Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Phoenix Empire, this 4 week old fire ant colony. Sure, they
don’t look like much of an Empire at the moment, but believe you me, these pioneering
fire ants are set to become a great ant kingdom of immense power and conquest! But in order
to get there, the Phoenix Empire here will need to be resourceful, work together, care
for one another, and most of all, collect all the right foods to nourish the queen and
the growing colony!
And so today, our fire ants are in for a treat, as they discover for the very first time,
what meat tastes like! Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel.
Please SUBSCRIBE to the channel and hit the bell icon. Welcome to the AC Family. Enjoy!
They don’t know it yet, but today is a very big day for these fire ants. They’re going
to get a taste of meat, and even make their first contact with live prey. Their reaction
may surprise you so keep on watching until the end.
Within this test tube we have our humble team: We have the pioneering generation of fire
ant workers, known as the nanitics. The nanitics work fastidiously, licking clean and organizing
all the brood: eggs, larvae, and pupae. And of course, giving birth to all these ants
is the great and mighty queen, the sole egg-layer of the colony.
By the way, guys, our Queen here awaits for us to name her. Please take the time to vote
here for her official name, and I trust you will make it a good one! Thank you, AC Council
for your input.
Now guys, look at how amazing this queen is. Even with workers all around her, she still
takes it upon herself to do her part, at helping raise the young. Here she feeds this larva
through trophallaxis, regurgitating what’s left of her self-made soup, manufactured from
her own body tissues. It’s kinda like ant breast milk, but she’s definitely running
dry on it now, as it pretty much substantiated this entire colony into being. But I find
it awesome that the queen is still working even though she doesn’t have to.
Another cool thing! See those little black rock-like things on the cotton? Those are
called meconia. They’re fecal pellets, excreted by the larvae. So get this! Ant larvae don’t
poop for their entire lives, except right before they become a pupa. From birth, a larva’s
food waste collects inside the larva’s body creating a pellet, a meconium, which is excreted
right before pupation, as a neat, compact, slow-to-mold packet of poop. Can you imagine
only pooing once as a kid right before teenagehood, and it being so compact that it’s rock hard?
Welcome to ant infancy, or should I say inf-ANT-cy! Haha! Ok, moving on...
Now the Phoenix Empire here is on a very important mission at this stage. Their goal: to grow
the colony as big as possible, as quickly as possible! In nature, only the largest and
fastest-growing fire ant colonies survive, and to do that, they’ll need some serious
food collection!
Last week, we gave them their very first taste of sweet honey, which the workers gobbled
up and distributed to the entire colony through trophallaxis. It was a beautiful moment to
witness. Since then, I’ve been feeding the colony bits of sweet jelly, which you can
actually see through the semi-transparent bodies of the larvae.
Now although these sugary foods provide the colony with all the essential energy needed
to work hard towards their goals, what these ants are really looking for now is meat!
Protein will be the real game changer, and help the colony truly explode in population.
Protein helps the queen produce more eggs, and helps the larvae grow much faster. And
so AC Family, it’s time to give the ants what they’re looking for. Let’s give them
some prey!
Behold! What you see here is what will be the newest addition to their living space.
It’s an AC Test Tube Portal from our shop at AntsCanada.com, a very useful piece of
equipment for feeding young ant colonies like the Phoenix Empire. Though it looks complicated,
it’s basically the Phoenix Empire’s new feeding pit! I’ll need to plug up three
of the four holes. And this last hole will accommodate this test tube adapter with a
tiny hole to act as the colony’s new nest entrance. Don’t worry! You’ll understand
once we’ve connected the ants to the setup.
And now it’s time to move in their dinner! This baby mealworm. It’s been pre-crushed
to make consumption easier for the ants, and hang on, all you guys wanting to see the bloodbath
of a live mealworm feeding, don’t worry. You’ll see what the fire ants do to a living
mealworm in a little bit.
