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I thought i shouldn't post only in the german forum ... maybe there are some english speaking people who would also like to read about my Messor alexandri. So here we go ;)
Arrival
The Colony arrived in November 06. There weren't any eggs, larvae and pupae. But this should change. 8 weeks later the first workers appeared.
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri1.jpg
Development was fine. Soon there was a really big larvae visible. At this point the activity outside of the test tube was very rare. Couldn't see any ants outside, only noticed over night some of the seeds were gone. But honey and dead insects were ignored.
First problems
Some weeks later the big larvae turned out to be a nice Media Worker. I was wondering about media workers so early... but still i was happy. This happiness didn't last very long. There was allways brood, but no new workers appearing. Actually i found some dead workers with ripped of head or thorax. This went and on until only the Media worker and one minor worker were left. By accidentl i killed the media worker which somehow solved the problem. So in retrospectiv i guess the problem was the media worker gone postal. This was in August 07. From now on the colony developed great.
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri2.jpg
In November 2007 there were about 50 workers. Eating a lot of seeds and having a big pile stored in their test tube.
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri4.jpg
Still they're not interested in honey. Their favourite dish is drosophilas.
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri5.jpg
But they also like fly pupae.
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri8.jpg
In feburary 08 there were about 70 workers. They eat more and more dead insects and still life in the testtube.
But then some day later i saw a worker exploring the Ytong nest. Over night they completly moved into their new nest ;)
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri6.jpg
The queen in her new castle
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri7.jpg
Colony in April 2008
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri9.jpg
The first major workers with a size of 10mm appeared.
next problem
The glass on the ytong nest started to lose grip and became permeable. Epoxy resin shouldn't be used to glue a glass on the Ytong. From now on only Silicon!
As a lazy human being i took my time for building a new Nest. Here a picture of the arena.
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri12.jpg
Here you can see the polymorphism of this specie
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri11.jpg
But some day it was finished ;) A picture of the queen in the new nest.
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri10.jpg
And an overview with arena on the left and nest on the right
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri14.jpg
look inside the nest in June 08
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri13.jpg
Now it's July
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri17.jpg
After that August
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri15.jpg
You allready guessed it: September
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri18.jpg
A did a small video showing the development over the time.
Either HERE in good quality
or youtube
iN4QVVgMX4Q&ap=%2526fmt%3D18
Garbagepile
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri22.jpg
Interesting to see that sometimes they are moving the whole pile to another place over night.
You've seen it on the picture in september. Nest is to small. So they started to dig new nests in arena
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri19.jpg
2 sisters
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri20.jpg
Some time later they dug a second nest in the arena
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri23.jpg
Time for a new nestblock.
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri21.jpg
Few days later the new nest block was fully occupied.
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri25.jpg
Another picture of new nest block
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri29.jpg
and the whole complex
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri24.jpg
another picture of nest
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri26.jpg
yummi, antbread
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri27.jpg
and more brood
http://www.eatenbyinsects.de/bilder/ants_Messor_alexandri28.jpg
Interesting to see what a small queen can produce. Hope you liked that little review of 2 years of keeping Messor alexandri. Any comments or questions? Feel free to post below ;)
you should try giving them maggots my messor barbarus love them
yep, now that the colony is bigger they get a lot of different insects to eat.
maggots, mealworms, cockroaches, crickets and other stuff. They like everything.
the only part of crickets my ants eat are its legs
Thanks for the diary. Very inspiring. Can you tell me the main differences between alexandri and barbarus?
apart from the red heads Messor barbarus is bigger and needs hibernation
Thanks. I like your website very much btw. Have read all of it.
thank u for this diary really nice that u choose the english forum =D is this ant easy too keep ?? next year i planning to get a harvester ant that is not too hard :)
At the beginning it wasn't easy because of the problems described above. But after that keeping these ants is very easy. Only thing is their fast development. Guess i have to build a lot of new Ytong nests in the next time ;)
okay so u recomened those for beginners?? (not completly beginner)