Hello from Southeast Virginia!

Meet and Greet for New Members

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ShidenKai

Hello from Southeast Virginia!

Post: # 348Post ShidenKai
Mon Jul 27, 2015 9:58 pm

Hey boys n' girls,

It's great to be a part of this forum. A big shout out goes to AntsCanada for making it possible. :) Since it's customary to post up a short bio on these kinda threads, here's my story:

I must have been all of 8 or 9 years old when I began to develop an appreciation for ants. I'd often tag along with my parents to the library (remember those places?) just so I could learn more about em. By the time I hit middle school, I was designing and building (with the help of my dad) my own formicariums. My proudest moment, aside from raising this huge colony from one single queen, was when I successfully cross-bred two different species of ants. HAH to the Smithsonian entomologist who told me that it wasn't possible!

Anyway, like most kids, I eventually lost interest in the hobby. Oh well. The good news is now I'm back and ready to get my learn on again. Heck, if I'm lucky, I may even start up another colony or two!

One things for sure, it's great to be around other nerds.. erm.. I mean... like minded people. :)

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larynx
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Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:36 am
Location: Georgia USA

Re: Hello from Southeast Virginia!

Post: # 353Post larynx
Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:05 pm

welcome to the forum. yeah im pretty stoked antcanada got this place going as well. finally a place where ant loving people can nerd out, while getting along. sounds like you know your stuff. what kind of ants did you cross? very curious about this. :D
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ShidenKai

Re: Hello from Southeast Virginia!

Post: # 384Post ShidenKai
Mon Jul 27, 2015 11:57 pm

Thanks for the welcome Larynx,

haha You'd think I'd know a lot about ants, but the truth is, I don't. Especially compared to people like Mikey.

To hammer this home, I rarely classify ants according to their scientific name. It's not a "Formica whatevertheheck" to me. It's just a simple black ant. The same goes for "big headed ants", "black carpenter ants", "fire ants", "sugar ants", "army ants", "honey ants", and so on and so forth. Heck, I don't even refer to young brood as "nantics". I just call them baby ants. haha

Anyway, I believe the species I crossed was a Paratrechina with a Pheidole. I ended up capturing some Pheidole royal brood, marked it with the Paratrechina's scent, and they accepted it as their own. When it became clear they were ready to mate, I took the farm outside, opened it up, and let them do their thing. About a year and a half later, I started to notice some ants that I'd never seen before. It looked like the *perfect* mix between the two species.

Unfortunately, those ants disappeared a couple years after the fact.

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larynx
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Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:36 am
Location: Georgia USA

Re: Hello from Southeast Virginia!

Post: # 388Post larynx
Tue Jul 28, 2015 12:05 am

awww man. that is frickin cool. now im thinking of hybridizing everything.lol yeah i used to buck on scientific names as well when i used to only care for reptiles. when i got into insects, i kinda had to learn the scientifics. all he guys i was learning from refused to use common names, so i was kinda forced .lol :)
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ShidenKai

Re: Hello from Southeast Virginia!

Post: # 411Post ShidenKai
Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:11 am

haha Right now, I don't even have a colony to observe! Hopefully that'll be remedied by the end of summer.

And yeah, knowing the exact species/type that you're dealing with comes in very handy. Still, I tend to use common names more than I do the scientific ones. Guess I R A SIMPLE GUY.

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