ANTSTORE World of Ants

[adam james]

Hey guys , A few pictures for you , Colony population at moment.

6 Larva
9 Workers
1 Queen

Will update soon

Regards

Adam

[adam james]

Hey guys really quick update , i checked on the ants last night and the workers were putting loads of bits of insects and substrate on one of the larger larvas , that can mean only one thing its begiining to pupate

I marked when the first larva appeared so it takes about four weeks give or take a few days at 25-26 c for the larva to turn into a pupae.

Will update again soon

Regards

Adam

[adam james]

Hey guys well some really great news , we have a cocoon . thats one so hopfully the other two larva will spin one soon.

Heres some updated pictures.

There you go guys , hope you like.

I was just wondering whether any one likes this thread , it doesent get alot of feedback so was wondering if it worth updating it. ?

Regards

Adam

[AntsNational]

Hi Adam,

I think you have a lot of silent readers, as you have over 2000 views on this thread. I would continue to update if I were you, makes my monday mornings exciting

Regards,
Vasile

[adam james]

Hello Vasile , thankyou very much , Im afraid though My Harpegnathos journey ends here for now . The Workers have slowly died off , Old age i am sure of. The queen was the last one left and the two pupae a few larvae and a few eggs. The pupae never hatched and i spotted the queen eating the contents of both , there were larvae inside , no pupae , so i dont know why they never papated. The cocoons were intact and all was going well. Anyway after this i tried feeding the queen on crickets and she hunted and ate for awhile but slowly the last few eggs and larva were eaten. Finally after a few weeks the queen died.

So for now my journey ends with these species but i will try again in the future but would want to start with a much larger colony

Regards

Adam

[AntsNational]

Hi Adam,

I am extremely sorry to hear this. Do you know the cause of death? Also: Do you think you could send to me the workers and queen of the colony? I wish to preserve them for my collection (since they're already dead).

Best wishes in your future ventures,

Vasi

[adam james]

Hello Vasile , im afraid i cannot send the workers or queen , the workers died end of april and the queen several weeks ago so they have been disposed of now

I think the colony callapse was due to me moving them into anouther plaster nest. They were not heated anymore and it was during a nasty cold spell in england. I was moving around my ants so i didnt expect it to affect them that bad. Other then that i have no clue, also i dont know why once cocooned the larvae didnt pupate

Regards

Adam

[AntsNational]

The failed pupa could have been a result of many things:

1) humidity
2) temperature
3) mold
4) defect
5) damaged (during the time that the larva begin to grow the legs and actually form the shape of an ant, they are EXTREMELY SOFT and vulnerable).

There are other factors too, but these are the main ones that I know of.

Also, the combination of drastic temperature shift and moving is not good for ants, especially larger exotic species. They can be quite sensitive to this. The stresses probably killed them. I would suggest that you keep the nest still and also plaster nests don't seem to be good for exotics. I never use plaster because it molds fairly quickly. I will PM you my webstore for an idea of what you may be looking for when it comes to nests for exotics. I keep exotics in mine and they are doing very well.

Hope you get better luck next time Adam!,

Vasi

[baumarkthammer]

@theantman, Harpegnathos spp. need other nests than nearly the nearly the whole rest of the ponerinae. They are very characteristic when it comes to the nest.

It is quite hard to imagine for me that inside of the cocoon the larvae was still in the shape of the first stadiums. Normally the larvae transforms itself to the last stadium which is shaped like the imagine within a few hours or less.
So it seems that they never were alive inside of the cocoons or didn´t delevope further on because of something.

I wouldn´t consider the temperature as a important factor. Harpegnathos venator isn´t a ant that dies quick when the temperature is low. In my experience the eggs can take temperatures below 10°C just like the workers. The larvae still grows in temperatures of about 18-20°C. However below 20°C the growth is nearly unnoticible.

They are also used to very humid ground. Since where they live monsoons aren´t that rare.
Of course it would be bad if you had kept them wet.

It is always impossible to say why ants died without seeing them and knowing the way they were kept.

By the way; Harpegnathos don´t ever move on their own! You can´t really get them out of the nest as you would do it with another ant (bad temperatures, missing humidity etc.) and shouldn´t try so because they only move in the state of extreme stress since they normally never change their nest. In my opinion you just should build a nest in which they can stay forever.

[AntsNational]

Thanks for the info ! I have never kept Harpegnathos, I can only speculate!

Cheers,
Vasile B.

[adam james]

Well Hello Guys , I thought I would revive this journal due to the fact I seem to now have a thriving Harpegnathos venator colony. The colony came to me in January. They arrived without delay and in fantastic health , but broodless . The colony contained two healthy queens and roughtly twenty two workers .

