Welcome to a vivid exploration of Orchadia and Pantdora, my vivariums that represent microcosms of the rainforest ecosystem. This book chronicles my experiences and observations as I navigate the complexities of introducing and sustaining life within these controlled environments. From the accidental introduction of new species to the dynamic interactions that followed, these pages offer a detailed account of ecological balance and the unexpected challenges that arise. Join me in uncovering the intricate web of life that thrives under the glass, highlighting the profound connections and delicate dependencies that define our natural world.
I Discovered So Many Animals Secretly Living in My Giant Rainforest Vivarium
This is Orchadia,
my 1,300-gallon cloud rainforest canopy vivarium,
which represents the lush treetop world of the rainforest, known for its species-rich,
biodiversity, and I’m studying the ecosystem it supports, together with the rainforest
floor vivarium which is attached to it on the floor below, called Pantdora.
This canopy vivarium recently underwent a renovation, specifically the addition of
this large banyan tree, but little did I know, this tree turned out to be a Trojan horse,
for living in its leaves and pot were a whole slew of surprise newcomers to our rainforest
world. This is the story of how I discovered a ton of new and unexpected creatures in
my giant rainforest vivarium that altered the trajectory of our rainforest project
forever. This is Episode 43 of my ongoing Ecosystem Vivarium Series, where Mother Nature
never ceases to surprise us with her unexpected Easter eggs, here on the AntsCanada Ant Channel.
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OK, so I’ll be honest. When my team and I added the large tree into Orchadia to
renovate the canopy in the last episode, I had no idea what biological insanity was up ahead,
and the possible danger I would be in from the moment I made this terrifying discovery. This
is a dirt pit in Pantdora, the forest floor vivarium, into which I buried a mystery egg
I found in my yard. Mystery because I didn’t know what laid it, I didn’t know if it was fertilized,
and I didn’t know if it would hatch. There were a ton of signs it was dead, like when I
spotted ants emerging from a hole in its shell a couple of weeks back, before burying the whole
thing back up so I wouldn’t have to deal with the stench! But then, just this week, I noticed this.
Even after a few weeks, there still was no stench of decay.
That’s funny. I totally expected a foul odor by now. As I looked into the moss,
I was surprised to see a giant trap-jaw ant wandering around against a white surface.
I suddenly began to worry when I realized that it was the egg, above the soil layer.
I uncovered the moss, and to my surprise the egg had indeed surfaced. This was not
at all how I left it. My heart began to race as I went in with my tweezers to try
to roll the egg over. Oh my gosh! What? I felt dizzy, staring at the gaping hole in the egg.
I was loving all the amazing creatures that had been imported into Orchadia
via the newly installed banyan tree. This was the first new creature I spotted. At
first I thought it was just a tiny piece of leaf stuck to the glass until I realized,
it was moving! Upon closer inspection, it was the cutest little leafhopper-like creature.
The way it moved and wobbled from afar,
it kind of looked like a green water bear, in a strange way.
Now I say leafhopper because it kind of looked like one, but the truth is, I’ve never seen anything
like it and wasn’t exactly sure what kind of insect it was. Was this some sort of
beetle? Any experts care to chime in and help me identify this little creature? It was just a few
millimeters long, and I just loved its color, and the pair of eyes at the sides of its head.
Nearby, I caught sight of this newbie. It was some kind of beetle and it was chewing on something
from the surface of the wood. I loved its colors. It was in the process of folding its wings under
its metallic blue-black elytra. It had just flown to this spot and was having lunch. I also noticed
its sustained injuries to its reddish limbs. Poor fella. Oh, it pooped. Guess it feels at home.
I had a feeling spotting these two peculiar but cool creatures in our canopy was just a preview
of all the potential and amazing new life there was to discover in our new tree world,
but I completely lost my breath when I spotted these new black ants, whipping by like crazy.
This is… awesome! Dolichoderus ants! My heart leapt with joy when I spotted these
little guys running across the branches of the banyan tree. If you’re new to these ants,
don’t worry. So am I, as this will be my very first time owning this
genus of ant. These cool black ants are an arboreal species,
and their colonies essentially cluster among the leaves of trees, basically nesting in any
tightish space in the foliage that they can pack into. I looked around the foliage for their nest.
I tried to follow their trails but they were basically trailing everywhere,
completely dominating this tree. Ah, there’s one grouping of ants.
I think they’re discussing what the heck happened and where they were.
