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Collecting myrmecophilic beetles

Community and Forum → Entomological collections → Collecting myrmecophilic beetles

Bad Den, 13.03.2007 15:30

In recent years, I have become interested in myrmecophila beetles and have destroyed many anthills of this genus. I can say that a third of the anthill that I demolished appears back in its original form in less than a week.

By the way, about the features of collecting myrmecophiles.
Can you tell us more about how you did it?
And what did you come across?

Comments

Pages: 1 2

13.03.2007 20:53, omar

Haeterius ferrugineus
Scydmaenus ? rufus
Bibloporus bicolor
staphylins, I don't believe in them... smile.gif
With a shovel, he scattered the pile on a piece of oilcloth and jumped to shake off the ants, looking carefully at the scattered items. It is very good to raise the board above the ground ants ' morveynik and look there for a long time and carefully. In general, as you can see, I have not yet succeeded very well, I still want to pick up other beetles. smile.gif
Likes: 1

13.03.2007 23:50, RippeR

Mini offtop:
they say forever-do not destroy anthills, you harm or destroy ants.
In my opinion, they are good workers, there are a lot of them and so they quickly rebuild anthills without significant losses.
What is the truthaa?

14.03.2007 10:25, Dmitry Vlasov

I usually collected myrmecophiles in early spring, when the ants are not so active... I dug up to the lower "floors", took a good portion of the substrate (it is usually dryish) and sifted through soil sieves... There were staphylinids (many and different), Monotoma, Dendrophilus pygmaeus. There were larvae of copper bronzes and leaf beetles Clytra quadripunctata. But then the students in the field practice about...whether soil sieves, and I tied up with myrmecophiles...

This post was edited by Elizar - 03/14/2007 10: 26
Likes: 1

14.03.2007 10:27, omar

What kind of monotome is this? Blestyanka? How many times have dendrophilus been caught?

14.03.2007 11:01, Dmitry Vlasov

Monotoma used to belong to the sem. Cucujidae (for example in "green"), now in a separate family-Monotomidae. the beetles are small 2-3 mm, somewhat similar to the Surinamese flour eaters. Two myrmecophilic species are quite common in anthills, while the remaining species are found in rotten organic matter...
Dendrophilus pygmaeus - found regularly in Formica anthills from the rufa group, depending on the anthill from 0 (i.e. not found...) up to a dozen per serving...
Likes: 1

14.03.2007 12:34, Bad Den

In early spring, there may be probably not only myrmecophiles, but also those who winter climbed?

14.03.2007 12:40, Dmitry Vlasov

Did not come across... (Of course I will not say for staphylinid..., x .. knows them.)

14.03.2007 14:33, Mylabris

Well, it is necessary to be risky - not being a myrmecophile to spend the winter in an anthill. Try to fall asleep in a cage with a lion, knowing that if he wakes up first, you will not be well smile.gif
And to be honest, I even came across myrmecophilic blackbirds.
At first, I accidentally found one under a rock, where the mirmik anthill was located. But after a few coincidences, I realized that they were myrmecophilic beetles. Now I have collected about 10 specimens, all in Myrmica anthills at altitudes from 2800 to 3300 m.
I identified the black-bodied moth to the genus Laena sp, but found no evidence of myrmecophilicity in its representatives.
Likes: 1

14.03.2007 20:18, RippeR

I looked for beetles in the winter, looked in an anthill. I found a caterpillar of Phragmatobia fuliginosa (dipper), which is now already a butterfly on a pin smile.gifAnd there were also dead eaters, ordinary, I don't know the name..
Likes: 1

14.03.2007 20:42, omar

lol.gif RippeR - awesome!

This post was edited by omar - 03/14/2007 20: 43

15.03.2007 8:47, Dmitry Vlasov

2RippeR
Was the anthill alive??? Caterpillars of this bear are usually found under the bark of stumps and trunks, and dead eaters (if it is Phosphuga atrata) are also found there...

15.03.2007 18:38, stierlyz

I suggest a technique that requires a flying net, a sieve and oilcloths. I collect a substrate from the anthill in the net and drag it to the side over the oilcloth. I shake it, and the smallest fraction and small things, such as Othius fomicetorum, are spilled out. Then I throw the contents onto the oilcloth, some of the ants clinging to the cloth with a death grip. I shake them off to the side, and so on several times. During this time, the number of ants in the substrate decreases. Again I step aside and sift the substrate in portions. Usually the most interesting part is in the last portions! I don't recommend destroying the whole pile - it's better to go through more anthills. For stationary work, there is also such a technique: slap a layer into the base of the anthill. cups. Ants get out of them, but toddlers can't. Among the staphylinids, formica anthills are characterized by Stenus atterimus, Quedius brevis, Lomechusa spp., Lomechusoides strumosus, Dinarda dentata, and small Aleocharinae. In the dust eaten by Lasius ants comes across a cool Thoracophorus corticinus. And Lasius also comes across a blind, eyeless Claviger palpator. Messor sometimes has Stenus "cribratus" spp. - valuable animals. The literature provides data for many myrmecophiles in tetramorium. But how many times I looked through the nests under the rocks - I didn't find anything at all. Oh, and don't forget to stick host ants under beetles or other myrmecophiles when mounting.
Likes: 5

