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Journal Entry |
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| 2001.10.15.10.11
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Just an update to my new decorated site the old one was with HomeStead which barred it after the 1st of sep:( anyway here's the new url... Http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.taylor14/antspace/index2.html |
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| 2001.08.23.17.52
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Well, i've got loads of things to do on it, but it's nearly ready:) The address is http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.taylor14
Again, it's a bit spartan at the moment but i'll update all the time! |
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| 2001.08.12.08.55
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Sorry about this, but the new website is almost done:\
It's just that i haven't had 'much' experiance with web authoring and didn't have the right programs to make one.
Anyway it should be up somtime this week, again, i'm sorry that this is taking so long... |
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| 2001.08.02.16.51
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Hi all, For the next few days there won't be any journal entrys, Me and Randy have decided its best if we work out a new location for my journal for two reasons mainly, first being i could control everything in and about my journal seen as it will be probably moved onto my local isp's server. And secondly due to the move to the local server, this in turn will give Randy more space and time to finish his projects which he needs to complete without the hassle of this journal. As i said it won't be long before it's back up and running! I apologise for the inconvience. |
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| 2001.07.27.13.32
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Lots have happened since my last entry, for starters the slightly larger pupae I added turned out to be male reproductives, they have not done much apart from come to the surface and flex their wings for a few minutes then return underground. Many of the other pupae have hatched as well boosting the population in the way I had intended. My ants have been excavating sand non-stop for about a week now. They have taken the larvae into a large obscure chamber which unfortunatly I cannot see apart from a small 'window' where a few of the larvae can be seen. there has been some bad news too, the terrarium itself is warping leaving a .5cm opening between the sandwich of plastic, I have held it together and secured
it as best I can, but it wont hold out much longer. But on the bright side, somthing i have been waiting 7 months for has arrived the L.Niger nuptual and L.Flavus nuptual flights, I have colledted 26 Niger queens and 2 Flavus Queens ( Flavus nuptuials started in a small valley about 1/3 of a mile away, but i will have to wait about a week for the full blown Nuptual flights to begin). i have placed 1 Niger queen and 1 Flavus queen together into a AntWorld terrarium (just wondered if they would share a claustral cell together, seen as their colonies lives seem to be quite connected together in the wild). The other Flavus queen I had chilled and introduced to MY colony of Lasius Flavus, I thought she was a gonner because as soon as i put her into the terrarium, she warmed up and skuttled straight into a tunnel (I was expecting her to take a few minutes not seconds to warm up and get a proper 'smelling over' by the workers, and if it didn't work or there was any sign of trouble i could quickly scoop her out..), there was nothing i could do but hope that she wasn't killed straight away for trespassing. But for some reason she was accepted straight away by the other workers and she is now just sitting in a chamber looking like she has been there all along, maybe they were really glad for a queen to join the colony? I have also found a great and constant food sooure for my ants, there is a Mymica nest (common red ant) with a thin flat metal sheet over it, i just simply lift it up and take one or two of the brood, my ants LOVE it or more the larvae do, even through the small window i can see theem munching down on the Mymica pupae (coccoonless). Phew... Thats about it. I think (and hope!!) that the new queen has settled in ok, It's only been about 30 mins, so i guess the worst is over and i'll check on them in the
morning. (22C) |
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| 2001.07.27.11.09
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Lots have happened since my last entry, for starters the slightly larger pupae I added turned out to be male reproductives, they have not done much apart from come to the surface and flex their wings for a few minutes then return underground. Many of the other pupae have hatched as well boosting the population in the way I had intended. My ants have been excavating sand non-stop for about a week now. They have taken the larvae into a large obscure chamber which unfortunatly I cannot see apart from a small 'window' where a few of the larvae can be seen. there has been some bad news too, the terrarium itself is warping leaving a .5cm opening between the sandwich of plastic, I have held it together and secured
it as best I can, but it wont hold out much longer. But on the bright side, somthing i have been waiting 7 months for has arrived the L.Niger nuptual and L.Flavus nuptual flights, I have colledted 26 Niger queens and 2 Flavus Queens ( Flavus nuptuials started in a small valley about 1/3 of a mile away, but i will have to wait about a week for the full blown Nuptual flights to begin). i have placed 1 Niger queen and 1 Flavus queen together into a AntWorld terrarium (just wondered if they would share a claustral cell together, seen as their colonies lives seem to be quite connected together in the wild). The other Flavus queen I had chilled and introduced to MY colony of Lasius Flavus, I thought she was a gonner because as soon as i put her into the terrarium, she warmed up and skuttled straight into a tunnel (I was expecting her to take a few minutes not seconds to warm up and get a proper 'smelling over' by the workers, and if it didn't work or there was any sign of trouble i could quickly scoop her out..), there was nothing i could do but hope that she wasn't killed straight away for trespassing. But for some reason she was accepted straight away by the other workers and she is now just sitting in a chamber looking like she has been there all along, maybe they were really glad for a queen to join the colony? I have also found a great and constant food sooure for my ants, there is a Mymica nest (common red ant) with a thin flat metal sheet over it, i just simply lift it up and take one or two of the brood, my ants LOVE it or more the larvae do, even through the small window i can see theem munching down on the Mymica pupae (coccoonless). Phew... Thats about it. I think (and hope!!) that the new queen has settled in ok, It's only been about 30 mins, so i guess the worst is over and i'll check on them in the
morning. (22C) |
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| 2001.07.11.09.32
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Right, I know I haven't made a journal entry in a few weeks, but things have been pretty quiet on the ant front. The most significant things so far is that I have transferred 34 pupae and about 40 odd eggs/larvae (I'd say there eggs, but they looked like v.small larvae all stuck together) into the nest to boost the population (my mom collected them after digging up a bit of the original nest by accident, she used to hate ants…:). Afterwards that seemed like a really stupid idea and I wish I never had done it now. There were 27 pupae all the same size while 7 of them where bigger and fatter (probably the third caste or something, I'll have to wait and see). The ants accepted them and the few aphids I collected a few hours later. They have been drinking lots of sugar water, and are now bringing all the pupae from below up to the surface while they renovate and expand the egg chambers (yes, "chambers", they built two more and have completely segregated the larvae from the pupae). 1 ant died about a week back, just a small 1st caste ant, probably just old age… Lasius Niger should be flying anytime now, we've had massive thunderstorms in this area my parents haven't seen in over twenty years and the days are getting hotter. I would like to catch a L.Flavus queen if I can but I haven't noticed any reproductive castes in any of the nests around me, I just thought there marriage flight would be around about the same time. Summary, my ants again are nice and healthy and full of sugar at the moment I will attempt to feed them something when I get back (they really like those large rose aphids). (18-20C) |
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| 2001.06.29.13.56
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David. I have spoken with James Trager on the subject of whether your workers might be laying eggs.
