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I give nearly every day large wax worms to the colony of T.sp.e. so I was curious to know if a colony in natural condition hunt them successfully . A large T.caespitum colony is under the pavement in my garden so I
tried to give wax worms of different sizes .The large size was never attacked successfully and always escaped except if keep in a box pierced with a small hole for the ants .They attacked successfully wax worms small enough to be tackle by a single ant (that is smaller than the bigger and stronger T. sp.e can. ) One small w.w.that escaped was killed minutes later by a small jumping spider. Of 4 medium size w.w. 3 escaped because the T.c. could never recruit fast enough to catch them. Once they succeeded in an unexpected way : The wax worm was attacked unsuccessfully about 10 times in one hour but did not get out of the colony territory. I returned every half an hour to observe what happened. One attack by one more tenacious forager helped by an other one was looking likely to succeed. Once or twice the ants shaken-of followed the track of the prey to attack again but it escaped seriously weakened. It is only after about three hours that the T.c. succeeded to recruit , to pin down and kill the prey by group action.
As I observed in India with Tetramorium bicarinatum these ants are much to slow to recruit to be effective group hunters but are strong and tenacious fighters that recruit massively to large food source or items and to expel competitors.
Yesterday I did give the colony much chicory seeds ,the ants are collecting this seeds slowly ,but all will have been taken from the dish by the end of today.
The wax-worms make a very resistant silk cocoon but once enclose the pupation is slow to take effect so I wanted to see if my Tetramorium sp.e can attack successfully the silk cocoons and feed on the larvae/pupae inside. THEY DO.
I am going to do the same experiment with T. caespitum in my garden.
Today I see most of the chicory seeds taken from the dish are abandoned ,as it seems, on on the ground of the tank near the access hose .
Tetramorium caespitum of the big colony in my garden did not show any interest in chicory seeds and very little interest in the cocoon enclosed wax-worms (no attempt to pierce the silk).
This summer I did not warm the ants ,they stayed at the room temperature between 22.°c minimum at night and 27°c maximum during warm days and the colony continued to grow.
Now the temperature is between slightly less than 19°c at night and 21 or 22°c during the day . Now they consume fewer sun flower seeds , only two wax worms and two fly's a day but are still eating as much apples , hazelnuts and honey as before the weather cooling.
As I said before the workers of this colony are bigger than those of the colony they destroyed earlier this year but now there are some smaller workers that , I think, are issued from the brood they took from the colony.
I have to rectify what I said before about the wax worms enclosed in cocoon : the ants succeeded to pierce two cocoons and to eat the wax worms but three others resisted ,the ants could not pierce the silk that have hardened enough.
The temperature is now between 18 and 21°c and the activity and food consumption are much down but the colony population is higher than ever.
There is a remarkable difference of size between workers, unusual for a Tetramorium colony : As I give more than enough food every days I attribute the presence of much smaller workers to the brood stolen from the other colony who belong obviously to an other ,smaller, cryptic specie .
The temperature variations day/night are much more in an artificial nest than in natural conditions: At a certain dept in the ground the variation is insignificant and the ants move the brood to the area with the optimal temperature (and humidity) so to have a healthy Tetramorium colony with optimal growth in summer the temperature of the room have to stay well above 20°c day and night.
It is impossible for most people to keep a mature Tetramorium colony in their fridge during winter but under 20°c constant temperature the small and medium larvae stop to grow and bigger larvae growth slow down so the activity of the colony slow down. But at 18°c or 19°c the need for sugar (fruits,sugar , honey) stay high as the consumption of fat or oily food . Some protein intake (dead insect , insect larvae ,pupae ) continue at a lower level. (Myrmica enter in hibernation when the temperature stay under 15°c but larvae growth of most sort of ants start only above 20°c)
Hello again everybody !
I did not write on the forum because I did not have much to say . My Tetramorium colony had became unmanageable , to big so I could not move it to my cool attic for winter . Also this winter many ants died without visible reason, more than the normal dead rate . So I had to get read of the colony .
Now I decided to start Tetramorium colonies myself from queens that I capture in my garden and area ,to put the colony in my attic for the cold season and when the colony overgrow their nest space , to release it .
Last spring and early summer I could not find one queen then very late in august I found two smalll queens , I put them in one tube each and nothing happened then end of September I put them in a cool place for hibernation . In April I put the tubes in a warm room and now I have a small colony with 4 or 5 workers The other one seems also on the way to success .
Last week I put the tube in a acrylic small tank (From Antstore) with a self made vertical plaster nest connected to a other acrylic tank serving as dry foraging area , both fixed on a strong glass window.