Raising ants to save a butterfly
Raising ants. Not as easy as I thought.
We look after a large population of the threatened Arid Bronze Azure butterfly. This unusual butterfly depends entirely on a special Sugar Ant (Camponotus terebrans) to rear the caterpillars underground. After some conversations with butterfly experts, we thought if I could establish an ant colony in a fancy formicarium, we could learn a bit more about what happens underground between the ants and caterpillars. Do the caterpillars really eat the baby ants?
But it's slow going. I collected queen ants on a nuptial flight in February and put them into a test tube with a water reservoir for humidity. But their eggs still haven't hatched! I have learnt though that a red Perspex box around the test tube is necessary. It minimises disturbing the queen when I peek into the dark cupboard to see how they're going. There has been some tension when we have visitors though "No! Don't open the cupboard in the guest room. That's where the ants live!"
I became impatient, so I cheated a little. I found an ant nest under some fence posts and collected ants and eggs. This colony won't survive for long because there is no queen to lay new eggs. But at the moment the Sugar Ants are doing really well and I'm learning what they like to eat (ant nectar, peanut butter and cockroaches).
This is my set-up: The clear box is an "outworld". That's where the foraging ants hunt for their food. Check out the cutest little feeder, full of ant nectar. They love it. The test tube is a water reservoir because ants like to drink. Also connected using plastic tubing is a little box called a formicarium. It's covered in aluminium foil to keep it dark. Inside, the ants busily shift the eggs about, moving them from the damp spot near the water sponge. Then to a drier spot, and back again.
I'm not sure if this is science or fun? Perhaps both.
This project was supported by the Victorian Government through a Landcare Grant from the Mallee CMA