Trachymymex sp. Journal

[i2chip]

I should have posted this when I first got the queen but I wasn't sure if she was going to live or not because fungus growers don't always do well in captivity, but this one seems to be doing okay. I'll post some picture below but right now she has two workers and the fungus is growing very slowly. They like to add dry raspberry leaves to their fungus garden.

Queen


Trachymymex Nest



First worker


The Fungus Grew


Now their fungus a little bigger than that last picture but it's around that size. She had three workers at one time, but for some reason one was short lived. These ants are almost zero maintenance. I hardly ever have to refill their water with the nest design they have, and the food they eat won't really mold, I can just leave a lot of raspberry leaves out for them in the outworld. Fun and easy ants to keep 10/10 ants

[Aaron567]

Wow! You are so lucky! I've been wanting to catch a Trachymyrmex queen all summer. They have nests all around my house and I've witnessed them having nuptial flights, but I still have not seen or caught a fertile queen.

[i2chip]

Wow that's awesome!!! Where did u get that awesome nest?

I got the nest from a really cool guy who owns the byFormica forums (dspdrew), he designed it for his Acromyrmex sp. and I'm just using the same nest design with the other two chambers closed off for now until they need the space.

Wow! You are so lucky! I've been wanting to catch a Trachymyrmex queen all summer. They have nests all around my house and I've witnessed them having nuptial flights, but I still have not seen or caught a fertile queen.

Their nest don't go too deep, if you see their colonies all around you can collect a full colony, their exoskeletons are hard enough that you can pick them up with your thumb and index finger and collect them one by one. They aren't really aggressive either, again if you don't have a fungus problem, these guys are really easy to keep.

I had to dig up a wild nest to get some fungus for my queen, as you can tell from the older picture that I only took a little bit from that wild colony. When I dug that wild colony up, I could have dumped that whole fungus garden in a bucket and tossed all the workers in there too and had a mature colony, but I knew I already had a queen. If she dies, I'm digging one up next year though (The Trachymymex in my yard for some reason aren't showing their head's anymore. They might have their fungus built up already for the winter, but I know where their nest were and every now and then I'll see one pop up from beneath the ground. So they must still be there xD)

[i2chip]

Btw r there any fungus growers in AL?

Yeah! There are Trachymyrmex!

[i2chip]

I've got another picture of the fungus!

[Aaron567]

How many mm in length is the queen? When I've seen nuptial flights happening with this species, there are tiny black males and the female alates are really small, only a little larger than the largest workers. The males look like their body is smaller than the workers also. A couple days ago I discovered a Cyphomyrmex sp. nest, another genus that grows fungus without cutting leaves!

[i2chip]

How many mm in length is the queen? When I've seen nuptial flights happening with this species, there are tiny black males and the female alates are really small, only a little larger than the largest workers. The males look like their body is smaller than the workers also. A couple days ago I discovered a Cyphomyrmex sp. nest, another genus that grows fungus without cutting leaves!

On the last picture I posted, the ant on top is the queen She is about the same size as the workers.

[i2chip]

For some reason the ants have decided to move the fungus garden, and in the process lost more than 75% of the fungus. They have hardly any fungus left and they aren't going out to gather any more food. I have caterpillar frass and dried raspberry leaves in their outworld. The only thing they've added to their fungus so far has been the raspberry leaves. I'm not sure why they weren't interested in the caterpillar frass, but now they aren't interested in either. Any suggestions?
P.S. If I have to I could dig up a wild colony and take some of their fungus. (I would rather not because the Trachymymex in my back yard have a super colony with a lot of satellite nest and I like to observe them, and the first time I dug up a nest to get some fungus they never came back to that satellite nest.)

[MCWren]

For some reason the ants have decided to move the fungus garden, and in the process lost more than 75% of the fungus. They have hardly any fungus left and they aren't going out to gather any more food. I have caterpillar frass and dried raspberry leaves in their outworld. The only thing they've added to their fungus so far has been the raspberry leaves. I'm not sure why they weren't interested in the caterpillar frass, but now they aren't interested in either. Any suggestions?
P.S. If I have to I could dig up a wild colony and take some of their fungus. (I would rather not because the Trachymymex in my back yard have a super colony with a lot of satellite nest and I like to observe them, and the first time I dug up a nest to get some fungus they never came back to that satellite nest.)

I don't know, but if you decide to take fungus, get it from a satellite nest away from where you like to look.

[i2chip]

I don't know, but if you decide to take fungus, get it from a satellite nest away from where you like to look.

That's just it though, the colony is so developed that I don't know what's a satellite nest and what's the actual nest. :/
And when I dug up the first time I do think that it was an actual nest, although I never saw a queen. I wasn't looking for a queen though I was just getting fungus for the queen I already had.

And if they start harvesting soon they won't need me to get them more, because there are only four of them including the queen and hibernation is on the way. They are in my garage with no AC and cracked windows, so they have prime conditions. (I would think at least.)