The start of rare and elusive Odontomachus relictus species PART#2

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Ryderw
Posts: 42
Joined: Wed May 16, 2018 9:53 am

The start of rare and elusive Odontomachus relictus species PART#2

Post: # 39268Post Ryderw
Fri Jun 29, 2018 11:08 am

June 28 2018,
I woke up and instantly started to hop on my pc and look if i had any responds to my question and some one did but not from this site. They told my and i quote "you can try to put her in there either way you will end up with a queen because if they have a queen already the new queen will die and if they don't they will take her in". Now i made sure to make it very clear that i didn't know much about this colony as there isn't any good research but if they weren't polygynous would it still work without them having a queen to start with. But first i wanted to try to feed the colony worms as it was really easy food source for me to feed them. After a couple hours they didn't touch the worm so accepting defeat on this try i took it out and feed it to my fish. So what i did first is take some workers and put it in a separate tub with the queen,ready to react if they attack her but all of them started to communicate and rub their antennas together with each other and then seemed to be on their way trying to get back to the colony. I took this as a good sign as decided to take the risk and put her in the tank with the colony because she is semi clostral and this type of ant is hard to get trough the founding stage so I put her in instead of trying to start a whole new colony. As they are small colony she was able to walk around and map things out with out them around her because no one was out of the nest only she was above ground. She then went down the one of the colony's entrances I didn't see her come back out nor did i see any dead remains being disposed of.

June 29 2018,
This morning I woke up early and did my daily routine for all my animals I decided to try to find more site to see if i could find more info on these ants when i finally realized i have something way more rare then i thought. I stumbled across a site about an elusive trap jaw in Florida called Odontomachus relictus as i compared pictures i realized this is what i have! The front of the ant is more red and the abdomen is black these where my ants for sure! I got really exited as i have a species that is only in Florida and only suppose to be in Tampa and Orlando areas but the odd thing is is that i live in the Punta Gorda area. I then started to get a lot more worried for this colony to keep going and this queen to live not that i wasn't before but now this is serious. I Started to note down thing the colony did and liked as i was going to start posting updates on here and conducting a study on them to help get information on this rare and elusive colony.


#1:https://drive.google.com/file/d/148Ry04v4JumVZaiiZUVauimNvqXMMDBs/view?usp=sharing

#2:https://drive.google.com/file/d/14_enuXK5LWyCA0c7CUGV033qZj2yvchB/view?usp=sharing *NOTE* This one corresponds with number 4

#3:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1buPG30GgVPV4aEpl7rjEhP-9Se3Ck_gm/view?usp=sharing *NOTE* This one is hard to see but look at where my comment is on pic they have covered most of it up with dirt

#4:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aQn2FmsavOvhptGPZy9S5k0M0MpGOPoL/view?usp=sharing *NOTE* This is from the top right corner of the tank in picture number 2.




Things I have noticed about them:
--They are picky eaters
-- Mostly carnivorous
-- They build covert exit tunnels under leaves and cover in the sub-strait i'm assuming this is to not be so obvious as to where there nest entrance is (see pic #4)
-- They are out more in the day
-- They use their larva silk to line the brood storage tunnels but this looks more like a thick white spider web NOT like antcanadas black dragons(see pic #3)

*I WILL BE SURE TO KEEP UPDATES ON THEM AS WELL AS PICTURES DAILY OR WEEKLY LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS WHAT YOU THINK COMMENT AS WELL ON THE STORY SO FAR*
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SolenopsisKeeper
Posts: 2402
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2021 11:41 am
Location: United States, Florida