So pre-crushing and splitting the mealworm so its guts spill out increases the chances
of the nanitics getting the goods. It isn’t recommended feeding a prey item that might
injure the nanitics, because at this crucial point every worker matters and any ants killed
during battle hurts the chances of colony success.
OK, so let’s unleash the ants! The plan was to remove the cotton blocker from the
colony’s test tube and attach the test tube end to this test tube adapter. I did this
as quickly and carefully as I could. Done! Let’s watch!
It took a few seconds before curious nanitics began to wander out onto the bridge of the
adapter and finally into the great feeding chamber. The mealworm lay fresh in its juices.
I am certain the ants could smell it.
One brave ant steps onto the floor and makes its way to the mealworm. Oop! The ant smells
the carcass and at first shies away, but soon starts to dine. Excited, it makes its way
back to the colony leaving a pheromonal trail, leading the other ants to the mealworm booty!
It wasn’t long before word spread to the entire colony and ants were all over the mealworm
chowing down on the delicious mealworm guts.
Back in the test tube, the queen and workers were getting excited. I’m sure the queen
was eager to have her first taste of that tender mealworm meat!
The workers eventually attempted to carry back the entire mealworm to the nest, but
they had problems manoeuvering the mealworm so they eventually decided to just leave it
there and dine on location. Hey, cut them some slack. They’re noobs!
Minutes later, the colony had all returned to the nest and were busy distributing all
the meat they’d consumed, regurgitating it up for the larvae to eat, which I’m sure
they loved! I mean, have a look at this larva which continued to swallow well after the
worker had fed it!
And of course, our royal highness too was fed by her loving workers. And just like that,
the colony had consumed their very first protein meal, which will offer the colony the building
blocks they need to explode in population.
Several days after this meal, the colony was nursing a brand new bigger pile of brood:
there were more eggs, larvae, and pupae now thanks to the mealworm meat. More workers
had been born. It was awesome to see the colony so fruitful and prolific!
Now if you’re wondering how the Phoenix Empire would react to a living mealworm, yes,
I tried it, but I knew exactly what would happen. The workers cowered away. They were
terrified of it and wanted nothing to do with the moving mealworm. Again, these are noobs,
and I don’t think the aggression so typical of regular fire ants has kicked in at this
point. I feel once the Phoenix Empire grows in numbers, and this new generation of fire
ants, which will be larger and more strongly built due to being better nourished, will
start to outnumber and replace the frail and timid nanitics, we’ll start to see that
savage fire ant aggression we all know and love… or hate!
I truly appreciate that a lot of you guys seem to enjoy watching the evolution and progress
of this fire ant colony from its genesis, its humble beginnings. I really care about
these ants, even if they’re not much at the moment. Regardless, it’s great that
we can watch together as this young fire ant colony rises to become the mighty empire we
know they’re going to be one day soon.
And until then, I’ll be sure to film the entire fire ant journey, and with your help,
usher the Phoenix Empire to become the greatest ant colony in the Antiverse.
Thank you for watching! It’s ant love forever!
AC Family, isn’t the Phoenix Empire awesome? I think I laughed when I saw that the nanitics
wouldn’t dare touch the living mealworm. But knowing fire ants, that behaviour’s
going to change real quick! So much is in store ahead so if you haven’t yet, SMASH
that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON now and hit ALL so you get notified at every upload,
because I believe notifications seem to be broken but the Youtube support team is on
it. Also don’t forget to hit the LIKE button every single time including now. It would
really mean a lot to me. Thank you, guys!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would like to watch some
extended play footage of the Phoenix Empire chowing down on their mealworm meat.
And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week. Last week, we asked:
What is the name of the process of mouth-to-mouth food transfer in eusocial insects?
Congratulations to Atlas Blue who correctly answered:
Trophallaxis
Congratulations Atlas, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
Why does an ant colony need protein?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free ebook handbook
from our shop!
Hope you could subscribe to our channel as we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST. Please
remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video, to help us keep
making more. It’s ant love forever!