Platythyrea cribrinodis

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Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon highered » 20. Mai 2010 14:51

I just received my colony of these nice big ants, colony size about 30. They look amazingly similar to Pachcondyla apacis but are from Africa. I think they can be kept in a similar way, except instead of needing high humdity, they need a dry climate. I am currently provding 25-30 C frm a heat mat during the day and at night am turning it around to provide a more modest nightime temperature of 20-25 C. They can run very fast and although they are able to walk up a vertical plastic surface they don't like to and aren't very proficent in it. To keep it dry I am using a small cyrstal dehumidifier, the kind you might put in a cupboard. I have put a metal grill over the top to stop any ants geting into it.

I will post some photos if Antstore has changed it so I can just add a photo without having to download anything.
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon baumarkthammer » 20. Mai 2010 15:22

Very nice ants you bought. What do you feed them with?
I heared that they mostly eat eggs of other ants.
I heared that if a little water gets into their nest they storm out of it and take all the brood with them, is that right?
Hope you will post here oftenly, that is one of my favorite ants!
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon highered » 20. Mai 2010 15:47

I am using live locosts at the moment. I put one in today and it only got one hop off before the ants overcame it. I put in a very large locust, about 2.5cm which is much bigger then the ants but they attacked it and of course locusts can't bite. The locust led a bit of brown blood. I then stopped looking and whenI came back the locust was gone so I assume they took it into their nest.

I haven't watered them yet and intend to keep their nest dry so unfortunatley won't be trying that.
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon baumarkthammer » 20. Mai 2010 16:00

Should you really keep the nest completley dry? They in deed live in the dessert and search for the hottest points.
But do you really think that they don´t need any water at all?
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon highered » 20. Mai 2010 16:29

No they have water, just not in their nest
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon highered » 20. Mai 2010 16:30

No they have water, just not in their nest
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon baumarkthammer » 20. Mai 2010 17:52

Ah ok, so i wish you good luck with them! Thank you for the information, hope this thread will stay for long time.
One last question: Am I right informed that they only have gamergates and new colonies are found by splitting the colony like Diacamma do?
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon highered » 21. Mai 2010 13:23

I don't know that, but I will wait and see.
For some reason they like putting their cocoons (which are black) out in the open away from the heat! Alittle like Myrmica rubra, do it does like strange tho, I like they do it because the new workers are about to hatch.
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon baumarkthammer » 21. Mai 2010 13:31

As far as I know they always search the hottest point, which in the dessert can be about 40°C.
They are an even older species than Paraponera and so on and are acclimatized to their habitat completley. I think they live in deserts for million of years and need really high temperatures, even higher than 30°C.
You could maybe try to make one small point like 38°C hot, i would be interested in what happens and if they carry their brood there.
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon highered » 24. Mai 2010 12:39

Maybe, but why would they carry their cocoons to a coll point though? And also this species looks exactly like Pachycondyla, and Mizt said they can live in a dry climate, so how would I know which species it is?
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon highered » 2. Jun 2010 15:46

I would post some photos but there is no link to add a photo.
PS My ants are ok, I don't think any new brood and I am using a dry beton nest for their nest, attached to their basin for walking around. I have a heat mat on the beton nest all the time provding 20-25 C but they insist on only sitting in the part of the nest not covered with the heat mat?? This side is room temperature and not hot! In addition I have a heat mat on one side of the basin providing heat of 25-30 C during the daytime only.
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon baumarkthammer » 2. Jun 2010 15:54

Maybe the part of the nest isn´t covered by the heatmat but the air in there will be around the same temperature everywhere.
It is strange that they don´t have new brood, i think you might feed them to less? That is the problem why ponerinae often don´t raise brood they need always fresh food.
You can put photos in here by posting the link to them, would be nice to see the ants!
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon highered » 3. Jun 2010 14:53

Well I was feeding like 1-2 large locusts a day but stopped as I have to buy some more. I will be getting some more locusts next week though. How would I post a link to my photos when they are on my computer. Oh well never mind.
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon highered » 21. Jun 2010 15:15

Bad news I'm down to about 10 workers and no brood. Hmmm maybe I'm not keeping them properly? I'm thinking about it.
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Re: Platythyrea cribrinodis

Beitragvon highered » 23. Jun 2010 15:25

Having thought about it maybe this species really does need protein like every day because what I was doing was feeding them every day for a week then a week no protein, and so on one week on one week off. Now what I will try is feeding them one large locust every other day every week and see how that works.
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