ANTSTORE World of Ants

[adam james]

I will have a look deffo mate ,

Regards

Adam

[Andie]

Hi Adam, looking good m8. How active are they in the arena and how well are they able to climb glass ? These could well be my next species

[adam james]

Hello Andie , cheers mate , they arnt very active in the outworld , once they finish off the crickets in there nest chamber , one or two workers go out and hunt , once a few crickets have been caught they then tend to stay in the nest chambers untill they need to hunt again. , As for climbing on glass they are extremly good at doing it, they will walk over talc and even the grease i use they can cross, i use a tight fitting mesh lid to stop them escaping.

Hope that helps mr , they are deffo great ants , very smart and can see up to one metre

Regards

Adam

[Andie]

Cheers Adam. You are keeping them in a desert type setup but i would have thought more tropical for this species ?

[AntsNational]

Hi Adam,

My suggestion is that you reduce the number of chambers down, this way the bits of insect that they dispose of goes out of the nest. The bits of insect left in the nest (with the nest humidity and access to chambers) could lead to mites, and Harpegnathos do NOT do well with mites. Epic set up though!

regards,
Vasile

[baumarkthammer]

If I´m allowed to throw in my information here; Harpegnathos venator live in locations pretty much looking like our european forests. Some people I once had contact with stated that they live anywhere in the forest but only very rarley on open fields. But since they live in a big part of Asia the habitats also differ quite much so that the outworld isn´t that important for them. I even kept my Harpegnathos in a outworld only consisting of a plastic box for half a year and they didn´t seem to mind very much.

[adam james]

Hello Vasile , yeah i can see what you mean , Harpegthanos naturally plaster there nest with bits of insects anyway so they would still do it even with a smaller setup , also the chambers are plasterd in place , you cannot seperate them , only remove the glass windows if i needed too

Regards

Adam

[adam james]

Hello Baumarkthammer feel free to throw any information into this thread , its greatly appreciated. Yes i have seen them in forest conditions but also i came across a small clip online a few months ago of a colony had nested in somones rock garden in asia somwhere , this was just dirt and a few plants. Hello Andie i already had the plants and rocks etc and being as Harpegthanos are dark in colour wanted a outworld that showed them up abit. They dont seem to mind it at all and find there way back to the nest entrence every time with prey lol and hunt in it also.

Baumarkthammer could you move my post and theantmans to this thread from my Harpegthanos keeping diary

Regards

Adam

[AntsNational]

Hey Adam,

Yes but in the wild these colonies depend on smaller organisms to eat the remains of insect such as minute pill bugs and other inhabitants. Usually mite outbreaks can occur with this.

Cheers,
Vasile

[adam james]

I can understand where you are comming from with this , but even if i just gave them one nest chamber they will still dump the bits of insects in it , its what they do in the wild , i understand that it may attract mites but unfortiantly there is nothing i can do to stop them doing it , they just dont create trash piles like the other ants do Vasile.

Regards

Adam

[baumarkthammer]

Harpegnathos just let the rests of the shells in the nest or just use them as material to build their nestchamber just like the shells of the pupae they use for "wall-papering".
In nature at least Harpegnathos saltator had been described as ants that only have one primary nestchamber and one unter the primary one. The lower one was once described to be a disposal of trash like the leftovers of food and stuff and apparently some insectlarvae and other stuff lives in there.
However that was a short describtion that was made by a scientist while collecting colonies for experiments with the ants, when I remember correctly it was the one where they first counted the amout of gamergates in Harpegnathos saltator colonies.
However I don´t fully belive the describtion by now. I hadn´t had the chance to make experiments by my own by now but what I know from the nest building of Harpegnathos saltator is that they surley have only one nest chamber where they store their paralyzed prey and brood in, but the workers seem to have a chamber of their own... well thats just a vague guess of course, also I have never seen a sinle specimen of Harpegnathos saltator in wil.

However that data isn´t necessarily right for Harpegnathos venator as well. They look much alike but there are some mayor differences between those two species despite the color and the stronger body of Harpegnathos venator.

Another thing you have to have in mind when talking about mites is that the mites, that digest dead crickets in nests of ants in keeping, aren´t necessarily bound to suck the haemolymph of living creatures.
In the case of Harpegnathos venator it seems that the mites that feed on dead crickets also are able to sit on the Harpegnathos workers and use them as a ride to their food. There also is a theory some ant keepers like to mention; the mites feed on the paralyzed prey in the nest.
There is some things I don´t like about that theory. First of all Harpegnathos venator and Harpegnathos saltator tend to clean their prey very often. So the prey that lies around in the nest is quite clean. Another thing that I´m not quite sure about is weather the venom Harpegnathos spp. use is still potent after the insect is in the nest, I mean if the venom can still affect other insects despite of Harpegnathos spp.. I guess that the venom consists of some peptides just as many neurotoxines do and can be diguested by most living things and wouldn´t be dangerous for anything when eating the paralyzed insects. But that would pretty sure kill the insect so I guess the venom might be something else since I always read that the venom only paralyzes the prey.
The amount of food leftovers that stays within the nest is small within nests of Harpegnathos venaotr compared to the nests of Harpegnathos saltator, which even used it to cover larvae that just were turning into pupae and also tended to close their nest whit corpses of insects.

To end this utterly long post here; I do not understand why Harpegnathos venator always get mites and I don´t really think there is a easy way to explain it and we surley won´t understand why whithout ever digging up one of their nests in nature.


[I will move all the posts to your original discussion thread once I find some time since I will AGAIN have to change all the links and stuff.]

Regards
Kaj

[adam james]

Hello Kaj thankyou very much for that information. My ants havent got mites and the insects i give them are from a reputable supplier so for now i hope they stay mite free. They are doing great and to be honest thats all i hope for so will keep you all posted.

Regards

Adam

[AntsNational]

Well either way mate I wish you the best of luck! If you end up getting mites, put some raisins and grapes in the outworld side by side. Mites love raisins and grapes and will latch onto the fruits instead of the ants. This is how I remove unwanted mites in my colonies.
Cheers!

[adam james]

o wow really , thankyou soo much Vasile , hopfully i wont get them but should it happen i will try that

Regards

Adam

[anter]

Hey Adam,
nice nest. What do you use for a lightpulp?

Best regards