What I love about these Dolichoderus ants is how active they are. I remember
seeing them in the wild while visiting a local cloud rainforest… hang on… OK,
sorry guys. Thought I saw something. Anyway, I was happy to welcome these rambunctious and eager
native ants to our rainforest canopy. What should we name them, guys? Let me know in the comments!
With this being my first time owning Dolichoderus ants, I was interested
to see what their role would be in the ecosystem, specifically what they ate,
and after snooping around I was drawn to this scene. A Dolichoderus ant was hovering over a
group of scale insects. It was waiting for the sweet stuff! Along came a coworker:
“Hey, sup?” “I’m waiting for honeydew. How about you?”
“Ah, just foraging. This place is strange! OK, See ya at the nest.”
“Bye”
Ants are always checking passersby, just to make sure they were from the same colony with
their same identifying colony scent. Otherwise, aggression was the only option! This banyan tree,
full of its scale insects that give up sweet honeydew, as seen here, was their territory
and they weren’t willing to share! However, these Dolichoderus ants would soon be finding out that
if they wanted it, they would need to defend this tree home against other invasive forces.
Ok, so let’s look at the possibilities. I could see a ton of gnome ants and soil
creatures eating away at the remains of this egg. My initial thought was maybe this egg
was infertile all along, and that dried piece of material seen there was just the remains of it,
perhaps an old yolk or something. The soil creatures or ants could have torn this
massive hole into the shell, or OK… nope. No missing piece of shell below the egg. So yeah,
maybe this was just what the egg looked like in its decaying process.
But this still didn’t explain why the egg was sitting above the soil like it
had surfaced. Also, this hole did look like pictures I saw online of hatched snake eggs.
The reason why this was concerning to me is that whatever laid this egg was either a
monitor lizard or a snake, like a cobra. One of these options I didn’t quite mind,
but the other, was life-threatening and was ample reason for high alert.
But, how could the egg be alive if we saw ants emerging from a hole in it a couple of episodes
back? I don’t know. But checking old footage of when we saw the ants emerging from the hole,
I noticed that the egg already seemed a bit hollow. Perhaps,
if something did hatch from the egg, it happened before we last checked, which would mean that
whatever hatched, could have been living and hiding in Pantdora this whole time.
Which brings me to another reason, I was worried. AC Family, I hate to say this but for the past
three weeks, I’ve been spotting Snap, one of our two young sun skinks, but strangely not
his sister Snip. The thought of some new predator lurking in Pantdora and preying on the animals,
terrified me to no end. Never in this vivarium project did I ever fear for my life, as well as
for creatures in the vivarium, as I did now. In retrospect, adding this egg into the ecosystem,
which I thought was dead, all for the purpose of soil nutrients, was my biggest mistake.
As the Dolichoderus ants hung out by the hydrating mist of their new cloud rainforest home, they had
no idea a tiny competitor was stealing resources from their tree. A ghost ant, one of the two
unwelcome invasive ant species in our rainforest, was harassing a mealybug for its honeydew.
“Come on! Pay up! Give me, give me, give me!” Like an ant with OCD it would stroke the mealybug,
then attempt to leave, but return to the mealybug just seconds later to check again,
then repeat the cycle. This ghost ant was not willing to give up! Eventually,
its tenacity paid off and the mealybug gave up the sweet blob of honeydew.
I then spotted this cute beetle wandering the foliage. What gorgeous color! This
small metallic red beetle was searching for just the right spot to launch, and when it found it,
it flew up to a branch where it almost got caught by a Dolichoderus ant. It raced away unscathed.
As lucky as this red beetle was to evade,
the Dolichoderus ants were busy dealing with another more concerning red force. These are
invasive red ants who, although nest in wood and not on the tree like the Dolichoderus ants,
I could already tell, were on the Dolichoderan radar, as unwelcome new neighbors.
You see the problem was, though the red ants inhabited dead wood,
they still frequented the banyan leaves for food. I saw the red ants licking up remnants of sweet
honeydew squirted out by the plant insects and were quite thorough at it. For now, thankfully,
the red ants had claimed the smaller banyan tree as theirs, not the one claimed by the Dolichoderus
ants, but I knew sooner or later the two ants would be pushing against each other to claim
the valuable resources from each other’s tree. I actually don’t know who would win between this
proverbial war between red ants vs. black ants, but I knew it wouldn’t be good. But guys, little did
I know there were actually more hidden players in this competition of the ants over resources.
