ANTS!!

I really like ants, there’s soo much variation in them that they appeal to me pretty much like “herps” or “fish”, the more you know the more amazing the diversity becomes.

I’ve kept a few species, some not too successfully including, Pheidologeton diversus,  these didn’t do well (read survive…) as the colony was way too small.

Solenopsis geminata, didn’t do well, I think because of initially a too low temperature so I gave them away to someone with warmer conditions. Polyrhachis australis, I tried my first colony in a mixed tank with Diacamma sp. but kept finding ants dead in a midden, I believe the Diacamma picked them off as they met them. My second colony did well until I moved them into a much bigger area and the started to produce queens and males which I think drained the colony and they faded away…
    
However, I don’t kill everything; a colony of Crematagaster sp.  I received from my ant store did too well. I initially got them hoping they would set up home in a Dischidia pectinoides the species of plant they had been collected in. However they dug under some wood and grew from there. I gave them to someone who had much more space so they could expand. He thinks they have now split into 3 or 4 colonies. 

Acromyrmex octospinosus;

I seem to be having luck with my leaf cutter ants, Acromyrmex octospinosus. These I received from Andrew Stevenson of the company Educational Displays, I have known Andrew for many years and have always had great colonies from him. My current colony I recently gave a new chamber to see if they either moved into it, leaving their old nest or just added it as another chamber. They very quickly started gardening in this one as well, nearly doubling the size of the fungus garden in under a month. They are collecting much more plant matter but producing much less waste, as it’s all going to use.

The only problem I have had with this colony is they have repeatedly gone sexual. A number of times they have started to produce winged queens, which if allowed to stay will drain the resources of the colony by eating the fungus but giving nothing back. I have been told that once this starts that the colony is probably doomed. (We once counted around 100 alates leaving the nest trying to do a nuptial flight).

The advice I received to stop this is to tip the nest into a tub so you can remove the winged queens, however after a while the alates remove their wings and are difficulty to tell from the actual queen. But if placed in a tub the original queen will soon by surrounded and protected by workers while the others will be wandering around, ready to be removed. But as I didn’t have the nerve to do this I pushed bits of fruit (mainly apple or grape) into the openings of the nest so that the alates could easily feed even if they didn’t leave the nest. Then, when, I noticed alates outside the nest I removed them. This is most easily done by turning the lights on suddenly. 

Oecophylla smaragdina

My weaver ants, Oecophylla smaragdina which I received a month ago are doing well, they moved out of the initial nest of 3 or 4 Ficus leaves onto a live Ficus pumilia as soon as the old leaves dried up.

However due to space restrictions I would like the colony to start living in a fake plant. The space I want to keep them in is very long and wide but no higher than around 60cm if it’s a real plant. (This is because the lighting will need too much space.) To see if this will work I added a few bits of the fake plant on top of the nest.

Within a few days they started to attach silk on to the leaves.

I have now added more of the fake plant nearby hoping they will move there permanently as the real plant starts to suffer from their actions.

Looking at posts on ant forums (by ant keepers, not by ants) it seems this should work. We will see…