Ant Photo Gallery

Our Tropical Ant Nest setup.

Water under the green trays is heated to about 28C to provide heat and humidity. Glass fronted.

Aphaenogaster cockerelli.

(Stilt-Legged Ants). A worker (escaped).

Aphaenogaster cockerelli.

(Stilt-Legged Ants). One of the brood chambers.

Aphaenogaster cockerelli.

(Stilt-Legged Ants). Another brood chamber but note the larvae are being held from the roof of the chamber.

Aphaenogaster cockerelli.

When larger prey is captured and cannot be transfered into the nest, brood are sometimes brought out to feed.

Aphaenogaster cockerelli.

(Stilt-Legged Ants).

Aphaenogaster cockerelli.

(Stilt-Legged Ants).

Aphaenogaster cockerelli.

(Stilt-Legged Ants). Workers and a winged Queen. One of our earlier A.cockerelli nests which now produces winged queens every few months. No males so far though.Some nests only ever produce one sex apparently.

Acromyrmex octospinosis.

(Leaf Cutting Ants). Fungus and workers. The darker fungus is new growth, the lighter fungus is older.

Atta cephalotes.

(Leaf Cutting Ants). Workers and majors.

Atta cephalotes.

(Leaf Cutting Ants). One of the nests we had for sale as a medium but is now much larger - normally mediums just fill one carton. This now fills two cricket box's and the ants have also started to build a fungus chamber under the box.

Atta cephalotes.

(Leaf Cutting Ants). Carrying Leaf back to the nest.

Atta cephalotes.

(Leaf Cutting Ants). Feeding on apple.

Atta cephalotes.

(Leaf Cutting Ants). Queen with attendents.

Atta cephalotes.

(Leaf Cutting Ants). A soldier. Note the huge head. Totally unable to cut leaf or even feed itself but they can BITE.

Atta cephalotes.

Camponotus maculatus.

(Spotted Sugar Ants). One of our first nests originally from Zoostock.Started off with only a hundred workers or so and very little activity was seen for quite a while. This was about 6 months on and the nest was much more active.

Camponotus maculatus.

(Spotted Sugar Ants). This was about 8 months and eggs larvae and pupae were occassionally bought out onto the top of the nest. The large ants are major workers although this species is continously dimorphic - there are no clear casts.

Camponotus maculatus.

(Spotted Sugar Ants). A few years on and the nest completely filled this set up both in the chambers underneath and on the foraging area on top. Probably reached several hundred thousand workers before it escaped into the animal room and regularly produced both winged males and females.

Camponotus ocreatus.

Camponotus sp.

(Sugar Ants). One of the Camponotus sp we get from Arizona after the flights in September.

Formica rufa.

(Wood Ants).

Formica rufa.

(Wood Ants). Discovered a local nature reserve filled with Wood ant Colonies. One of the few places in Essex they can be found

Formica rufa.

(Wood Ants). On cool days or in the early mornings the workers tend to congregate at the top of the nest mound whilst they warm up.

Formica rufa.

(Wood Ants).

Formica rufa.

(Wood Ants).

Formica sp.

Lasius flavus.

(Common Meadow Ant). Starter colonies from queens from the previous year.

Lasius niger.

(Black Ant). Lift up a paving stone in your garden around July and the you have a good chance of finding a nest with allate pupae or freshly emerged queens. They will not fly for another month or two though.

Lasius niger.

(Black Ant).

Messor barbarus.

(European Harvester Ant). With brood. The test tube with cotton wool and a water barrier is a common method for raising colonies from newly mated queens.

Messor barbarus.

(European Harvester Ant). Eggs and larvae being tended by the queen.

Messor barbarus.

(European Harvester Ant). Eggs and larvae being tended by the queen.

Messor barbarus.

(European Harvester Ant)..

Myrmecocystus mexicanus.

(Honeypot ants). A larvae waiting to be fed. This position (head up) is caracteristic of a larvae requesting food.

Myrmecocystus mexicanus.

(Honeypot ants). Dinner is served.

Myrmecocystus mexicanus.

(Honeypot ants). A replete and worker. Sadly the queen of this colony died several months ago but the workers still raised the brood and repletes remained for several months. This species seem to produce repletes much more readily than any of the other species we have kept. Even the queens often swell up early in the colony life cycle.

Myrmecocystus mexicanus.

Myrmecocystus mimicus.

(Honeypot ants). Foraging worker.

Myrmecocystus mimicus.

(Honeypot ants). Some eggs produced by queens.

Myrmecocystus mimicus.

(Honeypot ants). Queens were produced several times. Note the queen on the left has shed her wings. We collected a few of these queens and some produced eggs which hatched. However the larvae did not survive so we never found out if they were fertile.

Myrmecocystus mimicus.

(Honeypot ants). Our initial set up for these species using Oasis a wet flower arranging material.

Myrmecocystus mimicus.

(Honeypot ants). A slightly close view.

Myrmecocystus mimicus.

(Honeypot ants). Another view of the same colony but in a different nest. This colony regularly produced winged queens but no males.

Myrmecocystus mimicus.

(Honeypot ants). Another view of the same colony but in a different nest. This colony regularly produced winged queens but no males.

Pogonomyrmex barbatus.

Pogonomyrmex califonicus.

Pheidole desertorium.

(Big Headed Ants). Another of the species we get from Arizona. Although small these ants work together to carry even adult crickets back to the nest.

Pheidole desertorium.

(Big Headed Ants). A view of one nest container with the larvae and new workers visible.

Pheidole desertorium.

Pheidole rhea.

Pogonomyrmex rugosus.

One of several winged queens. These were captured in a mating ball and were known to have mated.

Pogonomyrmex rugosus.

The best way of keeping the Harvester queens was in a tube filled with damp sand and kept at 90-95F. Very hot but they liked it.

Pogonomyrmex rugosus.

Much to our surprise these mated queens did produce brood. The only problem with them turned out to be that the wings would sometimes collect wet sand and weigh the queen down.

Pachychondyla sp setup.

(Bullet Ant). This was the foraging area for our colony. The nest area was similar but with a flat peice of glass over the sand under which they nested. The colony did not do well unfortunately and died. We believe the queen was missing from the nest.

Making a temporary formicarium. Get two pieces of sheet glass cut to the appropriate size. Cut some 1cm x 1cm dowel to fit around the edges of the glass.

The glass can be held together by Bulldog clips or Hose Clips

Fill in the formicarium with fairly dry sand or top soil. This can be set down bpouring water into the space. Allow the substrate to drain and/or dry out as much as is needed

Add the queen and keep in a warm dark place

She should dig down and start laying quite quickly.

The soil should be dampened down fairly regularly to avoid drying out