Ever wonder how an ant colony starts? Well, you’re about to see that happen as we fly
through time watching the life stages of ant colony’s genesis from just a starting queen ant
to a thriving colony in just this single video, and I’m extra excited because this
video features what has become my favourite ant colony that I currently own, and the story of
how we stumbled upon these very scientifically special ants is truly out of an ant fairytale!
So guys get this, when I first spotted these ants two years ago, I had never before seen an
ant species quite like them. They were cute but tough-looking ants, with a peachy body fuzz, a
heart shaped gaster, a unique red and black bumpy body, and these two protruding spikes that jutted
out of their backs making them look so menacing. I loved how they looked, how they walked, the look
of their little dark ant hills in the grass, and loved how they went about their business
as a colony, plus they clearly had a frightful reputation in my yard among the other creatures,
because even the notorious fire ants in my yard wouldn’t mess with them! These intriguing ants
actively hunted and ate fire ants! Can you imagine? Here’s one dragging home a full
on wasp it just killed! Just crazy ants, and I had to know what species they were!
So, I sent a few specimens to an ant taxonomist friend of mine Dr. Dave General at the University
of the Philippines Los Banos, and to our surprise, the ant was unlike anything that
had ever been documented in the country. I nearly died thinking we could have possibly
discovered a new species of ant, and when I broke the news to you guys on this channel,
we tentatively called the ant Species 555, since regardless of whether it was a new species or not,
it had officially become the 555th ant species to be documented in the country. Anyway,
we later determined that it was actually not a new species, but the already known species
Meranoplus bicolor, but what was super cool was that Meranoplus bicolor had not yet been known
to science to have existed in the Philippines, so we were credited for geographically discovering
Meranoplus bicolor in the Philippines, and officially became part of global ant history!
So as you can imagine, these ants have a special place in our hearts, on the channel,
and today aside from witnessing the timeline evolution of this Meranoplus bicolor ant colony
from its provenance, we’ll also finally be officially voting together as a community,
to name this favourite ant colony of mine, as well as deciding on the design of their next home,
so do stay tuned for all of that cool stuff coming up, as I would love for you
guys to be involved in the fate of these really cool ants, we call Species 555.
But let’s travel back in time for a bit to May of this year.
Within this humble test tube, lay a very special queen ant. Here she is. Isn’t she pretty? She was
caught during her nuptial flight, the time when her species’ reproductives fly into the air and
mate. The males she had mated with had died by that morning, and she was destined to become
a single widowed mother, as all queens of her species are destined to become.
But what’s incredible is that it only took that one night of mating with males to give
her enough sperm to lay eggs for the rest of her life which could be decades long.
You see in her body, she’s got an internal sperm bank that keeps the sperm cells from
all the males she mated with during her nuptial flight, viable for years and years,
thanks to a special organ in her body called a spermatheca. Pretty amazing if you think about it!
But when I caught her, I wasn’t sure if she had indeed mated. In ant keeping,
when you catch a queen you just kinda pray that they’d successfully mated during their
nuptial flight because if they hadn’t you can’t possibly get a whole colony.
But to my delight, check out what I spotted just 3 days later when I peeked into her test tube.
She cradled a big fat egg in her mandibles. I nearly jumped for joy at the sight. A colony
was on the way. Now the thing I noticed about the queen, was that she lacked the spines that
characterized the workers, and it made me think that maybe she wasn’t species 555,
but maybe in Meranoplus bicolor ants, the queens don’t have spines, while the workers do. Well,
little did I know I was about to get my answer, at the arrival of the queen’s very first workers!
Fast forward to almost a month later in June, and our beloved queen was sitting
over a big pile of brood which she had raised from a regurgitated self-made nutritious soup,
taken from reserves in her former wing muscles. Eggs, developing larvae,
and pupae could be seen. I couldn’t wait for those pupae to become fully adult
worker ants! The time was now close for the welcoming of the species 555 colony!
