#school colonies

[micro-beauty]

I’m not sure what these Rhytidoponera metallica workers are doing, I suppose they’re allowed to just sit and chat

[aussie-roadkill]

today I watched a master at work

A lovely little queen was running about trying to find a nesting site and by GOD she escaped death so many times. Where I sit at lunch and recess there’s an Iridomyrmex Bicknelli colony, visited by Monomorium, Pheidole, Rhytidoponera, and some more occasional guests such as Camponotus and some I couldn’t even guess to identify- anyway. A few nests were flying, and a queen decided she was going to tear off her wings in the middle of Iridomyrmex territory. Needless to say she wasn’t doing very well at finding a place to dig, she was ping-ponging between a net of about six different nest entrances, where the Iri are constantly traveling and transporting pupae. I don’t know how she did it, but every time she crossed one of these highways she would just miss some workers- now take note, she was a different species to these ants so she certainly wasn’t a sister of these workers, if caught she would be killed. I watched her for the whole of my unch break and the most that happened was she would be briefly chased off. Many ants are like this, they’ll chase off any threats but.. this colony was ruthless I’d seen them attack far larger insects, queens included, and SOMEHOW this slow lumbering queen just darted between every gap- that she didn’t even know was there. These ants don’t have great eyesight, and from where she was she rarely was able to see the traffic where she was crossing and would just RUN with no regard, often seeming like she had no idea there were people there, and MAKE IT??

After about 40 minutes she walked onto the pavement so I decided to get her on my hand and put her someplace uncolonised, where she’d at least have a chance.

but god, she was determined and I don’t know how she didn’t get caught, I’m blown away there were hundreds of individuals crossing and she slipped past all of them

there was one spot where she had been chased that the girls were all investigating, someone had made the “intruder alert” smell there so everyone was checking it out it was interesting to watch

[micro-beauty]

A feast

[aussie-roadkill]

Update on school colonies

It appears sadly (though not unexpectedly) my adored Rhytidoponera metallica colony did not survive the harsh December. I looked at their nest site and didn’t see any entrances, sign of life, or rhytids, but it was surrounded by Iridomyrmex, who likely drove them out. I didn’t expect the colony to flourish, though I did want it to, they only had a maximum of 13 workers outside the nest at one time, patrolled a small patch of land, and had frequent battles with the neighboring iri

The Iridomyrmex colony is active as ever, and have added several new nest entrances, curiously enough, there was a strip of land void of activity, either side ants were running about in great numbers, but here there was no one.

It appears that a new Camponotus colony has arrived. A large dark coloured worker ran in front of me when I was entering the school, I have not seen an ant of this size or colour before, but it had the Campo shape. I do not know where the nest is.

Another colony may have arrived, a few steps after the large Campo another two ants ran across the path, they were smaller, but still considered big ants. They appeared dark and matte, slightly boxy but possible to be another Camponotus or related Formicinae

I’ll look around more for the other colonies, I hope the Polyrhachis and Myrmecia are doing well

[aussie-roadkill]

New Favourite ant colony (at school)

tl;dr - I think I saw an ant recognise a clear pattern to receive food from The Great Hand of Man

I found a Rhytidoponera metallica (locally known as “green ants” and affectionately called “greenies” by me) nest yesterday, it’s small, no foraging trails, condensed to a small area, only 7 workers outside maximum.

At lunch I decided to sit by them rather than my usual place by the Iridomyrmex colony- simply because Rhytids are my favourite species. I enjoy feeding the ants, and so I decided to take off a small piece of apple, and offered it to a Rhytid worker. She smelled it and felt it and nibbled and I think drank the juices, but she would not pick it up. I don’t know if she didn’t realise it was a separate food item, or if she only wanted the juice, but eventually she left and I put it aside.

Food two was blueberry muffin, and I had an instant response. The next worker that ran into my finger inspected the crumb, grabbed it, and ran home. Another came by and I picked apart another piece for her, which she took. I had to be very slow and careful with these girls, greenies are infamous for their sting here, they’re extremely common, it’s hard to find a plot of land without a regular Rhytid colony, and, maaaany people are allergic to them. While I am not allergic to their sting, I don’t enjoy it, and so wanted to do this without pain. So I put the piece of food on the tip of my nail and rested my hand an ant-length or two away from the worker, within their line of sight. The worker would notice and come to me, rather than me clearly chasing them. When an ant like this is on you it’s best to let it roam and leave by itself. I was very nervous, as one particular worker had missed the muffin and was far more interested in my finger. She was biting, but not hard, a curious bite, aiming to pick up and move rather than attack or tear. To support herself she arched and leaned the tip of her gaster on my skin- that is where their stinger is. At first I thought she was trying to sting me, but I wasn’t suddenly in pain so I realised she was just balancing. I had to stay completely still, at this point she recognised my finger as either plant, dead animal, or inorganic- so not a threat. But if I moved in a way that alarmed her- especially when she was investigating the wedge of my finger on the dirt- she would react accordingly, thinking I was a danger.

