adragonsoulants

[adragonsoulants]

Hiya, been meaning to make some updates on all the colonies but just gonna make a quick one on this queen I caught last year.

Don't think I ever made a post about her but caught her on campus on September 16th 2023. Had to carry her home in my water bottle lol. I believe this was the same day I also caught those parasitic Lasius and was attempting to start a colony with them.

Anyways this photo is from today! She has a brood pile and is doing well post diapause.

If I had to guess, she is probably Lasius neoniger. Never gotten this far with a Lasius so far so this is exciting! Going to continue to ignore her for weeks on end as one should while founding colonies lol.

Also the 2 tubes of P imparis I caught a couple weeks ago both appear to have brood piles, one does for sure. And my 1 year old P imparis colonies have another batch of brood! strangely one queen is way thinner than the other.

Oh and the C. subbarbatus queen I think is doing better. She's down to 2 workers but they have a little egg pile now! I also moved them into a new tube and made the mistake of trying to feed them in it and now there's a lil mold problem without a way for me to do anything about it or evict them... Don't do tube feeding with bamboo style test tubes! Hoping the issue solves itself eventually...

#ads_ants #ant #antkeeping #p.imparis #c.subbarbatus #lasius

[adragonsoulants]

‘some sort of larvae pole dancing on a slime mold’ - by allthingsfungi

[adragonsoulants]

Girl you are so spikes...,,

[adragonsoulants]

[adragonsoulants]

Long time no see. Had a P. Imparis nuptial flight! Same day as last year!! The year prior to (2022) they flew April 23rd :)

Cropped screenshot of one of MANY videos I've been recording :)

I did catch 8 queens, 4 in each tube.

I've also been compiling data on flight conditions/ conditions that trigger a flight in these guys. It'll probably be a while before I have time to compile what I've gathered into something that may make some sense, but my gut feeling has been Sunny days with a warm ground temp.

#ads_ants #ant #antkeeping #bug #bugblr #p. imparis

[adragonsoulants]

been messing around with a hoverfly sona design. nice to draw a character whose head is just A SHAPE

#ough i love this

[adragonsoulants]

stripping completely naked to keep her attention while I infodump about ants

sorry babe we will not be having sex until I explain the difficulties in raising a colony of Formica rufa ants I don't care how hard you are right now

[adragonsoulants]

Cleans myself cutely

[adragonsoulants]

tiny banana cultivars taste a lot better than the typical flavorless cavendish & Agatha agrees. video is a few years old, she’s a lot bigger now.

(Scolopendra mutilans)

[adragonsoulants]

another little psychid moth larva on the move across a rope railing in Singapore. this one made its case from bits of dead leaves

[adragonsoulants]

[https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/45278300] Giant Water Bug || Lethocerus maximus Observed in Peru Motherfucker Unlimited

[adragonsoulants]

I love when arthropods have a pseudopupil. It's so whimsical and cute, and they come in so many varieties!!

little kitty cat eyes!!!

bombastic side eyes!!!!

cartoon character eyes!!!!

bigass anime eyes!!!!!

BE NOT AFRAID eyes!!!!!

[adragonsoulants]

Sneak peak from my 2nd illustrated kids book, Everyone Starts Small, coming out in 10 DAYS!

Delivery antssss

[adragonsoulants]

So I got some more bamboo style test tubes, one specifically for my C. Subbarbatus as they are incredibly stubborn about tube changes. Hopefully they'll find the chambered set up more comfortable.

One thing I hate about these tubes is the chambered entrance being so tiny. So I soaked it in water and use a tiny knife to scrape it big enough for me to fit tweezers into the first chamber! Let it air dry over night.

Thankfully the 3 of them moved into the tube quite easily with just some nudges from a paintbrush. Easiest tube move of their life holy crap x-x

Gave them a cricket leg and some honey, hopefully they eat something, idk when the last time this colony ate as they haven't been foraging at all since their crash. At least it looks like one of the workers still has some food stores.

I also took a moment to get some photos of the P. imparis colony in the same type of tube as they started foraging like crazy all of a sudden!

This lady looks like she is about to burst!

#ads_ants #ant #antkeeping #bug #bugblr #p.imparis #winterant #c.subbarbatus #camponotus

[adragonsoulants]

Professional:

"Hi, I'm into entomology and I was wondering if I could survey your property to see what arthropods reside here. If you want I could share the ecological report with you when I'm done?"

Translation:

"Hi, I really like bugs and I want to look for cool bugs on your land. If you want I could tell you about the cool bugs I found!"

#bug #entomology

[adragonsoulants]

I was inspired by @tropicalsteppe 's Isopod puppy drawing drew a couple of my favorite arthropods all cute and with some artistic liberty with the anatomy :3 more info below

This First one is a queen winter ant! P. imparis! One of my favorite ants <3 I was waiting to upload this until I got around to doing one that was the worker of this species but I just don't have the time any time soon… The second one is a millipede, heavily based on N. americanus

#my art #ant #p. imparis #millipede

[adragonsoulants]

Vintage Porcelain Covered With Hand-Painted Ants by La Philie