ANTSTORE World of Ants

[AntsNational]

Feb 23:

New eggs, more leaf harvesting, the colony is about to reach their first birthday. More workers have been born, and the colony is well. The fungus is maintained at a controlled, stable size for the time being. When spring arrives and the leaves begin to grow, I will have a steady and diverse variety of foliage to feed to this colony.

[AntsNational]

Since it is ridiculously tedious trying to resize pictures here, those who wish to view them can do so on my website forum.

Go to Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar click on "forums" (For membership, it is free) > Tropical Zone Ants > "Atta cephalotes bicolor".

I will be updating more regularly on my personal forum but I will update here as well periodically. Photos will be on the other website as the website automatically resizes pictures for me.

So to update since my last update:

There is a LOT of action going on in the nest. There are TONS of new workers, brood and eggs are carried to different parts of the nest regularly. The ants have been busy building and shaping their nest founding chamber. It has been hollowed out to accommodate the fungus garden which is larger than ever before. It measures to ~10cm tall and 6cm wide and ever growing. Although the queen had disappeared for the last 3 weeks within the nest, I did not worry. Usually healthy colony and fungus means healthy queen. Until today I was a bit curious as to what happened to her, but yesterday some of the excavating workers reached another side of the container and this now allows me a "side view" of the fungus garden---- and the queen. There she was, perched up on the fungus, presumably laying or sleeping. Queen Attas have been recorded to be sleeping/resting for a good part of the day (I forget the source but I'll try finding it). This makes sense as the business of laying eggs at a monstrous rate must be exhausting. Our little antagonists (the mites) have been gone for a long time now. Not one mite has been observed in a few months. As it is spring outside I now have access to Raspberry leaves, bramble, rose leaves and more. All of these are growing in my backyard so there has been a LOT more to feed my ants. I will worry about the upcoming 2012 winter when it arrives (My research shows that these ants can survive easily on cornmeal, semi-cooked rice, various market produce etc.). For now though it looks like the colony will be undergoing a time of plenty in the upcoming warm months. No majors are to be reported yet but there should be one or two in the next few months. All is well.

Pics on other site.
& Here's a YouTube video of my colony (for those like me who can easily become "entranced" while observing the ant state)
Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

Cheers

[AntsNational]

I noticed that the two fungus gardens in the acrylic nesting container were somewhat halted in their regular growth. The other evening I peered into the enclosure and noticed a large mound of earth. As I unearthed it, I noticed an absolute ocean of ants boiling out. There was a third and fourth fungus garden growing under my nose. The queen still resides in the nest container, but I must think of a way to put these ants in a more permanent, larger setup. When I peered into the nest box this morning I noticed two soldier pupae. One was white and the eyes were beginning to develop color, and the second one was an orange color. The first majors are about to arrive!

[AntsNational]

Correction* I have counted over 8 major pupae within the nest. I am quite pleased about this!

[AntsNational]

Great news to report, after exactly 8 months of having this colony I am happy to report the first major! She is absolutely gorgeous. I discovered her resting under the bottom of the fungus in the acrylic container. She is still quite light in color which means that she eclosed quite recently but she will darken over the course of a day or two. This colony has reached another milestone!

[AntsNational]

I haven't updated here in a while but the colony has been moved into a terrarium with hydroballs covered in a 2 inch layer of coco-fibre substrate. The fungus garden has been multiplied into 2 different gardens and they're growing steadily. The ants seemed to have made domes over the fungus gardens which is cool, because they can build up and over the entire garden! They are a little picky with certain foliage but regardless stay loyal to rose, raspberry & mulberry. A few majors now reside over the fungus but the queen is hidden from view. This isn't the first time that she's been hidden for days on end so I'm not really worried. Eventually I'll see her perched on the fungus somewhere. There are a lot of ants now, well over 2000. The mites are completely gone.

[AntsNational]

After the colony had moved into their new enclosure, they've grown from around 2000 individuals to around 6000. It's insane how they can strip leaves and clean apple slices in 12 hours' time!

[adam james]

Wow , sounds fantastic Vasile , I hope my colony gets as large as yours. Be great to see some pictures mr

Regards

Adam

[AntsNational]

I've taken some photos of the colony last night but it doesn't do justice to showing colony size! The ants built a massive dome from scratch in which holds a growing fungus garden. Another apple slice has been put in there and in a few hours' time they've been working at stripping it piece by piece. I'll have to resize the photos though :p

[AntsNational]

December 4, 2012

A large media worker spends her day stripping an apple slice piece by piece. She then carries her slice back to the heart of the colony and returns for another. A group of smaller workers are also stripping the apple. The colony continues to gorge itself on various fruits, green leaves, and vegetables. They are especially fond of kale and rose leaves.

[adam james]

Hey Vasile , looking good mate, I fed mine apple over the weekend and they loved it , am gonna try them with kale tonight as they seem to only be taking privete leaves at the moment.

Adam

[AntsNational]

Give it a try! I have wild rose leaves available to me all year round, also try corn meal. It works wonders!

[adam james]

Fantastic mate will try those. I have tried the kale but after a whole night and some of the day they didnt touch it.
I have been told apparently they go mad for sprout leaves so will try those tonight.

Adam

[AntsNational]

Which kind of leaves exactly? Hmm that's odd mine are annihilating the kale!

[adam james]

The only kale i could find was called curly leaf kale , maybe its a different variety of kale.