She left eventually and soon I noticed a worker seemed to run straight from the nest to my reach and search for my finger. I watched the greenie take her gift and run back to the nest. Everyone else walked and foraged as normal, approaching ants remained at their usual pace. and then. A head popped out of the nest and a worker ran at a joyful pace directly toward me and searched the ground. She took her food and ran, everyone else walking. Then, a little ant came racing from the nest and tumbled toward me, took food, returned home, and ran back to me.

I’m quite confident that it was the same ant each time, as every worker was walking at a normal pace besides her, and there was no running when the previous runner was in the nest, only individuals coming out of the nest. I had one thought that was exactly “She figured it out” this ant was clearly doing a routine, no other ants found their way back to me or the nest with such ease, she was making direct lines to and from, and was the fastest to pick up the food off of my nail, each time faster. I can’t explain how happy I am about witnessing this. I know that it is very possible this was not the same ant, but like feathers on a Trex, it’s possible, and there’s more evidence that says “yeah sure” then there is that disagrees- so I would like to believe that it was the same ant each time. Anyway, I love Greenies

[aussie-roadkill]

TODAY I HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF CAMPONOTUS

Camponotus are a very standard species, carpenter ants, we’ve probably all seen one, I’m quite sure they live in every habitable country. They’re also quite.. bold. Here, anyway, they’re known to get in turf wars with Myrmecia...

here is a Myrmecia worker flinging around a Campo. Queen, for the variety of size, that queen is about the size of a Campo. Consobrinus worker, the exact example I’m thinking of

C. Conso. along with other C. species like to plug up neighbouring colonies nests. They will collect dirt and fill in the ant hole so that the workers either get confused, forget they can dig, and can’t escape, or are forced to dig their way out, a time consuming procedure, leaving them very vunerable if there happens to be some Campo’s waiting for them

anyway- I went to give my local Rhytidoponera Metallica colony a bit of apple but couldn’t fine their hole. Then I stared at spot of ground. This earth was very packed own and solid, but here there was a little circle of loose dirt. I panicked a little, worried my girls had left (honestly wouldn’t blame them, there’s a very large Iri colony there) But then I saw this shiny little body. Black, but more round, slightly larger, and god so much shinier than the iri. One more second and, to no surprise, a Camponotus worker was wandering around, collecting dirt. C. Humillior maybe? or Claripes- she was very solid which I’ve learned C. Hum. aren’t so much.

but, tl;dr- I saw a Campo. fiend burying the Greenies and I felt very blessed

[aussie-roadkill]

I helped an ant today!!

I noticed two ants running around a spot frantically, and assumed a sister had been squashed there. I got closer and this was confirmed. I tried to get closer to see better but I scared the active workers away, This disheartened me a bit. I noticed that the squished ant was in fact not squished, just injured and immobile. She appeared to be stuck to the footpath somehow, so I delicately used my nails to take her off.

I successfully scooped her into my nail, and by now she had tucked her legs up and was playing dead, or frozen from fear- not sure. I moved her over to a separation in the path blocks where there was a solid trail. She stayed still at first, then began scrambling again, but was unable to really move. A few workers came by, all stopping to “greet” her, but most continuing- this was an active food trail and these girls had places to be. The injured worker moved to the side and stayed still, seemingly on purpose as to not block traffic. Then an ant came over and began to really investigate her, to see what was going on. She tried to recruit another worker to check, but she was determined on her job. The wind picked up and the immobile worker got swept further down the grout, which really alarmed the worker tending to her.

I looked back to where I had found her and two workers- possibly the original two- were racing around the site of incident, and were searching for her- probably confused as to where she had gone. The wind picked up again and the injured worker was blown into the dirt, and then a little further. From past experience I can tell you she was certainly going to be blown away much further if left unattended. So I scooped her up again and dropped her right beside a busy nest entrance. I lost her for a bit, because the wind had blown her a little to the left, but I soon spotted her.

The ant lay patiently in the dirt, surrounded by her sisters who were tenderly inspecting her to see why she was injured. After a bit of grooming she was picked up effortlessly and carried down into the nest :)

A colony has been observed to help injured ants and be carry them back to the nest where they will be cared for in a sort of ant-hospital where other workers groom the wounds to remove debris and some other fancy stuff. So, it’s possible this girl will make a full recovery! If not, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was assigned to stay inside the nurseries

[micro-beauty]

The ground is alive