Hello all from Cambridge, UK.
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 9:29 am
Hello, my name is Jackie and I look after our Acromyrmex colony here at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England. The colony is thriving and has been in place now for about 11 years. Over that time, the colony has had their ups and downs and at one point, two years ago, I thought we were going to lose them, as their nest started to contract quite badly. Before this, they had a nuptial flight and I came in to the lab on the morning they decided to do this and spent the next 2 hours collecting them all up and putting them back in the tank! I secured the tank with muslin and tape, until this event was over.
Since that time, the colony has come back much stronger and the queen seems to lay on a regular basis, as we have males and females in the tank regularly. Just recently, I have noticed a new behaviour, in that the winged females are cutting leaves and bringing them back to the nest, also cleaning around in the dump tank. This started about 3 weeks ago (that I noticed) and it's still going on, although these females are fewer now. Has anyone else seen this in their captive colony?
I love our ants and am looking forward to the day when our new Science Building is finished, so Andrew can come along and build our new display. We'll then transfer the colony to the new display. By the way, the colony loves to process bramble leaves and apple and these seem to be their favourite. In the summer they like honeysuckle and buddleia flowers. If they don't like something (especially anything rotten, such as strawberries or raspberries), they chuck them over the side and raft across to the edge of their tank and climb out!! I advise people to please not feed the ants anything rotten.
Any questions, please ask, thanks.
Since that time, the colony has come back much stronger and the queen seems to lay on a regular basis, as we have males and females in the tank regularly. Just recently, I have noticed a new behaviour, in that the winged females are cutting leaves and bringing them back to the nest, also cleaning around in the dump tank. This started about 3 weeks ago (that I noticed) and it's still going on, although these females are fewer now. Has anyone else seen this in their captive colony?
I love our ants and am looking forward to the day when our new Science Building is finished, so Andrew can come along and build our new display. We'll then transfer the colony to the new display. By the way, the colony loves to process bramble leaves and apple and these seem to be their favourite. In the summer they like honeysuckle and buddleia flowers. If they don't like something (especially anything rotten, such as strawberries or raspberries), they chuck them over the side and raft across to the edge of their tank and climb out!! I advise people to please not feed the ants anything rotten.
Any questions, please ask, thanks.