Here is a copy of the relevant pieces of our exchange:
Randy to James
We still have a mystery on our hands, partly because David is
either young and in experienced (more likely) - or that something indeed
interesting is going on with his ants we don't quite understand (less
likely) when we put our heads together.
First I'll comment that David is quite a intelligent and a good observer even if only 16 years old. The problem is that he collected these ants one at a time (hence he was sure there was no queen). (also I don't think there was any brood of any kind). This was quite some time ago (4 months now). And he has seen at least one full brood cycle. Currently it is looking like his colony is going to do a second - so I'm trying to convince him to actually
identify the ant responsible for the eggs (almost always the queen is quite
near the egg chamber) by observing laying directly.
The question is - have there been any observations of any Lasius
species which workers lay eggs (possibly fertile).. I know and have read
Wilson/Holldobler on the subject (says they should become drones if eggs are
not fertilized). But I have not personally observed this and I also wonder
if it would be possible (but possibly not observed) for a worker to be
inseminated by a drone and hence produce fertile workers..
I know this is a massive long shot. And I'm not attached to any
particular explanation - but now that David has picked each worker and brood
by hand to new terrarium. And because while I would have thought a queen
(or even multiple queens) would be easily identified as well as still needing to get a feeling on some measurements for the different castes he was suggesting (you said Lasius Flavus is only weakly polymorphic - which corroborates my own observations. Hence I would think queens would be easily distinguishible.. Whiich leads me to the question above (about workers & fertile eggs)..
Also one last quesstion in this regard. If I can get David to send
a couple specimens would it be worth while to get identification out of the
way (so we know for sure what he has).. (his colony only has 20-30 workers
last I heard - many escaped through cracks in his plastic terrarium - but
they were still doing well)... So it may take him a while before he feels
confidant enough to nab a few..
I guess my other question would be (since I've not studied ants on
different continents) whether the queens of Lasius were easy to identify
(seemed to me size alone was a giveaway for my 'Neonigers')..
James reply to Randy
There are occasional reports of queenless colonies rearing workers form
worker-laid eggs, and Lasius is one of the genera in which this is supposed
to occur. The queens of all Lasius species are easy to distinguish from
workers by size, except for a couple of species which have small queens, but
these can be recognized by their different proportions pretty easily. L.
flavus queens are normal large ones.
David's journal is long and I skimmed through it only, but referring me to a
particular date which mentions the matters in question will help, if you
could.
Specimens from David will be welcome, as they will from you when you have
some to send.
Randy's reply to James,
Yes. I understand - time is limited for all of us. You've pretty much
answered the question David and I were wondering. Though I do have a second now that I think about it.. Am I correct in understanding that fertilized eggs are required to produce workers? If so in the above case how does a worker
become fertilized? If not - then is the whole presumption of haploid/diploid
chromosomes being needed for male/female sex determination - would that be wrong as well.
BTW: If I havn't said so I want to thank you for all the good discussions
and you can rest assured that what I learn from you and other sources will
eventually make it into web pages - so hopefully at some point we can move
beyond answering same dang questions over and over.. (I'm finding that FAQ
is not cutting it for me in some very specific cases).. Anyway..
We now know that what David seems to be observing IS possible.. And info
on the above question would be helpful as well..
James reply to Randy
Haplodiploidy still holds as a sex determining mechanism. The worker laid
eggs of Lasius, Pristomyrmex and Crematogaster are diploid but this does not
result from fertilization. Apparently, the workers are actually producing
clones of themselves in each egg, actually a rather widespread (though
minority) phenomenon in both animals and plants! In some ponerine genera, in
which the workers and queens are nearly similar in size and form,
reproductive workers (ergatoids, as they're called) do in fact mate, but
that would probably be impossible on the highly dimorphic first three
genera.
