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Hello everybody,
Just recently I received a 2-queen (..cannot contain my excitement :grin: ) colony of Harpegnathos venator, also known as the Asian jumping ant. These ants are absolutely beautiful and possess the ability of keen eyesight and are able to (conventionally) hop around. They are extremely docile and not aggressive whatsoever.
Unfortunately, the colony was 2 queens and about 35 workers before they were shipped out but most have died off and the current population is 2 queens & 8 workers. I am a little more relieved to say that these ants may be pulling through as the remaining workers are showing positive signs of good health and agility.
Each day they are feeding on crickets, termite alates and the occasional cockroach. They don't seem to be putting much interest into sugary foods. I've read up that they don't take well to most worm-like prey and that they are sensitive to pet-store grade crickets as the crickets may be sprayed with a chemical to kill mites. I will for now continue with my alternative of cockroaches and natural pinhead crickets as well as jumping spiders.
Well I'm not fond of posting negative news, but sadly one of the queens has died. These ants may be a little bit more transport-sensitive than I thought. I hope the one remaining queen and the 4 surviving workers begin to take the right turn.
Good news, there haven't been any more deaths. The remaining queen has laid 5 eggs in the last 2 days which is great! I've been feeding them medium-small crickets (preboiled to evade mites) and they have been feeding happily. Hopefully this colony starts to really pick up!
Nest humidity makes for terrible photos, but here they are anyway. At this point in time I would rather the ants feel more comfortable and calm instead of stressed especially at such a critically low colony population. That hopefully will change as there are about half a dozen eggs in the nest now.
Fingers crossed its all coming together now.
Thank you Catman, I think things are going to pull through. Definitely seems like it was quite the roller coaster ride for this colony.
Well the egg count has reached about 12 eggs now and all seems to be going well. The queen runs a tight ship and the colony regularly feeds on small-medium sized house crickets (remember, I boil them first in case of mites). Nothing goes to waste! I think that I'll be needing a lot more crickets once these eggs hatch. Good thing they're cheap and easy to breed! More pics can be seen on my facebook journal page as well.
AntsNational
Are these Ants able to sting?
I would say yes since they do sting their prey to immobilize it. I don't know the extent of the pain though.
The colony has a little bit of bad news, along with some good news.
The bad news:
- The colony has lost two workers, I'm not sure as to why. They now number 1 queen + 2 workers. The total population now is at 3.
The good news:
- That population could soon grow ! The first egg has hatched and a larva now happily feeds on soft-bodied insect prey brought in by the workers. Hopefully this is the turn around for this colony.
:shock: AntsNational
Are these Ants able to sting?
Here is some proof of this stinging.