Later that day once the colony had settled down I transferred them to there new nest. They promptly moved in to it and settled in. The workers had a ravenous appetite and soon started hunting the small crickets and spiders I supplied them with.

For the next two weeks the workers hunted and the colony satisfied its needs for food, then one morning I peered into there nest chamber to be relieved to see the first white egg, this darkened within a few hours to a rich yellow colour and it wasnt long before over the course of that week it was joined by many more eggs.

The two queens carried on laying and the colony carried on catching and eating prey, but after a month there was no sighn of the eggs hatching, anouther week went by and still nothing ,it had been roughly six weeks now since the first egg had been laid. Then finally a few days later as i peered yet again into the nest chamber I noticed somthing wiggling next to the eggs, it was the very first larva

As the eggs had been laid so the larva emerged , every day or other, one by one larva began to hatch from the eggs. The colony had hungry mouths to feed and would need more food.

The workers were quick to supply the food needed by the future generation but it came at a cost , several workers may of become hungry and it wasnt long before one or two were seen eating a few of the eggs. The queens didnt seem to like this and several times they were seen standing over the eggs.

Its been over a week now since the first larva emerged and the colony are doing great , the larva are growing nicely and more have hatched, currently eighteen larva plus a large pile of roughtly twenty seven eggs lie in the nest chamber. Anouther week or so and hopfully the first larva will begin pupating.

Heres a video of my colony guys , will update again soon

[youtube]5e5EGZF5BDY&list=UU60javMmgejklEkoEXfGpZQ&index=1[/youtube]


Regards

Adam

[adam james]

Well there has been a great change in the colony this week We have our first larva pupating .
The first larva has now successfully spun a cocoon and I'm sure it will be followed swiftly by many others. Here's a few pictures and another video update.

More and more larva hatch every day, the count now exceeds thirty.

The Crickets do not last long once dragged into the nest and at times the workers seem to struggle to meet demand.

The first sign of a larva pupating. The workers seperate it from the group and start trying to bury it under what ever they can find.




Will update again soon guys

Regards

Adam

[adam james]

Well Hello guys , here we are again another update for my jumping ants

The colony have been doing fantastic, I honestly don't think they could do any better then they have been. Both queens are alive and healthy, the workers are all still alive and going strong. They are meeting demand to feed the generations of larva that seem to hatch each week.

I have kept this species in the past with terrible results but im glad I have cracked it. The last update we had the first few larva spinning there cocoons , well I can gladly say many more did the same and there are approx. 32 cocoons now in the nest with more being spun every few days

While more larvae spin cocoons , more eggs hatch and this has become a steady conveyer belt of growth. The colony is getting through at least 15 small crickets every few days.

And now for the most exciting news of all , I save the best for last The colony has had its first new member hatch from its cocoon and it is a new ( drum roll please )

Winged young queen It will not be long until the other cocoons start to hatch as the larva spun within days apart. The workers have been selecting a few and paying them very close attention so im betting in the next few days I will get more. Im hoping there are a few males and more queens as due to my two queens are not sisters the chance of there princess daughters mating with there brothers becomes great. This species breeds with its siblings anyway.

Newly emerged queen (princess until mated) getting cleaned by fellow worker

The workers take great care in these colony members and they receive a great deal of grooming

I can now safely say the development for each stage is as follows , based on a temperature of 26 - 27 c

Egg - Larva = 47 days

Larva - cocoon = 22 days

Cocoon - emergence = 35 days

I am baffled why the eggs took so long to hatch , I could only assume a few were eaten as others laid but I never saw a decrease in egg count.

Here's a video of the colony



Will update soon guys ,

Adam

[adam james]

Hello guys , its been a while since I updated on my Harpegnathos but my have they done extremely well.

After the first few virgin queens emerged a small group of males emerged too, eventually there were about 17 queens to 15 males. Over the course of a few weeks these alates made several trips into the foraging area where the flapped about and explored. By the end of the second week from emerging the males were being seen deposited in the trash area and most the queens all slowly lost there wings and stayed in the colony. A few were seen dead and being carried by the workers onto the trash heap.

The colony's population now includes about 30+ workers and at least 12 queens. It is not known if they have successfully mated as I did not see any copulation taking place but the egg production has increased drastically and as a result the larvae and cocoon count, Currently 24 cocoons await emergence in one of the nest chambers and the first few that have emerged have all been workers. If they queens hadn't mated id assume there would be another appearance of males.

A worker having a good clean

Workers share a bit of cricket

I cannot help to think the sudden surge of brood is down to the extra production from the new queens.

A newly hatched worker

Heres a video of the colony : )

[youtube]KaD59U7pb1o&feature=c4-overview&list=UU60javMmgejklEkoEXfGpZQ[/youtube]



Adam

[AntsNational]

Loved the video Adam! Keep up the interesting work!!