You’ve all been asking about her. This week, we finally give you an update. We have some new ants to show you, AC Family!

My New Awesome Ant Colony

Oh man!

AC Family, this video is full of just SO MUCH!

I’ve got some important updates for you on ants that I haven’t been talking much about lately on this channel, but for good reasons.

Week after week, after week, after week, after week, you keep on reminding me that you have not forgotten.

What happened to that trap-jaw queen ant I captured last summer that was supposed to hopefully spawn our Jawbreakers II?

Find out in today’s episode, as I update you on some extremely exciting news. But trust me, it’s not what you’re expecting, so keep on watching until the end!

AC Family, hit that LIKE button if you’re as excited as I am for an official introduction to some amazing new members to our growing ant family, in this mind-feeding episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel.

Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the bell icon.

Welcome to the AC Family. Enjoy!

Last week was a sad one, as we said goodbye to our Tomb Raiders, a wild-caught pharaoh ant colony who boarded with us for a few weeks in a cool, room-sized setup we made for them, but had to sadly release in order to save them from mites.

Taking their setup down was melancholic, as I was counting on them to thrive, along with our other ant kingdoms.

Their wild, loose counterparts were still frequenting my ant room, but not as much as before. I anticipate that it won’t be long before they move out when they find that resources are low and the Tomb Raiders’ pheromones fade.

But for months, I’ve been waiting for the right time to update you on a certain queen ant that I had captured, in hopes of starting up a thriving trap-jaw ant colony.

And as mentioned, you guys also never forgot and asked about it every week.

So, it’s time to inform you about the news.

Inside this drawer, and inside this setup, lies the trap-jaw queen ant captured last year.

AC Family, I regret to inform you that she died just last week.

She laid no eggs and ate insect body parts every now and then. I guess she wasn’t fertilized.

I am so sorry to disappoint you, AC Family. I really wanted her to found us a trap-jaw ant colony.

Which brings me to something else… there’s more, AC Family.

In the drawer, I also have these: three test tubes, each with trap-jaw queen ants.

A friend had given them to me a few months back in hopes that they too would found a colony of trap-jaws for us.

Sadly, they too had all died and had not laid any eggs.

Now, I didn’t want to update you on the progress of these four trap-jaw queen ants until I was absolutely sure they were not going to found colonies for us.

I always feel so bad and that I disappoint you every time I introduce an ant colony, get your hopes up, only to find that they die later on down the line.

I realize this is a reality show, and life happens, but I always want to be absolutely sure a colony has a fighting chance before I formally introduce them to you, the AC Family.

So, all these queens have died. They all still had their wings intact, and they didn’t lay any eggs.

Chances are, they also weren’t mated prior to capture.

We ant keepers know that catching non-mated queens is quite common. In fact, in the same video where I introduced the trap-jaw queen to you, I went hunting in Toronto, Canada, for queen ants and caught so many queens.

Out of all the queens captured on that day, it turns out only one queen had survived, laid eggs, and was successfully mated.

This Formica fusca queen hibernated with workers and was put up for sale in the GAN Project in Toronto to find a loving home.

The success rate of finding mated queen ants is sometimes tough for ant keepers.

It’s why most ant keepers try collecting several queens in a single season, from different nearby locations, and at different times, in order to hopefully have within the batch a queen that successfully lays fertile eggs and founds an ant colony.

Which brings me to this next surprise, AC Family.

Oh, you thought it was done? Of course not! You saw the title, and I’m sure you guys checked the timestamp to see how much video was left.

Back in the ant drawer of surprises, you may have noticed this test tube here.

Pulling it out, inside it is another queen ant. A gorgeous, large carpenter ant queen.

It is a native Philippine species belonging to the genus Camponotus.

I have had her for months now, and she lays some eggs—not a lot—and in a scattered manner.

These eggs actually hatch into larvae and develop into pupae, but for some reason, the pupae end up dying.

This test tube she’s in now is starting to mold and run out of water, so it’s time to give her a test tube change.

Better.

Even in fresh test tubes, she seems to only get as far as raising her eggs to the pupal stage, but adult ants never end up emerging from the pupae, and they die.

Again, before today, I wasn’t intending on informing you, AC Family, about this queen until I was certain as to whether or not she would give us a colony of carpenter ants. But hey, now you know about her.

Let’s give her a drop of honey to drink.

Giving food to queens of this type at this stage isn’t necessary because they sustain themselves on the energy stores of their back wing muscles, but since she’s been depleting these energy stores through nourishing some previous babies, I figured she could use that extra boost.

But hmm… it looks like she is not interested.

I don’t buy that. Let’s give her a little nudge and guide her to the drop.

Oh, as expected, she’s drinking.

We got a few tiny drops on her back there, but no worries. She’ll lick that off herself later.

Wow! Look at her drinking that honey drop!

You can actually see the drop expanding and contracting.

This is pretty awesome because, to me, it shows that ants actually take gulps when they drink, like we people do!

Interesting, right?

She’ll finish that in no time.

Let’s put her away in the dark and hope she has better luck at founding her babies to adulthood now that we’ve given her this nourishing boost!

Any of you checking that timestamp again?

Now, for those of you with sharp eyes, you may have also noticed another test tube wrapped in blue paper.

Well, AC Family, here is what I’ve been dying to show you.