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| 2001.06.29.08.08
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Well the ants are doing FANTASTIC! They have drunk two drops of sugar water and eaten a small fly and a large aphid, And the L.Niger pupae has hatched and there is one light silver colour Niger about 4mm long and is working like any other of the other workers. My ants are the best shapes I've ever seen them in, full abdomens and high energy. I'm also getting a digital camera soon (the next 2-3 weeks) and I should be able to get some really cool pictures for this journal. There have been 4 new L.Flavus hatch in a two-week period and the 1 L.Niger hatched yesterday, it looks really funny to have 1 silver gray ants surrounded by loads of yellow-orange ants, she really does stand out in the crowd. I was surprised that they drank the sugar water because previously, they just put sand on it and left it. Now the smaller caste is drinking it and sharing it around (the larger castes don't seem to be able to see it and just walk straight into it?). The insects I put in there was the large aphid (still alive) and a small mosquito like fly (dead). The interest was more into the 'alive' aphid, they picked off its legs and took it into the eggs chamber and placed it near the larvae which started to eat away at it. I cut the dead fly in half and placed it into the terrarium, they took one of the halves and discarded it and the other also got taken down to the larvae to eat off of. I can't wait till I get my digi-cam so I can take some really good pictures of the eggs chamber (I wish I had one the whole of last week, so much was going on then). So for a short summary, my ants are full of protein and sugar, lots of brood, and very active and happy:) (21C) |
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| 2001.06.09.07.55
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Great news! The move went successfully and although I had to manually move them my self, they're a lot happier now and have lots of room to expand there little empire in. I moved them by putting the terrarium in the fridge until I got there body temperatures down to about 4-5 degrees C, then I quickly put them in a large plastic box lined with oil just in case any escaped (none did btw). I then dismantled the terrarium and picked out the ants with a small stick which I had to wet slightly so they would stick to it, and then I just dropped them into they're new terrarium. I kept the larvae and pupae behind and introduced them shortly after I had counted them. The number of ants, larvae and pupae is as follows- Ants 21 Eggs 0 Larvae 32 Pupae 4. After I had placed all the brood in with the ants I went outside in search for some root aphids. I found about 10 right on top of a L.Niger colony, while I was digging up chucks of earth and slowly looking though them I also got 3 larvae and I think it was 3 or 4 pupae form the L.Niger colony. I just thought they would use them as food so I kept them with the aphids and selected a small grass plant to put into the terrarium. So, (this part is quite interesting) when I planted the small grass plant into the terrarium and then introduced both aphids and the L.Niger brood. To my surprise they weren't that bothered with the aphids with only a few trying to feed off them, instead they took the larvae and placed it with their own larvae in the egg chamber they had just built, and the same with the pupae. Although they were more weary of the pupae than the larvae which got adopted almost straight away, I think it was due to the confusion of moving home that allowed them to take them in as their own... I have kept the terrarium in the dark now for 4 days so that they will make their tunnels close to the glass. Btw they have already reached the bottom of the terrarium and started to branch out and expand these tunnels. So far so good, I have had no casualties and they all seem to be in top condition as well as their abdomens still tight and full. Also on a different note, the ants I found which I thought were Pharaoh Ants, were about 2mm too big along with other minor differences, but randy has already started helping me to try and identify them. Let me just say that Randy has been great since the beginning when I first caught my ants and has always been there to ask for help and I have to thank him for the many (many) hours we have spent trying to figure these ants out… Well for a short summary, My ants are really content with their new terrarium and have lots of room to grow and multiply in, and they also a good food source being the aphids which have already started to multiply themselves. Well until next time… (19C) |
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| 2001.06.03.09.38
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I have some really good news about my ants. They have all moved into a clear visible mould free part of the terrarium and I can clearly see some 60 odd larvae and 4 beautiful white pupae (about 3mm long with a small black top). I have also seen a white ant running around so that shows she's hatched recently as well. For even more good news my Dad has made a plastic terrarium for me (I would have made it myself but I'm hopeless at construction…) and it looks great, even better than the one my friend paid £14 for and it is 15in wide by about 8in tall but the sand goes up to about 7in which give them PLENTY of room to grow in… That's it for my ants really, I might be getting a new species though called Monomorium Pharaonis which mean's Pharaoh Ant
( http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A442757 ) and for a picture go here http://www.genetics.or.jp/Ant.WWW/PCD0313/HTMLE/52.html . I caught two of them yesterday and tried feeding them some sugar water, there abdomens can expand to take in quite a lot of liquid and they loved it. so first impressions are good seen as their a lot easier to feed than L.Flavus, and there not as fast as L.Niger so there easy to catch and as far as I know the workers can start a colony on their own... So I might be starting up another journal for the pharaoh ants as soon as I can persuade my dad to build me another terrarium and after I can find out as much as possible about them. (20C)
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| 2001.04.20.05.47
