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Good news amrik, seems they are doing good. If you have pictures don't forget to post them. ;)
Hi,
Since the 8 of june the colony have increase about three fold in size .The Pheidole p.are really crazy about
poppy seeds : They harvest quickly every poppy seeds I give, hungry or not , but don't like at all sesame and mustard seeds . I know that Tetramorium like much clover seeds also and they are small enough for Pheydole p.but these seeds are not for human consumption so maybe they are treated so I prefer not to take the risk. Pheidole p. and Tetramorium c. are not so much interested in honey or sugar when they have the choice so I feed them almost exclusively insects (with some spiders) and seeds .
I did not participate to this forum for very long time because I was busy and I did not have any thing very
useful to say. I am also very ashame :oops: to have to tell that my colony of Pheidole have escape probably between the mosquito net and the window frame . For that it had to go out passing on the fluon down the table ,on the floor and up the wall to the window. I had well seen two or three Pheidoles on the table but I did not worry to much because with other ants it was without consequence. Now the colony have completely dissipare ,I could not find it. It is probably in the roof or the ouside wall of the house or died out during last cold winter. This summer I had to give away all of my ants :( because I could not find somebody to look after properly when I was in India .Now I limit myself to two collony of Tetramorium caespitum because it is easy to look after for somebody when I am away ( and they are very interesting ants to observed :) ).
Hi everybody,
In Belgium, in a limited area of warm micro-climate, rocky slopes expose full south, you can find some Mediteranean ants: Messor structor, Plagiolepis sp. ,Camponotus sp an so on. But Pheidole pallidula have never been found in natural free colony in this country(that can change with time if global warming continue). So when I found a flourishing dark red Pheidole pallidula colony in the pavement on the full south ,sun exposed side of my house I got very exited . At first I thought it was Tetramorium impurum but their fast movements , shiny head and a few minutes later the sight of a soldier make me understand : It was the colony that escaped nearly one and a half year ago. To arrive there it had to move a total of 17 to 21 meters from the artificial nest on the other side of the house.
It is also the occasion of a interesting discovery : My Pheidole 's were yellow , these are very dark red ! It prove that the big color differences in Pheidole pallidula colony's is the result of climatic (or maybe food ) differences and not of "variety" differences.
I am very happy to be able to observe this colony in natural conditions and I am not worry because it is a European specie and it's absence from Belgium is only due to climatic gradients. In my area there is no natural warm micro-climate only south exposed pavements.
The main entrance of the Pheidole nest is a few centimeters from a nest of Lasius flavius but I did not observed any aggressive interactions even when the Lasius flavius swarming did take place they avoid each other entrance area. The Pheidoles seems very efficient foraging ,many foragers are coming back carrying preys alone or in group.
It is surprising how this colony seems successful so far north but I think the main reason is the fact that south exposed full sun
face of a house with pavement is a specially warm human engineered micro-climate ,natural warm summer micro-climates been very rare and localize in Belgium (Meuse valley mainly).Some southern species that live there are probably rare relics left by the European warm period about three thousand years ago but Pheidole pallidula is not there .
The colony of Pheidole pallidula start foraging at a higher temperature than ants common in Belgium. During cool days there are very few ,if any foragers outside the nest. I wonder if the colony can survive a " rotten" summer. This summer was not warm but we have seen worst.
The quantity of animal food that the ants are taking to the nest is more an indication of the volume of the brood than of the worker population but still it is a good indication of the size of the colony. So as the Pheidole are not very interested in diluted honey I give them a small cube of ham end of august and to compare I give the same to three colonies of Tetramorium in the garden and my two colonies of Tetramorium in home. By comparing the number of foragers coming to the food my estimation is that the Pheidole colony have probably less than 3000 workers. That is very little compare with a population of a more than three years old colony in southern Europe. That is because unfavorable temperature (or/and to much humidity)as they have no problem bringing plenty of food when the temperature is adequate and seems to have no problem at all with competition.
This year I find no trace of the colony: It have died out (probably) or moved away some distance but I doubt so because the area observed have better micro climate (drier and warmer) than any around.