Acromyrmex octospinosus

[Lycosa]

Here is the start of a little leaf-cutter and journal. I'm sure most of you certainly don't care about this sort of thing, but some of you might find if interesting.
I would really appreciate it if people didn't spam the thread with various methods of extreme insect destruction.

Fungus garden

Progress of new enclosure (hopefully putting them in here won't kill them)

I'll try and get some nicer ant pics up later, but I am **** at photography

 

[Lycosa]

I have had this colony for over 4 and a half years now, but I haven't attempted a set-up like this. This this might end up being a very short journal.

Excuse my ignorance, but are you making a giant ant farm?

Pretty much

Pretty cool, i have crabs.

I hope you get that sorted out soon

Those close ups of the ants have come out beautifully. What kit are you using to photograph them?

Pentax K20D, 18-55mm kit lens+Hoya close-up lens. I really need to invest in a decent macro lens though.

 

[Lycosa]

Will they be able to crawl up the vertical plastic pipes?
Or aer you sticking branches down them?

I’m going to add a stick to the tube on the right. Most of the ants will have no trouble climbing smooth surfaces, but some of the old individuals with worn out feet will have trouble carrying heavy loads up smooth surfaces.

Have some more ant goodness

 

[Lycosa]

Just moved them into the new setup. Hopefully they will explore the setup and move out of the foraging arena and into one of the nest boxes.

Halfway through the transfer process: removing the fungus garden from the old enclosure...

... And as they are at the moment in the foraging arena of the new setup

 

[Lycosa]

Ant fall

Love it

I now have 500+ loose ants to round up after this messy transfer. Loads of ants that were out foraging have come back to the old empty enclosure and are like WTF where is everyone

 

[Lycosa]

So, the nest move when very well, much quicker than I expected. Within minutes of being placed in the foraging area, some workers were already exploring the nest boxes, and within a few hours, they had begun moving the fungus garden into them. The whole move was complete after about 2 days. I saw the queen sitting on one of the fungus gardens and she looked healthy, except for a missing antenna.
Soon after they finished moving, they began cutting leaves again and now they seem to be back to normal operations with a healthy fungus garden. Annoyingly, they have piled earth up the front of the nest boxes, so it is quite hard to take pictures of the fungus garden. The ants that escaped during the transfer from the old enclosure to the new one decide to dig up my pot plants.

 

[Lycosa]

Thanks for the show of interest and photography compliments . Not what I was expecting from GD

have you seen those antquariums on sale i npalces?

like an ant farm but the "ground" is made of clear jelly so as they make caves you cans ee inside them


recko nyou could replace your soi lwith staht stuff so we could see whats going on inside?

That ant gel stuff would not work very well for these ants due to the high levels of moisture, nutrients and the fact that these ants make very large chambers. In fact, these gel farms are not really suitable for any ant species, I would recommend to anyone who wants to try their hand at keeping ants not to get a gel farm.

I imagine thats becuase of the light. They have tried to make it darker by blocking out the light with the soil walls.

You are right. I hoped they wouldn't do this, as in they didn't in their last enclosure despite being exposed to much brighter light.