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My ants have increased in activity and seem quite happy at the moment, but I still desperately need a new terrarium for them as this one now reeks and seems more appropriate to grow mushrooms in than to hold an ant colony… Still they don't seem that affected and have started moving dirt around, I don't see any logic to it as there just moving it from one side of the farm to another. Still no pupae have yet hatched but the larvae are growing nice and fat and I think that they will cocoon soon. When I was up my caravan where I got the ants originally, I had a look around the adjacent field (deserted) and I found at least 70 Lasius Flavus colonies. It was funny because I didn't know exactly how big an ant hill could be, these were about 1/3m high and about the same in diameter. I didn't think that L.Flavus colonies got that big. Also there were a lot of pharaoh colonies (I think) underneath some stones, now I know for sure that the workers of these ants once separated can produce new queens. I don't know a lot about how ants reproduce but lets see the facts, I have a queenless colony with workers I hand picked (so I'm sure there are no queens).I found the colony under a stone, and as far as I know, L.Flavus lives purely in ant hills. The ants have produced all eggs/larvae and pupae, Lasius Flavus workers do not produce eggs on there own let alone fertilised ones. But the pharaoh ant does and its colony can 'bud' off and start new colonies, so I was wondering if these two species have crossbred some how and created a hybrid? I'm just trying to find a logical explanation for how I can have brood with no queen.(23C) |
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| 2001.04.13.16.52
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Well, things haven't changed much since my last entry, although I think that the pupae count has risen a bit, mabey to 18? There a bit easier to count as the ants have moved into the bigger chambers, probably because they need more room to store the larvae in, the larvae count has exploded to around about 80 (there still quite small at the moment). Overall colony activity has increased and they don't seem as fatigued as they did a week ago, some I'm pleased at that. Spring is coming and I think my ants can sense it, I've haven't feed them for a while (3-4 weeks) as they didn't seem very hungry. To be honest, my ants seem to require very little food to live on and there abdomens are still nice and rigid with all the food they are storing. I have been attempting to put a few more ants in there from the old nest, and I know it failed miserably before but I have come across a technique on the Internet on how to do this. Basically what you do is take the ants you wish to introduce into the nest and put them in the freezer but not long enough to actually freeze them (about 5-6 minutes). What is suppose to have happened is the colony smell they have is destroyed, you then place them into the nest and wait for the reaction. I have tried this with 3 ants and it worked! The ants in my nest are very weary of them at first, but there are no hostility's between them and a few minutes later they are still a bit disorientated, but they have been accepted by my ants and allowed to roam around the nest. Even though I know how to do this, I don't think I will put any more in, at least until I get a new terrarium for them. By the way, The war between L.Flavus and L.Niger has stopped (for now at least), I gently raised the stone and I saw both about 40 L.Niger and about 300 L.Flavus, but they weren't attacking each other and seem to be co-existing fine together. Also I wish everybody a Happy Easter! And to try not to eat too much chocolate:)! (20C) |
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| 2001.04.05.12.53
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Nothing much has changed since my last entry, except that the ants are a bit more active and less frightened. The mould is getting worse and no encompasses most of the terrarium, I will have to find the shop where my friend got it from and get another one and see if they will move, if not I could use it for the L.Niger queens. The pupae count is a bit sketchy due to the ants putting sand on the sides of the terrarium partially blocking my view, but I still think it is in the 10-14 range and there all about 4.5mm in length a good 1mm bigger than the first batch. In the meantime I'll try to get another Ant World terrarium for them. (~21C) |
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| 2001.03.31.13.34
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Hey, Sorry about another late journal entry but there hasn't been much to report really (well nothing to drastic), I noticed about 12 new pupae on Tuesday!! So for now everything is great except that the ants are all huddling in the far corner of the terrarium for some reason, along with all the larvae/eggs and the new pupae. By the way the nest where I got my ants are being taken over by Lasius Niger, I lifted up the flag stone yesterday to find to my surprise about 40 L.Niger workers with two or three carrying some dead L.Flavus around. Personally I don't think Lasius Flavus has much of a chance in this war as L.Niger are bigger/stronger and due to the fact that I saw none of them dead but I suppose L.Flavus has numbers in it's favour... Anyway, back to my ants, they seem fine for now although I am a little worried about the mould that is starting to shift closer to there main chambers, mabey that's why they all cowering in one chamber? I know they want to leave as on Tuesday they brought some pupae to the surface, and so I connected the plaster nest I was keeping for the L.Niger queens to see if they would move in.(I did make sure it was damp enough first). Well the few scouts looked around it, they couldn't have liked it as by Thursday they sealed themselves in by blocking up the tube with sand. Other than that they all seem healthy with no fatalities since that dreaded transfusion of new ants that went wrong. My next journal entry will be on Wednesday. (~18) |
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| 2001.03.18.10.30
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Right, First of all I would like to apologize to Randy and everybody for not making this entry sooner, but it was worth it, as I have lots and lots to say and I just hope
I can remember it all:). Right I'll start with the bad news, the ants I introduced into my terrarium didn't mix at all and the final body count was about 23, a loss I
couldn't afford (give or take a few due to some just being torn apart). Right, that's was the worst news, next is how every now and again I would find a ant walking
outside of the terrarium and I couldn't really explain how they done it, problem was that the smaller ants could 'squeeze' through the air holes on the lid. That has now
been fixed, and to my knowledge no more has escaped. Now on to a bit of good news, the 5 pupae I had left before have all hatched and I have 5 new (wait for
it…) WORKERS! This is good news as it reinforces the fact I have a fertile female in there and I think there's 3 of them. The ants have let about 40 large larvae
