![outworld for](https://img5.voofla.com/488/235/506507424882355.jpg)
29/01/2023
outworld for
Larry is a Meranoplus Bicolor ant. He is slow, clumsy, and has a big cute heart-shaped butt.
outworld for
Carebara Diversa in test tube ready for population explosion.
Carebara Diversa in test tube
Colony Cam - Auriventris --> Albosparsus --> Odontomachus
🐜
found a live bee and decided to give it to the young Camponotus Maculatus colony. they had a feast. yum yum.
you may have noticed by now that some of the worker ants have really rosy backsides (gastors) while some of them have small ones. this is because the ones with rosy backsides actually play the role of storing food in their 2nd stomachs. they can then go around feeding others in the colony when any ant gets hungry. cool huh?
front view of the Macu queen guarding over her brood and family.
the Camponotus Maculatus queen has moved her small colony into the tiny formicarium setup. it still seems too big for them so i have sealed up 2 of the 3 chambers for now. Macu is so beautiful.
the Camponotus Maculatus love the Jollibee chicken too. they dragged the strip of meat all the way into their test tube!
who else but the elusive trap jaw queen having some jollibee chicken?
red is everywhere. in the eggs and larvae, and also the stomachs of the worker ants. this is because the worker ants ate some red-coloured cake icing and further fed it to the eggs and larvae. so cute to see.
the Camponotus queens have reshuffled yet again from 4-4 to 6-2. 2 queens moved over to make the main colony 6 queens together. they look good together as they all take turns to look after the brood. its so cool to watch.
finally, the first Camponotus Maculatus worker hatches. wish for a bright future for this colony. the worker rests under her mummy's protection until she is ready to go about her duties.
its been some time since we visited our founding Camponotus Maculatus. unlike the Albosparsus and Irritans, the Maculatus pupae have no cocoon. you can see the ant clearly developing as its shape forms up. the white ones are the newer pupae. the brown pupa should be hatching soon as we can already see the eyes and its body emerging. pretty cool.
so the 8 queens spent the most part of the week paying each other visits to their homes. some even stayed over for a night or so here and there. finally, it seems like they managed to choose where to bunk in permanently, and they have come together into 2 groups of 4 queens. thats right, 6 testtubes were left vacant as the 8 queens now occupy only 2 testtubes.
the interesting thing is that only 1 testtube with 4 queens has all the brood. the other testtube with the remaining 4 queens have no eggs but some workers.
in the ant kingdom, nothing goes to waste, resources are scarce. the newborn has just emerged from her cocoon and her sister is already proceeding to devour what remains of her cocoon for its nutrients. everything should be recycled if it can be.
a worker has just emerged from her cocoon. notice that her colour is lighter than the others. after awhile her exoskeleton will harden and she will become darker.
her sisters are cleaning her as she is still weak. they are getting rid of the cocoon around her. notice there is still a small blob stuck to her hind legs. she will need to be patient while her sisters help her out.
this Camponotus Irritans worker stands guard over her baby sisters while they are developing. one why Camponotus are a good beginner species is because they are pretty harmless, and they have huge eggs that are easy to observe.
the smallest ones are the eggs. they then develop larger into larvae. the larvae need to eat. watch as mummy comes along and feeds the larvae some food from her mouth. the larvae will then turn into the pupae (largest ones) that the adult workers will emerge from soon.
are they kissing? no! its called Trophallaxis, a process where the ants feed each other. most likely at this point, the worker ant is feeding the queen.
the "elected" Albosparsus queen stands guard her brood. more workers have abandoned the other queens and joined this chosen queen.
only 1-2 workers have stayed by the remaining queens each. seems like an organised intentional plan to me. a bigger army would be able to better protect the brood all in one place.
were the ants able to deduce and decide this strategy? its so cool.
larry is still the cutest. enjoying Yeo's coconut juice drink 😂
one of the queens only had 1 worker so i had placed her in a test tube slot furthest away from the other queens. a day later i noticed that two weird things had happened.
(1) one of the queens had migrated into the same test tube as another queen! was it voluntarily? (first queen in video)
(2) most if the eggs/pupae/larvae from all the queens were missing. i got worried and wonder if they had been stolen or eaten?
i checked the queen with 1 worker in her furthest corner and was shocked to see that all the eggs were in her test tube. not only that, she now had at least 8 workers helping her.
did some of the workers abandon their queens to serve this new queen? why was she chosen to house all the eggs?
she was alone with 1 worker i doubt that she would have gone to steal all the eggs from the other colonies. seems more likely that somehow she was chosen?
interesting...
yesterday i welcome the Camponotus queens and their newborns to their new home. i tried to house the camponotus albosparsus queens together in the same formicarium. this setup is able to take up to 11 test tubes, and all the queens and their new colonies can share the same outworld.
the result was totally unexpected. not only did the albosparsus queens not fight each other, they were able to accept the workers of the other queens as well.
overnight there were 0 deaths as the workers explored all the test tubes with a queen in it. it was so cool to watch.
i was prepared to have to remove the test tubes if they started fighting, but it seems like it will not be necessary.
its been 2 months since larry mummy died, but her colony still lives on. although they are slowly dwindling as there are no more new eggs. once these last few brood hatch into larry, there will be no more new larry anymore. i feel sad for them so i made them this mini terrarium for them to live out their days in an environment closer to their natural habitat. it could be months before they slowly die out.
isn't she beautiful? a majestic Camponotus Maculatus queen. the rarest species of ant that i have caught so far. her colour, size and shape are just amazing. and it looks like she's fertilised too! spotted her when her wings had already shed, she was chilling at a cashcard top up machine booth in a carpark by bedok reservoir! i've been wanting to take a video of her but i was worried that it would scare her into not laying eggs. so i've waited for a few weeks until now.
