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Date Journal Entry
2001.06.19.23.36 Also when I get a chance I ll be putting up a fair number of high resolution pictures I took of them so at least we have some thing. They will be new pictures which appear under formica in the species image database..
2001.06.19.23.34 Well I m pretty sure they are dead - and dry. I have to open up their remaining haven - in the dirt at the bottom of their foraging area. Essentially I believe this colony is dead. I m not sure what happened. I have lots of video and pictures still not posted of this colony when it was doing great. The problem was that almost all of the pupae were not maturing - ants would die before getting to pupae stage - probably indicating they wern t getting enough protein.. Noticing how much my myrmicinae want to eat it makes me think the larger species are absolutely voracious for insects.. And I do find this to be generally true. Though camponotus tend generally to be more mellow than formica - formica are formidible. Most of the species I have encountered of them I can say they are the most aggressive - adversarial. Their alarm signals are strong Hence size number and natures of the various species all contribute to the conditions which allows them to be maximally successful produce aleates . Anyway to conclude the Formica Nitdiventus are officially dead. I think they were the only species in my yard - though I know I have their darker cousin all black which makes same kinds of mounds in my yard. I m not going to mess with them until I m ready - and I should probably feed them a bit. Actually the more I think about it the more I think it would be a great thing to have tons of ants in my yard - turning the soil mixing in organic matter. Right now just stretched too thin caring for the number of colonies I have now and dealing with my life and all my projects. But rest assured I am working hard on AntCam and slowly but surely this site will get better. If I obtain these again I will continue this journal.
2001.05.09.21.18 Ok. The formica queen started laying eggs a while back. Only a small number though maybe 50-100. They clearly arn t happy in the plaster and last year almost all of the pupae died for some reason. I suspect a strange plaster effect. The most recent problem was that my myrmicinae escaped and found their plaster terrarium they love the plaster and they absoluely rampaged on the formica - the formica were no match for them - nearly 95 of the remaining colony died and workers were all in the foraging tube trying to hold them off. I havn t seen the queen but there are a couple larvae some eggs. I m temporairly using a plaster nest to give them a cool spot to hang out since foraging area where most live now is in window and gets warm. I need to completely revamp their setup. number of workers is roughly 50.
2001.03.17.09.43 I ve been working on feeding a bit more reliably. One thing I ve noticed is the ants don t seem to like to draw up liquidy substances directly. They seem to like a substrate. So I m using a bottle cap as a resevoir for the solution and a small piced of tissue as the feeding wick. They seem to like it. Mostly I ve been feeding the Formicas crickets large when I can get them - chopped of course and chopped bits of meal worms. One thing I noticed is that they regurgitate the sugary solution on the chopped bits of mealworms before injesting what they can. I ll try to get pictures of this as soon as we get a sunny day. Currently I m continusing to use a external modem to warm them and keeping them covered with cardboard. They are definately more active and the number of eggs in the current brood is about 20. I also removed a secondary terrarium for cleaning as well as have been removing the dead from the foraging area.
2001.03.11.12.17 I count about 6-8 eggs now. I ve been feeding the workers Apple/Cranberry concentrate as well as crickets when I can get them long drive now to last pet shop in area with them and currently chopped up bits of mealworm. Since I have the terrarium positioned next to a large west window I m letting the light come in and warm the terrarium to give them a more natural lighting/heating cycle. Soon I hope to get to go through pictures and add the better ones to the species page as well as take more for this journal.
2001.03.03.15.23 I have added a small heat source to the top of the plaster terrarium containing the formica s I caught last year. I ve also been endeavoring to feed them a bit more. Sugary solutions rotting fruit and crickets. I m sure a couple of days ago I saw a worker with a egg in its jaws.. Now as spring is coming I m going to try to use the sunlight in my west window to warm them. Just wanted to get my journal going this year on them. One other note number of workers is roughly 200-400 and the workers are looking a bit greyish - like they have powder on them or something..