place and begin rearing their first workers.  During this period, the queens do not leave their tiny nest to forage for food.  They sustain both themselves and their growing young off of nothing more than their body reserves.  The young queens also metabolize their now useless wing muscles.

On July 9, 2011, in the early morning, thousands of workers ran back and forth erratically in massive black swarms in front of their nest entrances on the pavement outside of my house.  Young queens and males took off from these protective masses and disappeared into the sky.  Near midday, there were countless wingless queens searching for cover on the barren pavement.  I collected a dozen or so of them and placed them in simple test tube nests.  The majority of them eventually established small colonies, but I will only focus on one here, as it is the only one that I ended up keeping.

The queen’s first workers emerged on August 12, 2011, about a month after she was captured.  They were much smaller than normal pavement ant workers found in a mature colony.  Amazingly, the queen managed to produce roughly 16 of them without access to any external resources.  The colony had a huge appetite and grew at a rapid rate.  By September 25, 2011, there were more than 27 tiny workers and a large pile of brood in all stages of growth.

September 25, 2011:

 

This is a short video of the colony that was filmed on September 25, 2011 (the same day the pictures were taken).

 

By October 8, 2011, the colony possessed more than 35 workers of varying sizes.  Unfortunately, on October 9, 2011, their test tube nest was knocked off of the table and the colony scattered all over the floor. I managed to recover the queen and a portion of the workers, but the colony as a whole has not yet recovered.  When spring arrives, I am most likely going to offer them brood from a wild colony to make up for their losses and help them survive the shock.

Quote of the Month

“It is not the strongest of a species that survives, nor the most intelligent.  It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

-Charles Darwin

Eciton hamatum army ants in the Peruvian Amazon through a fogged lens.

Myrmica sp. Colony History

I figured I’d start this blog by detailing the history of my oldest captive ant colony.  On April 29, 2011, I found a single Myrmica sp. queen under a rock on the side of a busy road (not exactly the best place to look for ants).  She was slow and lethargic due to the cold weather and possessed no brood.  I collected her and eventually gave her access to a simple test tube nest connected to a small plastic container using rubber tubing.  Within a very short period of time, she was boldly venturing out into the “foraging arena” (plastic container) daily and retrieving any fruit flies that I had placed within.  By early May, she had laid a small cluster of eggs.  She continued to forage and rarely left dead insects untouched, also showing great interest in droplets of honey.  Her first workers eclosed on July 27, 2011.  Surprisingly, they were only slightly smaller than the queen herself.  The queen ceased all foraging activity and let her first workers take over.  By October, the colony possessed over 20 workers, all of roughly the same size.  The entire little colony is currently in a mini-fridge hibernating at a temperature of roughly 7º C.

May 15, 2011 – shortly after first eggs appeared:

July 29, 2011 – first workers:

September 24, 2011 – 15 workers and a relatively large amount of brood:

 

I created a short video covering this colony’s history for anyone who is interested.