But, the red ants had discovered a new and uncharted area of the canopy to conquer,
currently free of any ant occupation: Orchadia’s brand-new compost heap, that I added to help
nourish our canopy. I was delighted to see that this area was going exactly as planned.
I could see various soil creatures already pioneering the future soil biota of Orchadia.
Having a bioactive soil layer in the canopy was key because these soil creatures would help
convert decaying leaf litter to nutrients for all the plants growing here, as well as the fungi. I
already noticed the team of fungi flourishing in the compost. The fact that various colonies of
fungi were already producing fruiting bodies was such a great sign that better days were ahead for
Orchadia. Adding this compost layer was one of the best things I ever did. Orchadia also had another
new and large body of soil, i.e., this large pot in which the new banyan tree was growing.
A sudden movement up in the tree caught my eye. A baby gecko was exploring the
new foliage. He was intrigued by this massive tree that appeared out of nowhere,
which was totally infested by ants, but he didn’t care. What he loved
was that the space was now full of tasty flying insects everywhere.
With excitement and anticipation his tail twitched as he prepared to pounce. Oh,
whatever it was he was stalking got away. Regardless, this lizard was happy with the
change in scenery and knew his chances of survival were much greater now.
Which was more than I could say for other lizards in our rainforest. I had to get to the bottom of
the sudden disappearance of Snip. If there was some baby monitor lizard or snake down here in
Pantdora, Snip may have fallen victim to it, or there was also, another possible explanation.
Godzilla, our resident spectacled caiman, lay resting in the waters. I suspect he could have
eaten Snip, but looking at him below the water’s surface, I noticed something peculiar. He was
skinnier, like he hadn’t eaten a meal for a while. My guess is now that Snap had grown large enough
to eat the crickets and probably many of the roaches, which made up the bulk of Godzilla’s
menu, he now had competition. Plus, the crickets in Orchadia in the last episode had cut all the
vines leading up through the glass bridge, making it harder for prey insects in Orchadia to travel
down to floor level. Crickets and roaches would now need to fall in by accident from Orchadia.
Godzilla wasn’t starving at the moment, which was a good thing. He’s actually scheduled
to leave Pantdora soon to move into a new home. But whether Snip was in that belly,
or in that of some other beast hiding in Pantdora was a mystery.
Night fell in Orchadia, and the spiritual mists bathed the foliage of our new banyan
tree for the very first time. The canopy was so peaceful and beautiful at night,
especially now with its new biological refurbishment.
Against the glass, I spotted drain flies hanging out. These tiny flies came in with
the new tree and were pretty cute-looking and fuzzy! These drain flies are found pretty much
all over the world, and you may actually recognize them as those little flies you
find in the bathrooms and kitchens of your home, emerging from drains of your sinks and showers.
I was happy to see them in our Orchadian ecosystem because looking around, a whole
bunch of nocturnal predators had emerged for the hunt! Arachnophobes, look away and just listen.
I spotted a male jumping spider in search of prey. He was nimble and sported some very handsome
colors. This spider, hanging on a life line of silk, had captured an ant and was feasting on it
suspended in the air. I tried to identify what ant species it caught, but strangely
from the looks of the ant’s pointed gaster, it seemed like it was eating a Crematogaster ant,
a species which died out in our rainforest many months ago, so it didn’t make sense,
but I wouldn’t be able to tell for sure unless I had a better look at it during the day.
I also spotted this gorgeous silverish-looking spider,
waiting in ambush for prey to scuttle by. I wondered what species it was. So beautiful!
A baby huntsman spider was also doing the same thing on a nearby leaf. In
addition to all these hunting species of spiders,
I also spotted web-building spiders all over the canopy, like this little one.
This web actually caught a ghost ant queen alate, which was great! These
spiders would surely help to ensure no single ant species completely dominates these trees.
The baby gecko stood perfectly still, waiting for prey to appear within striking distance.
Being a predator often requires a high degree of patience to score
a meal. His eyes were perfectly equipped to spot the slightest
of movements under the most minimal of light conditions. Good luck, little one!
Also emerging for the nightly hunt were these key tree predators. It was the witching hour for the
tree frogs, and they loved all this new foliage up in the canopy. I noticed Kermit in the leaves,
but there was something distracting him, and kind of throwing him off balance.
“Now what on Earth is that?” He asked himself. “Surely,
I need to keep a mental note to not wander over there.”