grow (about 3 mm long and quite fat), and I think they will become major workers. The other hatched ants were quite small which I think was due to the fact of the
little food they had, but now with everything they need to grow, the larvae are getting more nutrition and in effect, increasing in size. By the way, the first ant to hatch
(a while ago) is now very hard to tell apart from the rest and is in tip-top shape!. Another good sign I have is ants moving around clutches of eggs (or very small
larvae?) from place to place, and general nest activity has exploded in the past week which is probably due to the higher temperature and the honey/sugar/water mix
I gave them which has gave them the energy. I witnessed the hatching of one of the ants, she was slow at first but was soon walking around on her own 6 feet:), All
the new ants seem to stay near the larvae though and very rarely going near the surface. I haven't seen the aphid I put in there for about 3 days now, but she's
probably just clinging to the root's where I can't see her. A while ago I was on about mold taking over the terrarium, well it's stopped and isn't affecting the ants (as
far as I know) anymore. I can't wait for july so I can catch some nice L.Niger queens! Anyway, I got to go, I'll make my next entry either on Wednesday or next
Sunday |
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| 2001.03.11.13.05 by
Randy Rencsok
a.k.a. Mr. Ant
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I was looking around the book "The Ants" by Wilson and Holldobler and found something interesting to add to your journal David (it is on page 424)
Conditions for Coexistance of Species
In this light the work of Pontin (1960, 1961, 1963) takes on a particular significance. Pontin made careful studies of the ecology of two related species of formicine ants, Lasius Flavus and L. Niger, with special reference to the ways in which each affects the survival and reproduction of the other. In calcareous grassland near Wytham, England, the two species are dominant, and their colonies are intermingled at saturated densities. In order to measure the consequences of interaction. Pontin first placed a newly mated Lasius queens in tubes with openings large enough to admit workers but too smal to permit the excape of the queens, and seeded them within the territories of mature colonies. He found that the queens were attacked and destroyed preferentially by workers of their own species. Pontin then made studies of the relation between the productivity of new queens and the distance between the nest of the colony and the nearest nests belonging to both species. In a related experiment colonies of L. Flavus were transplanted to new positions in a circle around a nest of L. Niger in order to increase the competitive pressure on them. The results showed conclusively that queen productivity is reduced more by intraspecific than by interspecific interference. Therefore, through both the depression of the production rate of new queens and their destruction following the nuptial flights, each of the two species controls its own population densities to a greater extent than it does those of it's competitor.
.. Interference between mature colonies seems to be reduced by innate ecological differences between the two species. Lasius Niger is a versatile ant that nests in rotting stumps, beneath stones, or in the open soil (often in mounds), and forages both below and above ground and up onto low vegetation. L. Flavus is a primairly subterranean species that builds mounds in the open soil. Where the two species live together in the Wytham grassland, niger inserts itself in suitable nest sites between the flavus mounds. By competition for space and food (and limited predation on flavus, which is not recriprocated) niger depresses the queen production on flavus. Symmertrically, flavus takes away space and food from niger; it also interferes with niger by using stones as props for the mounds of excavated earth, thus covering them and denying them to the niger for use as nest covers.... |
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| 2001.03.05.04.20
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I thought I'd make another entry before I went, this one isn't a happy one though. The ants I introduced into my terrarium didn't agree with my ants, and I now have a body count of 5. There is a lot more injuries such as many ants are missing 1 or 2 legs, I know this isn't fatal but it will slow them down quite a bit, but they seem to be adapting as I write this… I don't know what happened to the other 13 ants I put in there, mabey there were accepted, I can't be sure, but I'll just have to keep a very close eye on them. I'd like to end on a happy note that my new 'baby' ant is still a milky-white and wasn't killed during the onslaught, I just hope more hatch out to replenish the numbers that have been lost…
(~19C)
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| 2001.03.04.14.54
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Hey, sorry I haven't made an entry in a while, but I wanted to wait until something good happened, Well it has! A new ant has hatched, and she's a healthy 4mm long and a milky-white in colour and she's a female (it has been quite short actually, it's only taken 30 odd days for her to hatch)! I will still have to wait until more hatch until I know for certain if there is a fertile female in they're somewhere, but for now this is good news! I have also uncovered 3 root aphids which I am hand rearing for now in a bottle cap with a grass plant in it (well, that's what I found them being tended on...). They look dead, but when I try to move them their little legs start waving around, hopefully they will have lots of offspring and then there's something that my ants will enjoy that their used to having. I disconnected the plaster terrarium as there was no interest in it at all, I'm hopefully going to fill it up with freshly mated Lasius Niger queens like Randy has (well he has neoniger, but I don't think there's much of a difference) in April-May. Anyway back to my new ant, it's currently in one of the egg chambers slowly moving and is helping turning the eggs/larvae. So for now everything is good, and I have added 18 new ants to the farm (same nest) to hopefully boost it (and to see if they will still accept each other, it was very tense, but I can't see any corpses around so I guess it went ok...). I must have roughly 80 odd in there now and they're all happy imho. I won't be able to make another entry for a week as I'm going back to my caravan which is also where the nest site is (I'm still two minds whether or not to dig it up to find the queen/s, but when I was digging it must span for at least 5 sq./m and I really don't want to kill them in the attempt). Anyway I'll still keep a close eye on them as I'm taking them with me, so until next time... Bye.
