Polyrhachis armata, the Armor Clad Spiny Ants
Before reading this post, if you are not familiar with Spiny Ants, I would recommend you start first with my article on them:
Polyrhachis - Spiny Ants Article
Polyrhachis armata, derived from the latin meaning: armed, equipped; defensively armed, armor clad; fortified. I think it is a good description based on their highly defensive looks.
Polyrhachis armata Queen, the Armor Clad Spiny Ant
Polyrhachis armata, the Armor Clad Spiny Ants, I think sounds great does it not? What is your opinion?
Polyrhachis armata is a very widespread and distinctive south-east Asian species of the subgenus Myrmhopla.
Myrmhopla was established by Forel (1915) as a subgenus of Polyrhachis Fr. Smith, 1857, with Formica armata (Le Guillou, 1842) as the type species.
Polyrhachis (Myrmhopla) species :
arachne species group ; armata species group ; bicolor species group ; cephalotes species group ; cleophanes species group ; cryptoceroides species group ; daphne species group ; dives species group ; flavoflagellata species group ; furcata species group ; hector species group ; mucronata species group ; nigriceps species group ; ochracea species group ; sexspinosa species group
armata species group
Polyrhachis aberrans ; Polyrhachis armata ; Polyrhachis diaphanta ; Polyrhachis nudata ; Polyrhachis peregrina ; Polyrhachis saevissima ; Polyrhachis strictifrons
Distribution:
Antmaps.org - Polyrhachis armata worldwide distribution
Their distribution includes the following countries: Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Cambodia, India, Laos, Thailand and China.
Myrmophla species nest and forage almost exclusively in the lower arboreal zone. They usually build globular carton nests in low bushes among leaves and twigs. But sometimes they may nest in the hollow joints of bamboos as well.
More specifically for P.armata the description of their nesting preferences is as follows:
Myrmhopla - Polyrhachis armata (Le Guillou) - Arboreal Silk sheet
This particular species has a 5 instar larvae. At which stage the larvae are capable of starting to produce silk, I do not know yet.
Polyrhachis armata worker using a larvae to silk the test tube entrance
After the short introduction for this species, lets move onto the entry log itself.
This is not the first time I tried to keep this species, but all the other attempts have failed because normally I would keep one single queen at each time.
This time and since the prices were good, I decided to do a multiple queens test tube setup.
Polyrhachis armata - multiple queens test tube setup
And this seems to have worked just fine. I had three test tubes with 4 Queens each.
And two things that I think are important to note. First is that I didn’t use a cotton plug to cover their entrance, but a small steel mesh.
The second one, is that every 3 or 4 days I would feed all the queen colonies.
Polyrhachis armata - two different queen colonies feeding together
Another note, in the early stages, I was able to feed the queens from different colonies together, and it even happened some queens would change tubes, ahaha. And there was absolutely no aggression.
Even when the first couple workers arrived, it did happen and again no aggression. Again, as a side note, I kept all these test tubes side by side, so I am guessing all the 12 queens were able to smell each other.
But its worth mentioning that this is no longer true. After the separation into their individual enclosures, the stoppage of the “communal” feeding to save myself time, and the appearance of multiple workers more, they have already started to show clear and immediate aggression towards other queens. How and why do i know this?
Well because, out of the 3 colonies, one is doing extremely well, one is doing average, and one is doing poorly.
And I have tried to mix the poor and the average together, and i had to quickly stop it due to the aggressive response of the host colony.
All these colonies have been developing since April 2021.
The normal feeding regimen is 1 medium red runner roach every 3 or 4 days, with constant water feeding station and honey or rock sugar feeding station.
For the poor 3 queen, i give one baby roach probably every two weeks. Since I don’t want to stress them. I am thinking of re-introducing them into a test tube, forcefully, since like this they aren’t going anywhere.
Polyrachis armata Queen
So for now I think this will do for an entry log for my three colonies.
I have a big expectation to see them moving out of the tubes and starting their carton nests outside. But for now they don’t seem interested in doing so.
Thank you for the time to read the log, hope you have enjoyed.
Leave me any comments or questions you have, and see you on the next one!
Cheers
If you find it interesting you can check some of my videos about this species and my colonies on the YouTube video links down below.
Polyrhachis Colony Naturalistic Formicarium
Weaver Ants and Spiny Ants. Developing Colony Updates!
POLYRHACHIS - New Spiny Ants Colonies I am keeping