I looked over at what he was staring at. Aha! A Dolichoderus nest! A huge mass of Dolichoderus
ants were gathered in what I guessed was a satellite nest, meaning one of their many nesting
stations. It was crazy to see them all huddled together within the privacy of the underleaf
and glass sandwich. What I was really interested in was spotting their queen or queens. I believe
these ants are polygynous, meaning their colonies are composed of multiple egg-laying queens.
It was a little dark, so it was hard to really see things, but regardless, it was quite awesome to
see these Dolichoderus ants just living life like they would in the wild, here in Orchadia.
By day, I checked the nest and indeed I spotted a queen there, as well as several ants with brood in
their mandibles. I had high hopes for this new colony of Dolichoderus ants, and was grateful
to have them as part of the rainforest, a happy surprise gift that came with our new banyan tree.
As for the banyan tree, it seemed to be loving its new home, as I saw a ton
of new leaf buds forming just overnight, as well as brand new air roots emerging
due to the high humidity provisions of Orchadia. Perhaps these air roots would
eventually extend down the glass bridge and into Pantdora, to create a new bridge.
I initially was happy when the crickets cut off the vines that bridged Orchadia to Pantdora,
because I thought it would keep the invasive red ants that I thought couldn’t climb glass,
from moving down to Pantdora and invading, but look what I saw this week. The red ants can climb
glass. Oh, brother. Anyway, it seems the red ants have chosen to remain in Orchadia for now.
Our canopy seemed to be a very promising place, supporting life at every corner,
and check this out! Orchadia is now truly functioning like a canopy,
as some of the banyan leaves are dropping from above, through the glass bridge,
and down onto the forest floor of Pantdora, where they can further decay and offer
food for other insects and soil creatures, adding to the nutrients of Pantdora’s soil.
Speaking of which, I still don’t know what the story is regarding this egg,
nor if there is some creature, dangerous or otherwise, lurking in Pantdora. I’d love to
hear your theories, but one thing’s for sure, I hope Snip is still alive in here somewhere,
and I sure hope there isn’t a cobra slithering around. I don’t have to open the vivarium very
often, but only do it when I need to wipe the glass for clarity for filming. You
better believe I’ll be doing that with protection from now on just in case.
But speaking of creatures that have been hiding, it seems there were a lot more
secrets in Orchadia than I ever imagined. Look at what I spotted on the red ant’s
banyan tree – a Crematogaster ant! There were Crematogaster ants in here! Whether they were
new and also came with the banyan tree, or had suddenly emerged after months of hiding,
is beyond me, but it seems the red ants were not happy with their presence.
“Hey, who are you?! Get outta here! Out, out, out, out!”
Overall, exploring our newly renovated canopy with all its new and exciting creatures, reminded me of
how important a role trees play in ecosystems. They provide vital habitat for a multitude of
animals, provide nourishment for creatures, offer up valuable nutrients to the soil and creatures
living within it, and of course, provide the life-giving oxygen needed for animals to thrive.
It was no wonder that, in placing just a single tree into our vivarium,
with it came an entire team of inherently connected wildlife.
It’s also why I don’t sterilize the decor or plants that I place into our rainforest,
like I would if I was building a home for, say, a captive pet lizard for example.
The entire objective for this project is to study wild ecosystems, and seeding the ecosystem with
the associated lifeforms along with every piece of decor in it, was in alignment with
the project. If a piece of driftwood came with moss, lichen, and other creatures living on it,
like the invasive red ants, so be it, as this was a real piece of wild ecosystem, the ants included.
Sterilizing all decor and plants placed into our vivarium,
would be counterproductive to what we’re trying to achieve in Orchadia and Pantdora. The only
time I felt it was necessary to intervene, is when the ecosystem is in danger of collapse,
for instance, like when the supercolony of black crazy ants, named the Dark Horde,
perhaps the worst invasive species of ant in the world next to fire ants, completely overtook
the tank back in Pantdora’s earlier days, which eventually left me with no choice, but to trap and
vacuum the black crazy ants up, until the native ants could catch up and outcompete them to death.
But on the flipside, this ecosystem project has been invaluable to science,
as we constantly learn about the inner workings of Mother Nature.
I felt grateful to be on this ecosystem journey with you all, and couldn’t wait
to see what the future held for our rainforest canopy, and all its new and old creatures.
As I was staring at the pot, I caught sight of some black ants running around.
They weren’t Dolichoderus ants, but perhaps this was where the Crematogaster ants were
living! As soon as I got a better look, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
No! The Dark Horde.
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