(~23C)
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| 2001.02.25.15.21
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Well, a squadron of ant's (6) has entered the plaster terrarium, and I think one of them has an egg in its mandibles! I hope so, as this might mean that there going to move soon! Also I haven't noticed this probably because it has happened gradually over time, but my ant's have changed colour, there now a bit darker than what I started with, and although I don't think it means much (probably the change in food/environment) it does make a change! To add, they have moved the 6 pupae up to a chamber near the surface (not infested with mould) and are taking care of them there. They're all about 3mm long, and I can just about make out a small white leg in one of the cocoon, and they're all about 3mm long, but I think the ants will be a bit bigger as they stretch out mabey 3.5-4mm? Anyway they should be hatching any time now and I really want to be there when it happens:) |
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| 2001.02.19.16.17
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Well yet another Plaster nest down the drain... I'm just not getting something right, it might be the type of plaster i'm using, i'll have to find a place which sells
Modeling plaster as I have been using gypsum designed for walls mabey it's to brittle? My ants are getting a bit stressed as there is mold growing in my terrarium and although
it has halted spreading, my ants want to get out of there as I noticed this morning them bring pupae into the connection tube. I really want the plaster nest to be
perfect for them and I will really try to locate a source for the proper plaster to make it with, hopefully that will solve the problem... To end on a happy note, I saw
two workers start to pull at a pupae but they stopped about 2 mins later, don't know why but hopefully my questions of weather there male or female will be
answered soon enough:)
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| 2001.02.16.19.43
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I have just noticed about 8-10 Pupae in a chamber with a few worker ants in, and a quite large ant (about 7mm), I think the few ants that I have seen like this are the ones that are laying the eggs… The funny thing is on the Japanese Ant Database the description of my species is 1-3.5mm, maybe it's because my ants live on a different continent they adapted differently to include larger ants and a replete caste to store food in the winter. DrAnt thinks that they should be classed as a separate species and I agree with him. Other than that there fine:), they have had a insect to eat and I have placed a dead bluebottle in the foraging area although in all the time I have had them they don't seem to respond to insects or food but just sugar water. I'll see if I can spot one of them laying eggs and if the big ones are laying the eggs then I know that there are about 6 of them, this would account for the high number of eggs though…(~25C) |
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| 2001.02.14.16.54
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Well the plaster nest has been scrapped as I have found an ant climbing up one of the sides, this does not at all mean that the information on how to build a plaster nest is flawed! It's just my extremely poor construction skills:)! I would just like to say that Randy's step by step guide is a god send for me as I don't think I would have even thought of making one before:). Anyway the ants seem ok but are widening there tunnels constantly, I have disconnected the plaster nest and disposed of it because I'm making a new one tonight anyway and I'll see how that one turns out and whether or not they like it:)…
BTW HAPPY VALENTINES (~24C)
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| 2001.02.12.04.08
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I completed my plaster nest 2 days ago and tried to move them in yesterday with no luck… I disturbed their nest to try to make a few move on into the tube, they were a bit shaken up but they quickly calmed down and started to excavate massive amounts of sand which makes viewing quite clear for me. I think I'm going to scrap the plaster nest as I think the chambers were slightly too deep and they got a bit scared of it. So anyway I'm going to make another one but only for spring were I can catch some nuptials (I think L.Niger start swarming end of May or beginning of June, so not that long till I can get a fresh queen). I'm going to leave them in there home for now as they seem happy and are foraging more frequently now, so I have put some sugar water (1.5:5) in the foraging area and I'll keep an eye on it to see if they respond at all. |
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| 2001.02.08.05.00
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I just found the missing mealworm head:), they have put it in the tube connected to the foraging area which I'm glad of as I can now remove it without too much disruption to the ants (might have gone mouldy otherwise and that would make things 10 times worse!). I'm still only counting 4 pupae still, but hopefully they will hatch in about 2 weeks, as the temp has remained fairly constant although it did get quite hot last night (25C). The larvae also are doing very well IMHO will lots of them preparing to cocoon very soon. I'm just about ready to start building my plaster nest (10"x12") in which I hope to find and keep some Lasius Niger queens (common black garden ant) during their nuptial flights (over here it's about March-May). I think I'll keep these ants in their present terrarium because they're doing so well at the moment, as well as the repletes now have full abdomens and look content will the meal worm they have had. Oh I just looked at the foraging area and there's to be an ant circling in there, must have taken the sugar water and forgotten the way back :) anyway I think I'll put a multi-choise food option in the foraging area and see what they prefer. Btw anybody who has kept L.Flavus before can you give me a buzz and you tell me what they liked best for you, thanks. ~21C |
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| 2001.02.07.17.09
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I have noticed a fresh batch of very young larvae earlier today which has brought the total up to ???, I'm sorry I can't give you an accurate count or even a rough one but there's just too many to count now, but it is defiantly in the 100-200+ range but for all I know there could be 500 in there, it's just that it's very hard to distinguish sand from eggs although I can tell this new batch as there stuck right on the glass by the bottom of the chamber. The other larvae are now very fat and now looks more like 30 or so are about to cocoon soon. Also I think there full of protein at the moment, as they have eaten all but the head of the mealworm type insect i gave them. (I saw them cut its head off and place it in a unused tunnel somewhere, they have taken it somewhere out of sight now). They're not touching the sugar-vitamin water I have put there but they are probably content with the mealworm for now. I will try to add more sugar to the mixture so it's more like 3:5 or somewhere and not add the multivitimins and i will if that changes their appetite at all. |
