ANTSTORE World of Ants

[miszt]

They've all moved, and I'm pretty sure they are all accounted for nice healthy brood, and plenty of workers, until I have redone the ytong I wont know whether the Queen is ok, because the current glass on their tempory nest isnt clear enough to see thru, but I'm pretty sure she is, they moved quickly

[miszt]

Colony has now moved into the hollowed out log I made for them, woot!

more pics n stuff here... Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

[Spore]

Nice ants. I hope they are as prosperous in the future as they are now.

[SteveUK28]

Ohh very nice john, wish i had done the same with my log now Shame il never see the ligniperda queen again.

[kashmir79]

wow

are those bullet ants or bullet ants called **** clavata ?

[miszt]

Bullet ants are Paraponera clavata yep, not sure I'm ready to keep them yet hehe

[ratgreen]

wow nice one, the nasty thing is the way you can see the hairs on the larvea because there really thick and creepy lol. i still love em though.

[Spore]

What are purpous of the hairs on the larvae?

[ratgreen]

so they hook onto each other and one ant can carry many larvea at once.

[Spore]

Oh i see. But what i can't see is the hairs on my species i have. Do they only have hairs on some species?
By the way, is it harder to keep the ants above than other easy ants to keep (e.g Camponotus Ligniperda).

[ratgreen]

yer all larve have hairs but there usually really hard to see,but this species have thick hairs which makes it more aparent, and hell yes its harder/expensive and only for experts thats why miszt has them.

[miszt]

@miszt: This species does not have gamergates. It happens from time to time that dominant workers lay eggs, but thats not normally seen in a colony. And of course this eggs aren't fertilized so you will get males.

I also keep this species. I know most of you don't understand German, but there are also some pictures - here you have a link: viewtopic.php?t=4686

You may be interested to know, that Queenless colonies can produce viable new queens...

more info here Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar


The hairs are a topic for debate, some people believe they are used for that purpose, but I've never personally witnessed it with this species, the larvae are always carried individually, I'm also not convinced that the spines on the larvae are just hair, I did try to get one out to take a closer look, but ended up with 4 very angry ants running up my tweezers, so for now I cant say, but they look to me to be flesh, possibly with small hairs on the tip, heres a pic...

When I get a chance I will get a Larvae out and do a very close Macro shot, then we will know for sure

[miszt]

By the way, is it harder to keep the ants above than other easy ants to keep (e.g Camponotus Ligniperda).

Yes, very much so, they are extremly intelligent and agile hunters, I was stung last week, and its not an experience I want to repeat lol I still have a 3cm wide bump with a scab on my arm!

There favorite habitats are rain forests, and these kinds of habitats can be hard to create artificially, high humidity and tempretures means that Moulds and Bacteria grow very quickly, while most of them are not dangerous to ants (Rain forests contain the more moulds and bacteria than the rest of the world combined!) some can be, and can easily turn your formicarium into a bit of a mess.

O an yep, they are very expensive, and expensive to look after lol but imo worth every penny, I still love watching them interact with one another, they seem to have a fairly complex society, there roles within the colony are constantly changing and theres 'bickering' between workers aswell as out right dominance.

My favorite thing about these ants tho, is they Squeek! (actually they dont squeek, they stridulate, similar to Crickets, but sounds cool anyway!)

[ratgreen]

lol wow so they can make a new queen if there isnt one present, and the spikes are strange, but i still think its something to do with transporting them, who cares they look gnarly!

[mzfckr]

maybe the spikes are like little legs, so the larvae dont lay directly on ground ( stupid idea ).