ANTSTORE World of Ants

[delete-14751]

Afew Questions about Polyrhachis illaudata, can you help:

1:Do they have one Queen only?
2:Do they sting? (i.e. What's there defence?)
3:Do they eat through wood?
4:How fast are they?
5:Can they climb glass?
6:How fast does the colony grow and to what size?
7:Any other infomation you would like to share with me about the ants?

Thank you

[donbilbo]

1: i called Martin (shop owner) once and he told me they can have more than one queen but he does not have colonies with more than one queen.
2. no, they have some acid they could spray in defence
3. no, not that i know of
4. not that fast
5. definately, very good climbers
6. not too fast, not easy to keep at all
7. Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

[delete-14751]

Thanks Jan,

What do you mean by 'not easy to keep at all'?

And when you say 'they can have more than one queen but he does not have colonies with more than one queen' do you think that they are mainly a single Queen sp. but can live with more than one. Say like L.niger rather than M.ruba?
Im asking this because I think its easy to keep track of one Queen and if you have escapes then you can check if the Queen is still in the Tank, with more than one Queen you can't tell if a Queen has escaped and I don't want a colony starting up somewhere else in my house!

[JimmyVe]

Its good that you seek information first, i wish more people would do that.
But hold on, you want only one queen so you can check of she doesn't escape.... You should need a farm where NO ants can escape ! Lasius niger never has more than one queen.
What he meant with that is they are harder to keep than a beginners species.

[donbilbo]

It seems like you have do lots of testing before you find the best settings to keep them successfull. Academic resources state that this species is polygyn. But antstore said the only have small conlonies with one single queen to sell.

[delete-14751]

Thanks Jan thats much clearer, thanks for you help. Do you have a Polyrhachis illaudata colony??

Jimmy:

what I ment was of course I don't wont escapes but if i did then checking the Queen is still inside the tank is the best way to avoid panic as you can know a colony will not be starting of somwhere else (i.e. under the bed) also workers return to the nest so a trick i have learnt is if you wait and watch the escapee then she will soon head back to the nest through the escape point showing you where it is, so you can seal it up.

The point i was making about Lasius niger was that they are naturaly a one Queen colony (monogyn?) but you can get them to have a pair of queens in captive (this is very difficult but posible). I was wordering weather they were like this or just naturaly polygyn. Bilbo answered this.

Thanks for you help also through.


Do you know of a good colony that has large ants, a single Queen, no hibernation, doesn't eat wood?
If not I may try these guys!

[donbilbo]

Yes i have kept them. If you want really big majestic ants then go for those Polyrhachis illaudata. But if you want a species that has hundrets of ants, swarming day and night then i can not recommend this species. It seems to have a really slow development, the ants move slow and careful. They seem to have rather good eyesight so if you walk up fast they stop their movement and go into defense.

[delete-14751]

I read thier numbers can get into the thousands! Is this true? Time Is not a problem, how long does a worker live for?

[JimmyVe]

Maybe a Camponotus species.

[iribuya]

Yeah it's pretty sad what people say about these ants. I am thinking about getting them too, but all I hear is people complaining on how slow and nightactive they are. But what interests me is how big they are and this is the first time I heard someone say that about them. This makes me feel better. Today I kind of finished my formicarium and am testing it for the right conditions. But still i'm not sure if I want to get those ants, I mean they are very expensive and, so they say, very hard. For the same price I can get a dives colony of over 500 ants.

But i'm glad someone else has at least tried them. Donbilbo, you say you "had" them, does that mean they are "gone" now? What does their meal look like, because I heard they dont hunt for live prey, is this right? Also I have an ytong nest, is it necesary to keep this wet all the time?

And last, how long does the whole cycle take, from egg to ant?

Greetings Thanks

[donbilbo]

I have had several colonies of those ants.
First colony had around 20 workers, never came out during daytime. I sold them.
Second colony had around 10 workers, managed to get them up to ~35 workers but they never came out at daylight, too so i gave them to a friend. At his place they lived well until 2 months later they stopped eating anything. He had all different food that they ate before and he placed that stuff right before the ytong. Then they died/starved.
Third colony i received at 10 workers but without any brood. I was pissed and i was allowed to send them back to antstore, they were so kind to send me a colonly with at leat 50 workers as a replacement. Unfortunately that colony does not have any brood neither. They were foraging the first week, now they sit in their nest all day long and only come out at night, too.
Maybe its my fault all the time but as i said, they got delivered without any eggs or larvae and you cant find any positive reports about those species in the boards so i guess they are really different and unpredictable.
Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar here is one of my workers, you can see they are really big. In direct comparison to polyrhachis dives they seem to be at least 2x the size of those.

[delete-14751]

This doesn't sound very good

[donbilbo]

Well if you are deciding between Polyrhachis dives and Polyrhachis illaudata its a tough call.
I allready wrote about Polyrhachis illaudata but their slow development does not have to be all that bad. If you buy a colony with 250 Polyrhachis dives you will most likely get 500 or even more because all colonies are huge. If you buy 500 you will get several queens, numbers of 10-50 is not unlikely. They will doulbe and triple their size in a few months time. You will have loads of alates and those ants are notorious for killing and fighting amongst themselves. They also carry their dead mates in endless cycles around the basins. Polyrhachis illaudata dont do any of that. They are bigger, slower, in fact those are the biggest ants you could buy for such a price. Only atta and myrmecia have bigger workers but those ants cost a fortune. Of course there are other species with bigger ants but those never get offered in the shops...