queen #1 already has 4 babies. very soon this place will be too small for them, and they would need an upgrade. time to BTO? luckily single mum can. 🤪 same for all the other queens that will catch up soon, what should i do to house all of them? maybe i will get a jumbo flat to see how they get along?
queen #3's baby has hatched! if you look at the baby's legs, you will see that its legs are M shaped like cockroach legs. so queen #3 is of the species Camponotus Irritans, a slightly rarer species here compared to the Camponotus Albosparsus. All considered Carpenter ants.
queen #3 is also special because she did not shed any of her wings. a good example of how not shedding wings does not necessarily mean the queen isn't fertilised.
queen #2 is not far behind. her first worker has hatched. seeing the 2 white dots on top of the worker's gastor, this also confirms queen #2 as Camponotus Albosparsus, a Carpenter ant. guess this means that the other queens will have their workers soon too!
showing off her big pantat after eating until so much pomelo. mummy's butt (gastor) is so huge that the stretch lines become so obvious, yet beautiful! after almost 40 says of fasting, mummy finally has a good meal. also, mummy now has 2 workers to look after her. very soon she will be able to sit back and relax to reap the benefits of being a queen.
after seeing her baby not die from eating the pomelo, mummy goes for it herself!
finally, its time for mummy to have some food. what a treat, Pomelo! just 1 tiny bulb yet it looks so big with respect to the baby. mummy is afraid of what this weird thing id and decides to hold back, sending her worker to inspect it instead.
queen #1 has hatched her first worker! her colour is still so light but it will darken soon as her exoskeleton matures. by looking at the worker's gastor (backside) you will notice 2 vaque white dots facing up. this identifies this species as Camponotus Albosparsus, a type of Carpenter ant.
Cool!!
30 days on, 5 of the 6 camponotus queens seem to be doing well. they have not eaten all this while. queens #1, #2 and #3 seem to be going for quantity, but their nanitics will be smaller and weaker. queens #4 and #6 seem to be going for quality. they have chosen to channel all their resources into only a few babies who will be larger and stronger. the sad story seems to be #5, who seems to have eaten up all her eggs. perhaps she may not have been fertilised and has chosen to eat them up in order to live longer to mate. perhaps its time to let her go.
catching up with our Pheidole Parva queen after 3 weeks. she only had 1 egg in the last video. look now many she has now! so excited for her. mummy protects her babies with all her heart. can't wait for them to hatch.
notice her shed wings!
after leaving the 6 queens in peace for 2 weeks, whats happening now? some of them have laid so many eggs! while some of them have chosen to focus on only a few.
most people think that ants reproduce fast like pests. in actual fact, this species takes TWO MONTHS for the eggs to finally evolve into worker ants. its a slow and long cycle for a tiny ant.
during this period, mummy doesn't eat at all and looks after them with all her heart.
🐜
2 weeks ago i captured around 15 or so queens, 9 of which were Camponotus queens captured in the Ang Mo Kio area. now 6 of them have begun to lay their eggs. really enjoyable to watch them care for their eggs. yet to confirm if any of them are fertilised. hopefully at least one of them will be!
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the largest haul of the day. 8 x Camponotus Queens, aka Carpenter ants.
believe them to be camponotus irritans. the first two have already shed their wings, but none of them have proven to be fertilised as of yet.
will one of these turn out to be a Shiny Camponotus Irritans!? 😂
Ang Mo Kio area.
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totally opposite from the last find, this one is skinny until alamak. Parvaponera darwinii. Will this queen be fertilised? only time will tell!
walked from thompson plaza along upper thompson road, past Macritchie Reservoir towards Lower Pierce Reservoir.
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cute cute poke-ant catch of today. asked some experienced antkeepers but they too are not sure of the species. Philidris cordata or Crematogaster? lets wait and see if they create a colony.
if anyone can ID it please do help!
the butt butt is big and cute like wonder how it can drag it around. 😂
walked from thompson plaza along upper thompson road, past Macritchie Reservoir towards Lower Pierce Reservoir.
🐜
Last night, John John accompanied me on a Poke-Ant hunting adventure. we headed to the HDB blocks at Toh Yi, near to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. John John's eyes were so sharp, and he spotted this Pheidole Parva queen.
and within
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Irritans outworld us getting crowded. nest is also getting full. time for upgrade soon. #camponotusirritans
long time no see mummy. rare glimpse of her after a few months hidden among her tubes. #camponotus #irritans #camponotusirritans
after the irritans colony has had its fill of rose syrup. #rosesyrup #camponotus #camponotusirritans #ants
the Carabera Diversa colony knows how to make use of tools. they use nearby soil as tools to absorb the rose syrup and then carry the soil bits back to their nest for other ants to enjoy the syrup. #carebaradiversa
Carebara Diversa in test tube ready for population explosion. #carebaradiversa #asianmarauderant #cdqueen #ants #antsofinstagram #antfarms #antfarm #formicarium #brood
Colony Cam - Auriventris --> Albosparsus --> Odontomachus #auriventris #albosparsus #odontomachus #carpenterants #trapjawants #ants #antsofaustralia #antsofinstagram #ants🐜 #colony
found a live bee and decided to give it to the young Camponotus Maculatus colony. they had a feast. yum yum. #camponotus #maculatus #carpenterants #bee #feast #yum #workerants
you may have noticed by now that some of the worker ants have really rosy backsides (gastors) while some of them have small ones. this is because the ones with rosy backsides actually play the role of storing food in their 2nd stomachs. they can then go around feeding others in the colony when any ant gets hungry. cool huh? #camponotus #maculatus #workerants #secondstomach #stomach #gastor #backside #foodstore
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