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| 2001.02.06.13.21
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Well I just found an ant trying to get back into the nest, I'm trying to figure out where she escaped from, (I think it's from one of the side which were a bit loose). Anyway, I just have to make a correction on my last journal where I said Randy thought the pupae were workers, well I got that wrong, he is actually neutral on it at the moment until we can find out how big the male actually is, I'll just have to wait and see. Btw Under Randy's advisement I think I'm going to start to add temperature measurements to the end of every journal entry I make from now on. I still have only 4 pupae although I have 5+ fat larvae looking like there ready to spin a cocoon at any moment. Plus I have noticed the sand that my ants have excavated from underground has made quite a considerable pile on the surface, so the ants have built lots of tunnels in the pile to use up what little space they have left (they still have room for expansion though). My ants have started to forage around a bit in tag-teams of two or sometimes three, I have placed some 1:5 (sugar : water) sugar solution with a small amount of multivitamins added to try to coax them to forage a bit further away, i'll keep you posted on what happens... ~22C |
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| 2001.02.05.16.57
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Hi All, Well this is the first really happy entry! My ants are now eating the mealworm and i have even counted 4 pupae, though these arn't as big as the growing lavae (there probably small due to the shortage of food) they have about 3 weeks to go till they hatch to become either workers or males(MrAnt thinks they may become workers due to their size) But even after all this time i still can't find out who is laying them... Anyway i'm going to try some sugar water (1-5) with a bit of shaved multi-vitimins (MrAnt again advised me on how to prepare it) and i will see how it goes and report to you all tommorow. Plus lots of thanks to Randy (MrAnt) for getting me through all these past troubles and still helping me now:) |
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| 2001.02.05.15.39 by
Randy Rencsok
a.k.a. Mr. Ant 
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David and I have been discussing things. Turns out colony excavated a nice section at the bottom of his terrarium. I think it's because he added water - which I know generally ends up at bottom of terrarium. They are also eating the live mealworm he put in there (half eaten currently). He also says he sees 200-300 eggs/larvae. We've been discussing whether he saw a queen and size of his pupae (which seem to be worker sized). Since they are worker sized David thinks that there might be a queen but he is pretty sure he didn't see one. At least not like the queen in picture in previous journal entry. Now in the image on the left is supposively a picture of a lasius flavus drone/male. But the relative size of it to the workers suggests the males are same size as queens. (Hence the pupae David is observing are workers not males - indicating a fertilized female is present) I'm thinking Robin Williams misidentified this as a male when it is probably a queen. I'm hoping Dr. Ant will be able to confirm or deny this. I can't tell since the tip of the abdomen which would generally be curved into a spike on males is not easily visible. |
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| 2001.02.04.11.10 by
Randy Rencsok
a.k.a. Mr. Ant 
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I just wanted to add a couple links that David turned up that are relevant and interesting. Here is the direct link to the Japanese database entry for Lasius Flavus. Shown on the left is a smaller version another very nice image of a colony at SIWeb that David found. That image has a shot of a very enlarged queen, workers, larvae, puape, and either eggs (very large IMHO) or very small larvae. Here is a link to a page about aphids which talks a bit about ant aphid symbiosis. The final link is to a thread about Lasius Flavus on The Ant Farm message board which has a nice little discussion with Francois Weeseman Dr. Ant refers to below and someone else named David. |
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| 2001.02.04.10.55 by
James C. Trager
a.k.a. Dr. Ant
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I seem to recall reading that European Lasius flavus has weakly polymorphic
workers. (The American population that goes by the same name has
monomorphic workers, and probably ought to be a separate species. I think
it may be found in your area, Randy.) The biggest ones David describes are
storage workers, like the repletes of honey ants, in other words, a
swollen-up version of the larger workers, in this case filled with a
whitish liquid. The black spot visible in some is the proventriculus, or
valve between the crop and the true stomach, which allows ants to store
liquid food internally without digesting it. In the storage workers this
would be obscured by the cloudy fluid in the crop.
These ants are apparently dependent on particular species of symbiotic
aphids and/or mealy bugs for all or most of their nutrition in the wild.
Though I haven't tried myself, I'm not sure if one can easily meet their
special nutritional and behavioral needs in captivity, in order to keep the
colony thriving. Maybe Francois Weeseman, the Dutch fellow who writes in to
the forums from time to time, has some experience that would be helpful.
His address is here
I think the mold pile David writes about is a latrine, overgrown with mold.
I can't explain the wierd behavior around it, but other animals have a
different relationship to their waste from what we do.
Keep us posted abou the survival of these ants, David.
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| 2001.02.03.16.26
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Well, i know what ant species i have now and it makes keeping them even harder.
The species is called Lasius Flavus or the common meadow ant, this is a purely
underground species which v.rarely surfaces. This doesn't look good as to keep
them would require a major reconstruction of there present habitat and in turn i
would have to take care of an entire eco-system. MrAnt is now thinking of how he
can modify a plaster nest to let plant roots grow into it to feed the root aphids that
the ants get there sugar and protein from, problem is if it becomes too much hard
work and/or too expensive then i don't know what to do...
