So basically almost a year ago I had to step away from ants… I was feeling no pleasure in keeping them whatsoever, not sure why, because they have been a joy, love and fascination since I was kid, although I didn’t start keeping them until much later in life as you know.

So as painful as it was to watch, I got rid of most of my colonies, either giving some away (a small minority since there aren’t many people here who keep ants), either by watching them die because of my neglect and detachment regarding their care, or in the end, by disposing them. Its sad to admit, but its was the reality.

I only kept one colony during that whole period, my Camponotus lighti colony, which is now 4.5 years old and absolutely dear to my heart.

To be honest, I wasn’t planning to come back to ant keeping, I wasn’t even thinking either to return or not…. I became absolutely focused on Roach keeping only.

Last year, December 2022, Macau finally opened up (after 3 years of being closed to the world), so I packed my things, took 2 months off work and went straight to Thailand to meet my wife which I hadn’t seen for the past 6 months.

I travelled all around during these two months, Bangkok, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chiang Rai, Khao Yai, Koh Phangan, Surat Thani, Khao Sok and finally Sakaerat.

To be honest, I spent 99% of my time just searching for roaches. But one beautiful full moon night, I saw some Solenopsis geminata queens running around, and some Iridomyrmex anceps queens as well. And I thought :

So I tubed 4 Solenopsis geminata and 2 Iridomyrmex anceps and didn’t give it much more thought about that… just said to myself, lets see how I feel during this process. No expectations.

Few weeks later, I ended up going to Khao Sok National Park for a night walk in the trails with a guide. It was an amazing primary old forest in the South of Thailand.

Beginning of our walk, the sun was setting and it would soon be dark

It was an amazing experience, which unfortunately I don’t have many photos of since I was more concerned on finding the bugs at night than photographing them.

As darkness was setting in, we arrived to our first destination, a small cabin in the middle of the jungle, where we would take a rest after almost 45 minutes walking at a very high pace, up and down the trails. We also had some drinks and were able to relax a bit. And without noticing, after 30 or so minutes, it got completely dark, the crickets and other insects started chirping. I was so distracted talking to the other members of the group that it was my wife who even called me and asked: “why don’t you go up there the trail and start searching for bugs, while we finish our drinks here?”

So I did…

And immediately the first thing I found was… can you guess it?

two Ant Queens! more specifically two Polyrhachis Queens.

I immediately tubed them, with mixed feelings of excitement and fear, because you can’t catch anything from the trails, I didn’t want anybody to see me doing it.

And they were amazing looking queens, both from the same species, and a species I had never seen before.

During the following 3 hours, I was able to see so many different types of ant species, some I had kept before, others only seen in photos…. Gnamptogenys bicolor foraging on the shrubs, huge trails of Leptogenys, Polyrhachis abdominalis, ruby red large Odontomachus, huge Camponotus species, Crematogaster everywhere, etc

Fast forward in time… I was back in the hotel immediately after walking the trails for 3 or 4 hours, sweaty and exhausted but extremely happy and I was going through what I had picked up… and while I was looking at those two queens, I thought, well, either you wanted or not, you are back to ant keeping, because I won’t let these beautiful queens die in vain. I will at least try my best to keep them alive and have them develop into colonies!

And so, after a long long while, I am back loving ants!

Its been 1.5 months since their capture, and I lost one of the queens since, just one week or so after finding them…. she must have been weak or something because I fed both of them exactly the same time and the one living is doing great!

Let me present you, my new Polyrhachis species - Polyrhachis furcata.

They belong to the Myrmhopla sub-genus, as you maaye remember - Myrmhopla was established by Forel (1915) as a subgenus of Polyrhachis Fr. Smith, 1857, with Formica armata (Le Guillou, 1842) as the type species.

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 the description of their nesting preferences is as follows:

Myrmhopla - Arboreal Silk sheet

I have been housing her inside a plastic test tube, always providing her with fresh honey water every 2 to 3 days.

It took a long while for her to start laying eggs, I even started to suspect she could have been one of those alates that dont mate, and just perform worker tasks…. but no. She did end up laying eggs.

And now she has been laying quite consistently.

So far I was able to count 8 already as of today.

So at this moment, this is where we are standing…. I am patiently waiting for the eggs to hatch into larvae, so I can progress to the next step of feeding her some baby roaches.

I think I already wrote too much ! LOL!

If you would like to see more about Polyrhachis furcata, I would recommend clicking the following link - Polyrhachis furcata - Ants and Termites of Malaysia.

Hope you guys have enjoyed it!

I will soon start making ant videos again for you all!

Thank you for taking the time to read, and

Cheers!

Polyrhachis furcata

Pheidole sinica

The Amber Javelin Ants