And AC Family, behold! Our starting colony of species 555. These
first worker ants are the critical first generation of the queen’s minions known
as nanitics. They’d been raised exclusively off the queen’s liquified body tissues and were hence
a bit smaller and more frail in appearance, but they were oh so cute! And look, indeed my theory
was right. The workers did have spikes, while the queens lacked them. Now, these nanitics had
a very important task at hand now, which was to pioneer the colony. The queen, now weakened from
all those weeks of no food and raising the babies, no longer needed to labour at caring
for and feeding the young, as the nanitics could now take of that for her, as well as take care of
house and garbage duties (that there is their garbage pile), and hunt for their first meal.
I attached their test tube to an AC Test Tube Portal from AnstCanada.com and offered
the colony their first meal, a drop of honey and a roach leg which the nanitics fed on.
By August, the colony was bustling in activity. The worker force was now composed of the small
nanitics and the newer robust worker ants, who had been raised off legit food during their youth,
and not the queen’s body tissues like the nanitics. With a greater worker force now
the colony could collect more food, which would feed all the young, as well as the queen to help
her produce more eggs and amass more young, which meant this colony was now on its way to explosion.
You can actually see which pupae are about to emerge as adult workers, a process called
eclosing, as they are a light orange in colour. Once the pupae eclose into adult workers it takes
a couple days for the ants to darken into the black and red ants that we all know and love.
What I found the cutest was that even the babies, the larvae, were hairy!
So cute! And have a look at their full bellies through their semi-transparent
bodies! These larger larvae are about to turn into pupae, and this ant here
is carrying a mature pupa that is just about ready to eclose into a worker any day now.
I had been feeding them a steady diet of honey drops and insect body parts placed into their
AC Test Tube Portal, which they treat as the outside world to their nest within the test tube.
This was the size of the colony, two weeks later. More brood and more workers.
Sadly, it looked like all the nanitics, that first generation of ants, had died out having
fulfilled their life’s purpose of getting the colony started. They were also somehow smarter!
Every time I would take the colony to film, they would stand completely still hoping I
wouldn’t notice them, not the youngest workers though, as they were still quite clueless and
new to the world as adult ants and were just wandering around like “ Uh, where am I and why
do things feel different? Why is everyone not moving? What do you mean keep still?”
Eventually, though, all the ants’ instincts kicked in and
the entire colony would routinely freeze whenever I went in to look. Clever ants!
Which takes us now to our beloved Species 555 ants today. This is what they look like!
Wow! So many ants, and thankfully they’ve learned that I’m no threat to them so they
no longer freeze when looked at. The colony has a tonne of brood now
and a lot of workers. I’d estimate about 30-40 workers and many more on the way.
The colony is still attached to their AC Test Tube Portal which they now know as home,
and you’re in luck because it’s feeding time, and you’re about to watch a really magical
process happen. So they’ve now moved their garbage pile out of their test tube and into
their test tube portal, as you can see here, and the ants have begun to send out scouts,
which means the colony is hungry. Let’s give the ants what they need now.
Opening the top of the test tube portal and placing in a tasty drop of honey.
One ant immediately discovers it and begins to drink. A second ant makes the discovery
and a third. More and more ants come join in the feeding. What these ants are doing is they’re
filling up their social stomachs so they can carry the goods back to the colony within the test tube.
Back at home, the youngest ants remain within the nest, as it is colony rules that youngest ants
stay home to take care of the queen, young, and house chores, while the senior citizens
of the colony, who are a bit more expendable are appointed the dangerous task of going out
into the world to gather the food. Isn’t that crazy? Could you imagine if humans lived that
way? Sorry gramps and gramma, we’re hungry, time to go out there and gather food for all of us!
So for the next few minutes these oldest ants drink as much as they
can. Look at that one ant drinking while resting on top of the honey. Risky stuff,
because it could get stuck and drown, but these Meranoplus bicolor ants are hardcore.
I’ve noticed that these ants eat nonstop.
That brown flat thing there are the remnants of a cockroach baby I fed them yesterday,
which they were still working on. Despite this they were still quite hungry for the honey. Ants
need a protein source, like this roach, as well as a sugary food, like the honey, and as you
can see all that food they’ve been eating has been of great benefit to the ants. Look at that
gorgeous assortment of brood. That’s literal ant heaven to my eyes! Talk about a healthy colony.
