First Brachymyrmex colony

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Aaron567
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Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 4:38 pm
Location: Pensacola, Florida USA

First Brachymyrmex colony

Post: # 8542Post Aaron567
Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:31 pm

Today (7-11-16), I found three Brachymyrmex queens in my pool. They are the smallest queens I have ever caught! I haven't done much research on Brachymyrmex, but all I know is that they are Polygynous and the workers are extremely tiny, black, and love sugary things. Regular people just call them sugar ants around where I live, since they are the most common sugar-loving ant in my area. I have test-tubed the queens together. I will add updates when things start happening, like if I get even more queens to add to the test tube or if they start laying eggs. I bet the eggs will be tiny!
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nightxwolf88

Re: First Brachymyrmex colony

Post: # 8557Post nightxwolf88
Tue Jul 12, 2016 4:29 pm

Durant wrote:Awesome dude!!! I'm like so jealous cause I always wanted a polygonous colony!!! :shock:
That was me before i found my solenopsis molesta colony lol

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Aaron567
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Re: First Brachymyrmex colony

Post: # 8697Post Aaron567
Sat Jul 16, 2016 10:56 pm

July 16, 2016

Just a small update: The day after I made the first post on this journal, I caught two more queens to go with the others making a total of five. I checked on them today and they have a clutch of eggs, as expected. I thought the eggs would be super tiny, but they are about the same size as any other species' eggs. They look just like little jelly beans!

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Aaron567
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Re: First Brachymyrmex colony

Post: # 8748Post Aaron567
Sun Jul 17, 2016 7:39 pm

I did some research today and I'm pretty sure these are B. patagonicus (Dark Rover Ant). They were fairly recently introduced the US and are well established in Florida, most common in Northern FL where I live. They are also established in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

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Aaron567
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Re: First Brachymyrmex colony

Post: # 8885Post Aaron567
Thu Jul 21, 2016 1:12 pm

July 21, 2016

It has been 10 days since I have caught my Brachymyrmex queens, and now they have larvae!
I can't tell how many there are, but it looks like about half of the brood is larvae, the other half is eggs. I am super excited for my queens right now because I have caught some awesome queens this month such as my Pheidole morrisi queen, my Pheidole obscurithorax queen, and my Crematogaster sp. queen. My Pheidole obscurithorax queen and my Crematogaster sp. queen both have larvae now, along with my Brachymyrmex group. My Solenopsis invicta colony is still at 15-20 workers, but they have a group of about 10 pupae that will hatch in the next few days. I know this is a Brachymyrmex journal, but I felt like giving some info on all my other queens.
Here are the pictures of the Brachymyrmex queens, eggs, and larve (The larvae are difficult to see because they are around the same size as the eggs at the moment).

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AntsRule
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Location: Chester County Pennslyvania

Re: First Brachymyrmex colony

Post: # 8889Post AntsRule
Thu Jul 21, 2016 1:25 pm

Make sure you look very carefully for workers. My 5 queen colony has 25 workers that are each about the size of two grains of sand. Hopefully the next generation ill be a bit bigger. I looked at the queens twice one day and only the second time did I notice workers! :D Congrats!
With all the things ants can do, you wonder, who rules the planet :?

Keeper of:
Camponotus Pennsylvanicus
Pheidole sp.

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Aaron567
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Re: First Brachymyrmex colony

Post: # 8897Post Aaron567
Thu Jul 21, 2016 3:12 pm

AntsRule wrote:Make sure you look very carefully for workers. My 5 queen colony has 25 workers that are each about the size of two grains of sand. Hopefully the next generation ill be a bit bigger. I looked at the queens twice one day and only the second time did I notice workers! :D Congrats!
How long did it take for them to get 25 workers?

AntsRule
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Re: First Brachymyrmex colony

Post: # 8898Post AntsRule
Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:31 pm

Well technically if you break it down it is only 5 workers per queen. Since they are together they grow 5 times as fast. I caught them 5/12/16 so it has been about 70 days. :D (It goes quicker than you think) :D
With all the things ants can do, you wonder, who rules the planet :?

Keeper of:
Camponotus Pennsylvanicus
Pheidole sp.

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Aaron567
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Re: First Brachymyrmex colony

Post: # 9053Post Aaron567
Sun Jul 24, 2016 7:58 pm

July 24, 2016

It has been three days since the last post and this group now has almost double the amount of eggs they had a few days ago! I thought they had larvae, but maybe not. I'm not too sure. I have also added two more making seven Brachymyrmex patagonicus queens total! It took so long taking these 2 pictures because my camera was being so strange and acting like it was being haunted by ghosts or something.

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I love this picture
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Aaron567
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Re: First Brachymyrmex colony

Post: # 9346Post Aaron567
Sat Jul 30, 2016 9:26 pm

July 30, 2016

Since the last update, once again, the brood has at least doubled again, and maybe even tripled. I have discovered something strange though. Some eggs are yellow and most are white. The yellow ones could be just getting close to hatching, but I think I remember there always being yellow ones in there from the beginning. Most of the queens look darker in color than one or two of the others, so could I have two different species? I'm not thinking this is very likely, but I think the entire Brachymyrmex genus is fully polygynous, so maybe different species in the genus can live together. Hmm.. I guess we'll find out once I have workers.

As you can see, the light brown queen is almost always tending to the same pile of eggs, and those are the mostly yellow pile.
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