Pheidole and other creatures

Rocks take a while to tumble, so one way to pass the time is keeping ants (it takes up a good ten minutes a week). I currently have five Pheidole sp. (big headed ant) colonies in test tube setups. Most likely they are P. megacephala, which are invasive globally, including in Aus. The colonies were founded from single queens caught in late autumn last year after their nuptial flights. Males formed swarms over a swarm marker (a sand pit) and females flew into the swarm, met a partner, and plummeted back to the ground. After a brief time in love, the males returned to the swarm and the queens scraped off their wings.

The queens are claustral (they don't feed until their first workers arrive and survive/produce eggs by breaking down their flight muscles). My queens overwintered without eating and only laid eggs in spring. This is a queen and attendant minor workers with her eggs and larvae.


When the colonies are larger, they will be moved to a proper set up. Pheidole spp. are also known as harvester ants because they eat seeds. They have two types of workers: minor workers (as pictured in this thread, which are tiny little tackers less than 2 mm in length) and major workers (which have big heads full of muscles for chewing hard seeds). Currently, I feed the ants once a week. They were originally given sugar water. I now give them crushed seeds. Yesterday, being Melbourne-hipster ants, they were given some chia seeds and organic peanut butter. They wanted sugar. They weren't impressed.



Anyway, my anxiety is playing up so I thought I would distract me by sharing about these lovely girls (lovely for now. That description may change if they escape). Thanks for looking.