Word is starting to spread now about the honey drop outside the nest. The ants communicate
through pheromones, biochemicals produced by glands along the underside of their body
that deliver specific signals. The ants that move excitedly are trying to excite the other ants to
recruit them to come outside, oldest ants only. The message is finally delivered to the queen
who seems pretty interested and happy, but though she is technically the oldest ant of the colony,
she won’t be leaving the nest to feed. She’s way to valuable because without her the colony would
cease to exist, as she is the one to lay eggs and keep the colony growing. She knows to stay put,
but AC Family, we are moments away from something truly beautiful which is about to happen.
AC Family, look! The ant kiss of life. So one of the ants had returned from the honey drop full
of honey in its social stomach and was now feeding it to hungry ants within the nest,
through mouth to mouth transfer, a process called trophallaxis. It’s really an amazing way for
eusocial insects to distribute food throughout a colony, because it means the ants can keep
the collected food sterile and protected within themselves, and it also means not all members
need to leave the nest in order to feed. More and more ants return with full social stomachs
to begin the distribution to other workers first. Not sure why the workers get fed first,
but I assume these ants believe in the saying “You can’t give from an empty cup” so the more the able
bodied workers are filled up, the more effectively the food gets distributed and moved around.
You can tell which ants are full to the brim with honey as they develop these stripe lines which
occur when their gasters stretch out. On the way back home, the ants also leave a pheromone trail
to help guide ants leaving the nest in search of the goods towards the honey drop, which isn’t such
a hard path now, but in the future when the ants have to wander a far distance helps the colony.
While the ants continued to feed each other, I wondered when our beloved queen would be receiving
her share of the honey. She waited patiently for her turn. I spotted ants beginning to
feed the larvae some of the honey. Wow! Even the babies get to feed before the queen? Interesting…
And then, out of nowhere Her Royal Highness moved in
and an ant proceeded to feed her some of the collected honey, via the ant kiss of life.
It’s moments like these that I cherish as an ant keeper every time.
My ant-loving heart full,
I spent the next few minutes watching the colony feed communally as a family.
Alright AC Family, get your fingers ready, as it’s VOTING TIME! Now that you know all about
our Species 555 ants, in the pinned comments below, you will find in the replies a list of
my top 5 name suggestions suggested by you the AC Family in a previous video,
as well as some potential ant setups we could be moving this colony into next,
as I think they will be ready to move in soon! To vote, simply give a thumbs up on the option
you choose, and the option for both official NAME and their official NEXT HOME with the
greatest number of LIKES will be the winners. Take your time to vote in the comments now.
Guys, I can’t thank you enough for all the support and for being part of this journey of
ant discovery with me,m. As I’ve said many times before, it blows my mind that there are so many
of you out there who have given ants a chance and watch these ant videos on the channel each week.
It’s amazing that as ant keepers we get a special peek at what happens in secret within the dark
underground chambers of the nests of the ants we care for, and be part of their journey, providing
them all they need to flourish and live out their best lives. It’s truly the essence and beauty of
ant keeping, and you all have officially become an integral part of the lives of these ants, our dear
species 555. Be sure to subscribe to the channel to keep following their ongoing story to glory,
and hit the LIKE button if you enjoyed this ant episode, as it really helps a lot to let
youtube know you enjoy these ant videos and that they're worth sharing to new audiences.
Also, as we approach the end of ant keeping season soon, a lot of you already have found
your queen ants this year and are enjoying raising your own ant colonies, which is awesome! If so,
be sure to visit us at antscanada.com for all your ant keeping supplies including the
special ant-rearing AC test tubes, AC Test Tube portal, and broad array of AC Ant Farms you see
me using in my videos. We ship all our stuff worldwide and have customer email support if
you need our help. If you didn’t catch a queen ant this season, no worries, as we also have a QUEEN
ANTS FOR SALE tab where ant keepers from your city are selling ant colonies with a queen, so
visit antscanada.com today to get started on this amazing, educational and highly gratifying hobby!
Until the next time we return to officially announce the name of this species 555 colony
on the channel, my favourite ants of the Ant Room, and finally move them into their next
grand home, thank you all for watching and supporting the ants. It’s ant love forever.