Re: The start of rare and elusive Odontomachus relictus species PART#2

Post: # 88282Post SolenopsisKeeper
Tue Feb 15, 2022 2:55 pm

Ryderw wrote:
Fri Jun 29, 2018 11:08 am
June 28 2018,
I woke up and instantly started to hop on my pc and look if i had any responds to my question and some one did but not from this site. They told my and i quote "you can try to put her in there either way you will end up with a queen because if they have a queen already the new queen will die and if they don't they will take her in". Now i made sure to make it very clear that i didn't know much about this colony as there isn't any good research but if they weren't polygynous would it still work without them having a queen to start with. But first i wanted to try to feed the colony worms as it was really easy food source for me to feed them. After a couple hours they didn't touch the worm so accepting defeat on this try i took it out and feed it to my fish. So what i did first is take some workers and put it in a separate tub with the queen,ready to react if they attack her but all of them started to communicate and rub their antennas together with each other and then seemed to be on their way trying to get back to the colony. I took this as a good sign as decided to take the risk and put her in the tank with the colony because she is semi clostral and this type of ant is hard to get trough the founding stage so I put her in instead of trying to start a whole new colony. As they are small colony she was able to walk around and map things out with out them around her because no one was out of the nest only she was above ground. She then went down the one of the colony's entrances I didn't see her come back out nor did i see any dead remains being disposed of.

June 29 2018,
This morning I woke up early and did my daily routine for all my animals I decided to try to find more site to see if i could find more info on these ants when i finally realized i have something way more rare then i thought. I stumbled across a site about an elusive trap jaw in Florida called Odontomachus relictus as i compared pictures i realized this is what i have! The front of the ant is more red and the abdomen is black these where my ants for sure! I got really exited as i have a species that is only in Florida and only suppose to be in Tampa and Orlando areas but the odd thing is is that i live in the Punta Gorda area. I then started to get a lot more worried for this colony to keep going and this queen to live not that i wasn't before but now this is serious. I Started to note down thing the colony did and liked as i was going to start posting updates on here and conducting a study on them to help get information on this rare and elusive colony.


#1:https://drive.google.com/file/d/148Ry04v4JumVZaiiZUVauimNvqXMMDBs/view?usp=sharing

#2:https://drive.google.com/file/d/14_enuXK5LWyCA0c7CUGV033qZj2yvchB/view?usp=sharing *NOTE* This one corresponds with number 4

#3:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1buPG30GgVPV4aEpl7rjEhP-9Se3Ck_gm/view?usp=sharing *NOTE* This one is hard to see but look at where my comment is on pic they have covered most of it up with dirt

#4:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aQn2FmsavOvhptGPZy9S5k0M0MpGOPoL/view?usp=sharing *NOTE* This is from the top right corner of the tank in picture number 2.




Things I have noticed about them:
--They are picky eaters
-- Mostly carnivorous
-- They build covert exit tunnels under leaves and cover in the sub-strait i'm assuming this is to not be so obvious as to where there nest entrance is (see pic #4)
-- They are out more in the day
-- They use their larva silk to line the brood storage tunnels but this looks more like a thick white spider web NOT like antcanadas black dragons(see pic #3)

*I WILL BE SURE TO KEEP UPDATES ON THEM AS WELL AS PICTURES DAILY OR WEEKLY LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS WHAT YOU THINK COMMENT AS WELL ON THE STORY SO FAR*
First off, I will say, You could have relictus. Secondly, I will say, color cannot determine this spieces, and the key of Florida Odontomachus species is based on striated petiole, length of hairs on gaster, markings on the bottom of the thorax and a lobe on the thorax called the basilar lobe. These ants were discovered in 2004 by Deyrup and are thought to have originated in the Floridian keys. Is this a report in Florida, if not you may have made yourself a discover.
You could have
O. Clarus
O. ruginodis
O. Brunneaus
O. Hametodus(may have spelled this one wrong)
Or, O. Relictus
I would advise not to disturb O. Relictus, as they are a threatened species of ants that is sensitive to pesticide, and due to loss of habitat, it’s numbers are dwindling. I am lucky enough to have a microscope to identified my relictus, and catch a queen of them.

To add, color is never(unless it is like a red to black) a good way to determine species. I can find articles of relictus that have pictures of ants with black heads, and some with red heads. If you get a male, it is significantly Easier to determine species.(Still requires microscope)
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