Placing the test tube here, and let me say before opening this that I’m doing my very best to research the biology of what lies inside this test tube because very little is known about their captive care.

AC Family, are you ready?

I am excited to finally present to you our newest addition to our Antiverse.

Behold!

The ever-gorgeous ants known as Polyrhachis.

They are just gorgeous!

The bodies of these ants are so smooth with such an interesting shape.

Their stark black coloration and hard-edged, squared spines at certain places on their bodies make them look SUPER DUPER COOL!

And look at that brood!

Wow!

I see eggs, larvae, and look—some pupae too.

The workers are bustling with energy in this test tube.

They’ve been feasting previously on the leg of a spider.

Look at these workers—they’ve been working at pulling this cotton out very effectively.

These ants are strong and, in time, can pull wads of cotton out of any setup, so whatever these ants are housed in cannot contain cotton blockers!

If you’re looking for the queen of this colony, she is right here.

The calmest one of the bunch.

Polyrhachis are an extremely diverse genus found throughout the Old World.

Here in the Philippines, there are over 200 different described species of Polyrhachis, which are characterized by their various body spines.

Some of the most gorgeous ants belong to this genus, like fishhook ants and various metallic-colored species.

Now, I have seen Polyrhachis ants in the wild many times but know very little about these specific Polyrhachis ants, which were collected from my area.

But you wanna hear something really cool?

One thing that I do know is that their nests are EPIC!

I know some species of Polyrhachis build nests in soil but then extend their nests upwards into trees, creating massive nest palaces made of mud and gathered materials.

Some species even create leaf nests like weaver ants!

I don’t know what the nesting habits of these specific Polyrhachis ants are, but I do look forward to finding out!

I wonder what they like to eat?

Let’s try feeding them a piece of baby cockroach.

Hmmm… now how to stick this inside without them getting out.

I’ve got to be swift.

Here we go, AC Family!

The trick is to use the cotton to move the food into the tube.

There we go!

Let’s see them feast!

Hmm… it looks as though they’re ignoring it.

Alright, so roaches aren’t tickling their fancy at the moment.

Let’s try feeding them a drop of honey.

What ant would reject some tasty honey, right?

Here we go again… opening the test tube, and oh no!

Some ants escaped!

Ahhhh!

I scooped up the escaped ants quickly with a cotton ball and put them back in.

Ahh, something tells me these ants are little balls of energy which will continually keep me on my toes!

Oddly, they seemed to be uninterested in the honey, too.

Hmmm… perhaps they’re full from that spider leg they ate previously.

Ah well… as you can tell, ant keeping often involves a lot of trial and error to learn about an ant’s likes and needs.

Let’s leave this Polyrhachis colony in the dark for now until we choose a proper home for them.

Alright, AC Family, you know what’s next!

Leave your name suggestions for this new Polyrhachis colony in the comments section, and I will choose my top 5 favorites for us to vote on in a future poll.

Be sure to also LIKE and comment on your favorite name submissions so I know!

And there you have it, AC Family!

Our newest ant colony of 2018!

I feel this year will be full of new beginnings and discoveries for us and the ants we love.

In nature, not all creatures end up making it on top.

Natural selection ensures that only the fittest and most resourceful survive, and when they do, it’s an amazing thing to witness.

I am happy to observe the beauty of nature with you guys.

But something is still worrying me.

Our Titans, our Asian marauder ants, have disappeared from sight yet again.

The last time they disappeared, we happened to find them in pretty impressive numbers after pulling out some weeds.

But since then, their disappearance has been very unsettling to me.

I see wandering black crazy ants inside, but no Titans.

Are the Titans still alive?

There was only one way to find out!

Alright, AC Family!

You guys are the lifeblood of this channel!

It would not exist nor be half as exciting without your participation and input, so be sure to leave your name suggestions and thoughts in the comments!

Aren’t the Polyrhachis ants just awesome?

Let’s name them something cool!

I also will need some ideas as to what type of setup to use for them, so leave your setup suggestions in the comments as well.

Lots to look forward to coming up, so make sure you hit that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON so you’re notified every time we upload.

Now, speaking of being notified, before proceeding to the hidden video and AC Question of the Week, in case you didn’t see last week’s video or the week before that, I wanted to quickly notify you about my new daily vlogging channel for those who might be curious as to what I work on in between these weekly ant videos.

You can find my new daily vlogging channel by clicking here. But just a warning, it’s a very different form of content from this channel, but many AC Family have already subscribed, so thank you guys who have.

I upload short life vlogs every single day, which means a lot of nature stuff too, from my travels around the world!

Alright, AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here if you would just like to spend more time watching additional footage of our new Polyrhachis colony to the sounds of some relaxing music!

And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week.

Last week, we asked:

What is the name of the life stage where Astigmatid mites attach themselves to the bodies of insects?

Congratulations to Dynamic Dynamite, who correctly answered:

The phoretic deutonymph stage.

Congratulations, Dynamic Dynamite! You just won a free eBook handbook from our shop!

In this week’s AC Question of the Week, we ask:

What evidence did we see this week that shows ants take gulps when they drink?

Leave your answer in the comments section, and you could also win a free eBook handbook from our shop!

Hope you can subscribe to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8 AM EST.

Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, & SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video to help us keep making more.

It’s ant love forever!

Woohoo! New ants!