Marcel's Solenopsis Fugax journal

[Marcel]

Solenopsis fugax also know as the "thief ant" is a small species wich can be found throughout Europe, parts of Asia and Africa. Their nests are frequently found in close association with those of larger ants such as Lasius and Formica species wich pupae and larvae they eat. Colonies are large, with up to 100,000 workers and several queens

At 18 july 2015 I recieved a small colony of this species a single queen and 10/20 workers. At first I kept them in a test tube however feeding quickly became difficult, because of escaping workers so I rehoused them in a small plastic container. In this container I placed the test tube containing the colony and a test tube filled with water the edges of the container are coated with fluon as an extra precaution.

One half of the container is placed onto a heatmat bringing the temperature at 25 degrees celsius the humidity varies around 50/60 %. These conditions seem to be ideal for this this species, the number of workers grew to around 40 with plenty of brood in the test tube. Every other day they get a couple of fruitflies or a cricket and some artifical honeydew I make myself, I also discoverd this species will take fruit as apple or pear.

I lack a decent camera so pictures won't be coming for a while

[WillWithAnts]

Sounds awesome! Did you hibernate them? What is your plan for future nest expansion? Keep up the good work!

[MadVampy]

Sounds awesome! Did you hibernate them? What is your plan for future nest expansion? Keep up the good work!

I'm lucky that here in Alabama I don't need to hibernate my Solenopsis Invicta. We don't get a long enough sustained cold season for the ants to warrant hibernation. My 8 queens are busy laying eggs and building their colonies.

[ooper01]

Love to see some pictures at some point. Sounds very cool. I would love to keep a Solenopsis species but they don't live up here in Utah, USA