Hikari's C. Pennsylvanicus journal

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Hikari

Re: Hikari's C. Pennsylvanicus journal

Post: # 25410Post Hikari
Mon Jul 17, 2017 11:26 pm

JackPayne wrote:
Mon Jul 17, 2017 9:31 pm
Hikari wrote:
Mon Jul 17, 2017 9:14 pm
JackPayne wrote:
Sun Jul 16, 2017 9:49 pm
Congratulations on Maya's first workers and Terra pupae.

My Iridomyrmyx queen "Suzy" got her first nanitic yesterday aswell! It's really a very exiting time for antkeepers at this early stage.
It's a lot of fun! They're really cute, and amusing to watch.
Couldn't agree more! I've been watching a few videos of them drinking honey for hours! ;) :lol:
I gave one of my smaller Myrmica colonies a tiny drop of honey and one of the workers drowned in it overnight. :( Now it's just the queen and one worker. It's so hard feeding them sometimes x_x

JackPayne
Posts: 287
Joined: Mon Mar 27, 2017 2:28 am
Location: Australia,NSW

Re: Hikari's C. Pennsylvanicus journal

Post: # 25411Post JackPayne
Mon Jul 17, 2017 11:55 pm

That's super unfortunate!
I actually fed my larger Iridomyrmyx colony yesterday? Bit of honey, scared the crap out of them, but they should be ok! Unless they drown in the honey....I will be removing the honey tommorrow, so they should be fine and fed :D :lol:

The hobby is very hit or miss I've found.
Hi I'm Jack, How are you?

Hikari

Re: Hikari's C. Pennsylvanicus journal

Post: # 25642Post Hikari
Wed Jul 19, 2017 4:13 pm

- (7-19-17) Well, I am tired, lol. Spent yesterday at a park, caught one new queen I am suspecting is Monomorium minimum. I'm planning on finally getting a macro lens for my phone to take better ant pics instead of fumbling with the magnifying lens.

After the running around the park, I nearly pulled an all-nighter at the blacklight as well. Made it to 3am before I finally had to crash for a bit. Nothing new flew around sunrise though, when I finally took down the trap. The wild Camponotus workers seemed to enjoy the buffet it provided them in the early morning though. I saw so many running off with the bugs the blacklight had attracted. Overall, caught around a dozen new Temnothorax curvispinosus queens. I think I have over 20 at this point, so I don't think I'll be keeping any more. I finally needed to buy more test tubes. Decided to just buy 100 13mm ones since I'm sure I'll go through them all eventually anyways. I seem to have the most luck finding the smaller species around here. But next time, I need to decide between park hunt OR late-night blacklighting...doing both in the same day/night is pretty exhausting, lol.

I do hope more species fly soon. I know Myrmica have started flying in my general area, but doesn't look like the ones in my yard have just yet. I know I still have time though. Still bummed I've yet to catch any sort of Formica flight. Would like to catch more.

Oh yeah, and I guess I should mention, I am officially a GAN farmer for Ohio now. Yay! Not as much to offer now, but by fall, I'm thinking I should have workers from most of my queens, and will be able to list them.

Hikari

Re: Hikari's C. Pennsylvanicus journal

Post: # 25722Post Hikari
Thu Jul 20, 2017 1:32 am

I made my first video update for Maya! I was super surprised. She's up to 8 nanitics already! I hadn't been able to see because of the condensation on the formicarium.

https://youtu.be/_4Oq0mUvShI

(For some reason, the embed code isn't working for me on this forum. Oh well. I'll just have to share the link.)

User avatar
Aussie
Posts: 51
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 9:16 pm
Location: Australia

Re: Hikari's C. Pennsylvanicus journal

Post: # 25728Post Aussie
Thu Jul 20, 2017 3:22 am

This has been really inspirational and interesting to read, keep up the great work mate!

Cheers from Australia

Hikari

Re: Hikari's C. Pennsylvanicus journal

Post: # 25837Post Hikari
Thu Jul 20, 2017 6:53 pm

Aussie wrote:
Thu Jul 20, 2017 3:22 am
This has been really inspirational and interesting to read, keep up the great work mate!

