Buniapone amblyops, the Hidden Forest Ants
As I wrote before, Buniapone is named after the Orang Bunian, as it literally translates to "hidden people" or "whistling people".
Orang - is derived from the Malay word meaning "person" and Bunian - is derived from the Malay word meaning "hidden"
As legend goes, Orang bunian are said to inhabit the deep forests or high mountains in Malay Peninsula, Sumatra & Borneo, far from human contact, same as our Bunian Ponerine Ants here, the Buniapone.
Before I had attributed the common name of orange ants, but I think after a more careful analysis of the name, Hidden Forest Ants is more appropriate.
But enough of common names :) time to move on with the latest updates.
In my last log of this colony, one month and half ago, the colony had just produced its first pupae, and the two Queens were co-habiting peacefully together. The pupae has since then eclosed.
The Queens have lay more eggs and those have hatched into larvae. And this bring us today’s photo.
Buniapone amblyops brood chamber
The colony development seems to be really steady and consistent.
I try to touch their nest as little as possible, to avoid disturbing them. The only time I do so is when I need to water the hydration chamber under it.
As I shown before my hole setup consists of two nest cells and one outworld.
Buniapone amblyops colony
The first cell is what I call the “dry” cell and the second cell, the “humid” cell. Both cells have hydration chambers, but I have setup them up differently.
The dry cell has more sand than clay and the hydration chamber underneath has only half volume occupied by cotton, to avoid having the cotton touching the soil, hence keeping it dry.
The humid cell has only clay (possibly with tiny amount of sand) and the hydration chamber underneath has the whole volume occupied by cotton, always making sure it touches the soil above it, keeping it extremely moist and humid.
The colony nests exclusively in the humid chamber.
Buniapone amblyops colony and brood chamber
The dry chamber is normally used as prey preparation station, where the older/larger workers process the prey before bringing it piece by piece to feed the larvae.
As you can see from the photo above, a second pupae has just emerged. And there is no signs of the second queen. I am not sure what happened, if it was the original queen which was replaced or the introduced queen. But one has gone missing, which is a shame.
Regarding the feeding regimen, I tend to feed this colony once every three days, but I found that at this stage this isn’t enough for the amount of brood they have.
I am now feeding them once every two days and with larger prey items, typically crushed red runner roaches, an occasional freshly killed fly, or crushed lesser mealworm.
Note: I only give freshly crushed prey and don’t intent to provide live except for termites, which I am sure the ants wouldn’t have a problem to make a meal out of them. But live roaches, live crickets and live mealworms… I think bearing in mind the size differences, would be too much stress for this colony at this moment and its something I don’t want to try.
Everytime I feed them, I also had water to the drinking dish and few drops of honeywater, which the workers make sure to cover with soil immediately after drinking from it. Very annoying to keep constantly cleaning, but its a ant keepers life.
As for temperature goes, at this moment the room is at 25C and it has seen temperature fluctuations from 15C to 25C, to which the ants didn’t seem to mind.
Buniapone amblyops brood chamber
This is all for this log. Leave me any questions you may have.
I can only finish by saying that is an incredible pleasure to see the colony grow in this way.
Such delicate and rare ant species!
Hope you have enjoyed reading the log and see you on the next one.
Cheers!