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Anyone found Prenolepis imaris?
Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:49 pm
by pen123
I am trying to start ant keeping and was wondering if the winter ant was a good starting ant. If so, has anyone seen any anywhere around Ohio yet?
Thanks.
Re: Anyone found Prenolepis imaris?
Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 5:18 pm
by moodery
they fly jan - june so just keep looking and since your just starting heres drews mating chart it comes in handy.
http://www.formiculture.com/topic/181-queen-ant-spottingmating-chart/
I don't know if it is a good starting ant though
Re: Anyone found Prenolepis imaris?
Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 5:24 pm
by MLavers
Hey there,
I maintained a Prenolepis imparis colony for a 2 year period. I did a lot of reading about them ahead of time, and during the 2 years I had them.
P. imparis seem to lay in clutches only once per year, instead of laying continuously like most species. My queen did lay a clutch in year 2, however I've read that most P. imparis queens in captivity never do so. The colony therefore grows very slowly, and deaths do not get offset until the next year. By the time my queen laid her second clutch, she had only 5 or 6 workers left from her original clutch.
Because P. imparis store food in their gaster, they do not forage very often. They are a very boring species to care for, and ultimately require almost no care. They are more active in cool climate as I understand, but I only once in a 2 year period witnessed one of my worker ants feeding. They never did explore much of the nest space that I had available for them. If I were to do it again, I would keep them in a very small setup, like the AC Test Tube Portal, or an Atom Nest from Tarheel.
Would I recommend the species as a starting colony? Not really. Part of the excitement of having a colony is seeing the daily life of the colony, and P. imparis don't really do anything worth watching. It was a cool colony to be able to say that I've owned, but others are far more rewarding.
Re: Anyone found Prenolepis imaris?
Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 7:09 am
by JoeHostile1
MLavers wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2019 5:24 pm
Hey there,
I maintained a Prenolepis imparis colony for a 2 year period. I did a lot of reading about them ahead of time, and during the 2 years I had them.
P. imparis seem to lay in clutches only once per year, instead of laying continuously like most species. My queen did lay a clutch in year 2, however I've read that most P. imparis queens in captivity never do so. The colony therefore grows very slowly, and deaths do not get offset until the next year. By the time my queen laid her second clutch, she had only 5 or 6 workers left from her original clutch.
Because P. imparis store food in their gaster, they do not forage very often. They are a very boring species to care for, and ultimately require almost no care. They are more active in cool climate as I understand, but I only once in a 2 year period witnessed one of my worker ants feeding. They never did explore much of the nest space that I had available for them. If I were to do it again, I would keep them in a very small setup, like the AC Test Tube Portal, or an Atom Nest from Tarheel.
Would I recommend the species as a starting colony? Not really. Part of the excitement of having a colony is seeing the daily life of the colony, and P. imparis don't really do anything worth watching. It was a cool colony to be able to say that I've owned, but others are far more rewarding.
What happened to them?
Re: Anyone found Prenolepis imaris?
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2019 12:36 pm
by MLavers
The colony developed some sort of mite infestation in year 2, and with such low numbers were unable to groom away the mites. Eventually the colony died out. :'(
Re: Anyone found Prenolepis imaris?
Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 7:44 pm
by pen123
I found a colony of what I think are Prenolepis Imparis and saw the queen right away and captured her then tried to catch some workers but only managed to catch 6. They are doing good but moved OUT of the test tube instead of IN.
Re: Anyone found Prenolepis imaris?
Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 6:48 am
by pen123
Oh my goodness! I found at least 12 Prenolepis Imparis yesterday! I only got 8 and that was probably too much.