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| 2001.02.03.05.55
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I just notised 2 worker sized larvae in one of the chambers! And to add to this I saw the Queen!:) allthough i can't be 100% that she is the queen, she didn't look like any of the others in there. Oh well i hope i'm right about this because my colony can go on for years to come, thats if they don't starve to death first:( |
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| 2001.02.02.11.17
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Oh and incase any of you are wondering where I got my ants from
Then I'll tell you, I dug up the ants outside are holiday home in
Fontygary (on a cliff by the coastline) they live in about 80% clay and aren't very far down (mabey a couple of
Inches) anyway, when I first got my ants I didn't notice anything
Weird or strange but about 2 weeks ago we went back just to
Check if we put the lights out and everything, and while that we
Were doing that I dug a bit further across to collect a few more
Ants to add, however this time I spotted aphids and scale bugs in
The chambers but not enough time to catch them (as they were
Quite small as well) I did collect 2 aphids from there along with
14 new ants but when I got home (about 20mins later) the aphids
Were dead but the ants are doing fine and mixed in well
(Although there was about a 7 second smell me-smell you going
On between my ants and the new ones:) but they have mixed in
Well and you couldn't tell them apart now. I hope that satisfied
Some curiosity for some people.
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| 2001.02.02.05.45
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Yesterday i had to ask MrAnt what was wrong with my ants as were acting a bit strange(they were fatigued,stressed,v.jumpy and clumped together) anyway it turned out to somthing as simple as water, it was just that there nest was a bit too dry for them so i added a bit of water and they fine now. I'm still having trouble finding aphids anywhere around here, i know i said i had scale insects on one of my plants but they seem to have either scuttled away or died, So still i can't think of anything to feed them (any help would be greatly appreciated!) so i'll see how things go for now and report again in a few days. |
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| 2001.01.29.18.07
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I would just like to add if anybody wants to e-mail me with any questions about my ants, then I'll be really be happy to answer them! You can e-mail me at david.taylor14@ntlworld.com. |
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| 2001.01.29.17.11
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Well the colony's doing well, they finally responded to the egg white and they seem content at the moment. I might start harvesting scale insects that I found on one of my houseplants, but they need to grow a bit before I can do anything. My reasonably accurate count of eggs and larvae was a bit off! I've found another 'pocket' of v. young larvae visible when I put my lamp behind the nest, this then brings the count up to about 30-35 larvae but I think the amount of eggs haven't changed. Anyway I've noticed three quite large larvae being tended in a separate chamber of their own, I'm looking forward to see whether they cocoon or not and if there a species that doesn't form a cocoon, then I can see whether or not there are any signs of wings. If there are wings on them then the colony is really and truly doomed to die a slow death and I might as well return them to where I found them... |
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| 2001.01.27.16.10
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This is the ultimate beginning of my journal, I started my ant farm on the 27th of December of 2000 after a friend bought me a commercial ant farm for Christmas. The ant farm itself is about 12"x7"x0.5", with about 80% sand and 20% earth mix that the ants seem to like and it's easy for them to tunnel through. The ants that occupy the terrarium are currently unknown but the webmaster of the site Randy Rencsok (otherwise known as MrAnt) has assisted me in trying to identify my mysterious ants! When I said mysterious, I meant it, they have a few behavioral variations that have caused some confusion.
The ants themselves are clearly divided into two separate castes with maybe a third, this is hard to distinguish at the moment as they are still getting used to their new nest and a lot of them bunch together making identification almost impossible. The first is a small worker with a approximate length of 3-4mm with a relatively small abdomen, these do all the heavy lifting work and general nest maintenance. The second caste is about 3-4.5 mm in length and many of these have a small black organ or pigment inside their slightly larger abdomens, which are visible under a light source. The use of this caste is currently unknown to me but they seem to do well taking care of the eggs and larvae and may even be producing them themselves. The third caste as far as I know is quite large at about 0.5cm long and with a white-banded large abdomen and thorax. I'm not sure if these are multiple queens, soldiers or if these are the ones producing the eggs, they don't seem to work at all if never.
All of my ants are a golden brown in colour with no variation between any of them except the large castes with a slightly white-banded abdomen and also the ones with the black spot. They're eating habits consist of aphids and scale insects although I can't find any around by us I have tried to substitute it with small lumps of sugar (as they won't touch it when it has been dissolved) and egg yolk and white mixed together. I will try to cultivate aphids when they come out in the summer, but until then this will have to do. I will try to add more entries every couple of days or so. I'm sorry I can't add pictures of my ants but i haven't got the equipment necessary to do it. Who knows, if this colony survives I might just get something to take pictures of them with.
Also I have a mysterious mold/fungi that has grown on the very bottom of the nest, it has formed a small mound (about 4mm in diameter and about 1.5mm tall). There is always at least one ant there doing the same action as they do looking after larvae (they have there head on the mold with no body movement apart from the slow moving head and antennae). The ants do seem to have some biological connection to it, I have observed them take larvae from the main chambers and place them on the mold for about 10-15 minutes and then take them back. I don't know if the mold is feeding the larvae but there is a definite relationship between them. And another thing to add and I'm not sure if this is sheer chance or it is the mold creating this effect, but an ant can step onto the mold and another ant will come down from a hole in the chamber ceiling and get it's head and thorax thoroughly cleaned and then be on it's way.
The queen ant seems to be a very shy and I can't be sure she even exists but there are eggs and larvae in my nest it could be the workers laying the male eggs in a last ditch attempt to keep there DNA alive. Anyway as far as i can tell there are about 20-30 larvae and about 10-20 eggs, most of the larvae are quite large (about 3mm long) but still need to put more weight on, it will be nice to see whether or not these turn into males or workers... |
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