Cheers from Australia
Thanks! It makes me so happy that people have been enjoying my journal ^-^

xTNxANTMANx
Posts: 416
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2016 9:03 am
Location: Western Tennessee

Re: Hikari's C. Pennsylvanicus journal

Post: # 26039Post xTNxANTMANx
Fri Jul 21, 2017 4:51 pm



Hopefully I did it right and you now have the video on your page here XD
Keeping:
Camponotus subbarbatus
Formica pallidefulva x2
Formica subsericea x4
Lasius sp
Tetramorium immigrans x2
Dorymyrmex bureni

Founding:
Formica pallidefulva
Unknown sp x2

Hikari

Re: Hikari's C. Pennsylvanicus journal

Post: # 26066Post Hikari
Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:24 pm

xTNxANTMANx wrote:
Fri Jul 21, 2017 4:51 pm
Hopefully I did it right and you now have the video on your page here XD
It did! Thank you! And I saw in the quote coding how you did it, so hopefully now I should be able to add more later too. There's going to be more, I'm in the process of uploading one now. Ran across something interesting at the park earlier today.

Hikari

Re: Hikari's C. Pennsylvanicus journal

Post: # 26124Post Hikari
Fri Jul 21, 2017 10:54 pm

- (7-21-17) So, I had fun at the park today. Didn't find any queens, but I found other ant activities going on that caught my attention.



Ant raid! I've been told the raiders are Formica aserva, and the ones being raided might be Formica subsericea. I'm just glad I got the genus right :D

Funny enough, while I didn't find any queens at the park, I did find one today. Accidentally dug her up while doing something else, lol. I found her eggs too, at least, and put them in all test tube. I'm thinking she's a Lasius? At least if she's laid her own eggs, I figure she's not a parasitic species (FINALLY, as I have had zero luck with those). I took pics of her with my new cell phone macro lens, and seeing as she kept relatively still, I got some decent shots. Still hard to focus through the test tubes sometimes though.

Image

Image

Also, thanks to my new lens, I have to rethink the species of the tiny 3mm queen I caught over the weekend. Thought she might be Monomorium minimum, but turns out she's actually probably Temnothorax longispinosus. The macro lens revealed a set of spines on my tiny queen, which I couldn't make out with my magnifying lens. I took the best pics I could, but she was zooming all over the test tube, and it was a small miracle I got pics at all. At this point, she's laid a small batch of eggs.

Image
(seriously though, look at those spines)

Image
(almost managed to focus in on her teeny face)

I wonder how many species I'll end up with by summer's end? lol

Oh, also, if you want to see an explanation video on how to make those bead formicarium I have, they're on my YouTube channel as well. I decided to make my ant playlist public (instead of hidden). I'm sure the people who subscribed to me for game vids will probably be super confused, but seeing as I haven't been able to upload any new game vids for years now, I don't feel so bad about the random change of pace.

Hikari

Re: Hikari's C. Pennsylvanicus journal

Post: # 26849Post Hikari
Tue Jul 25, 2017 9:57 pm

- (7-25-17) - Not much to report. Lost my newer Myrmica queen. Forgot they were semi-claustral :x Ugh...such a stupid newbie mistake. Anyways, all the other ants seem to be doing well. Lately, I've been trying to think of a good way to do a dirt set-up for my Ponera, just because I think they'd like it more. While they seem to be doing alright, I haven't once seen the queen lay any new eggs since I got her. Downside is I don't know if they actively dig, or just happen to take advantage of already dug tunnels or spaces under rocks, so I don't know how I would set it up. If they do dig, I also need to think of a way where they aren't gonna disappear so I can keep tabs on them. I need to try researching more.z

Haven't been out ant hunting since the temp dropped the past two days after a bunch of rain, but it might warm up tomorrow enough to make running the balcklight tomorrow night work it.

Current ant count:
3 Camponotus Pennsylvanicus
1 Formica sp.
1 Tapinoma sessile
5 Myrmica sp.
20-ish Temnothorax curvispinosus (need to recount)
1 Ponera pennsylvanica
4 Tetramorium sp. e
1 Tetramorium longispinosus
1 Lasius sp.?

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