15.03.2007 20:15, RippeR

"Was the anthill alive??? Caterpillars of this bear are usually found under the bark of stumps and trunks, and dead eaters (if it is Phosphuga atrata) are also found there... "

I don't know if the anthill was alive - probably not, because I dug it quite deep, a little below the surface of the ground and did not see a single anthill.

15.03.2007 20:16, RippeR

by the way, the dead eater looks like yes-phosphuga

15.03.2007 20:24, RippeR

by the way, the idea: if you take a small basin, fill it with water and throw it raked - ants should quickly swim away, but all sorts of others will hang for a longer time, so it will be easier to grab them.. And ants shouldn't attack so hard. ???
Likes: 1

16.03.2007 9:47, omar

+1! Hey, Ripper! A basin of water is a really good idea! I will definitely try it this summer. jump.gif

16.03.2007 10:18, Dmitry Vlasov

In fact, the idea is not very good... Imagine in a basin (even half a square meter in area) several hundred angry ants, several kilograms of dead meat and several small beetles are swimming. All the animals will climb on the dust, get wet and find it in this porridge is very problematic. The "basin of water" method is applicable for studying the inhabitants of sinking substrates (earth, sand...) or those that are loosened into slush (manure), but not floating ones...
Likes: 2

16.03.2007 10:20, omar

And I'll try again...

16.03.2007 13:31, Mylabris

You can try to play on the activity of ants when fishing. That is, we sit down with our bare backs on an anthill, and wait for all the ants to stick their mandibles to the aggressor. Next, we sift through the dust of the dwelling and collect all the myrmecophiles that will not be disguised by native inhabitants... smile.gif

16.03.2007 13:39, omar

So you're offering yourself as a distraction? Buy, give me your phone number! cool.gif

16.03.2007 13:40, Dmitry Vlasov

2Mylabris +5!
You just need to go to the collection of myrmecophiles with a "partner", while the "partner" runs through the forest with a bare, ants-covered backside, the second slowly makes the collection...

16.03.2007 16:07, RippeR

Well, with the dust, of course, it will be problematic.. But anthills are out of the ground and on the ground is easy!

omar +6
Likes: 1

17.03.2007 14:16, Aleksandr Ermakov

Some information on myrmecophiles here, in German.
Vo, another English article in 2003: Species richness and regional distribution of myrmecophilous beetles
And more japanese website with good pictures and bibliography (there is a pdf)

This post was edited by scarabee - 03/17/2007 14: 32
Likes: 1

17.03.2007 19:35, Necrocephalus

Yes, the topic is very interesting! In the summer, I will definitely stir up a couple of anthillssmile.gif. It seems to me that RippeR is right - for anthills made of earth, such as lazius anthills, the method with water should work fine.
I've never come across myrmecophiles yet, although I haven't specifically looked for them. But once I took a completely whole dry ant from a forest ant Byrrhus pilula smile.gif

18.03.2007 3:46, omar

You have committed a robbery! I don't remember the article, though shuffle.gif

18.03.2007 4:25, Aleksandr Ermakov

Article 161 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - robbery.
Necrocephalus, and that in Kursk "pills" are rare?

18.03.2007 10:55, KingSnake

That's what the question is...
Is there any information on this topic in Russian? I mean published works.

18.03.2007 13:04, Necrocephalus

You have committed a robbery! I don't remember the article, though shuffle.gif

2 omar: What do you think? I thought I was preventing the body of the deceased from being abused and eaten smile.gif

2 scarabee: we can say that yes, they are quite rare. It's just that this species is confined to sandy soils (as far as I know, at least on chernozem, I've never met it), and we have very few such places - mostly chernozem everywhere. Personally, I came across B. pilula only once, under the circumstances already described smile.gif, and it was in a place with sandy soil.
Likes: 1

18.03.2007 18:19, KingSnake

That's what the question is...
Is there any information on this topic in Russian? I mean published works.


Here's what I found.
http://www.lasius.narod.ru/antDbio13.htm
Likes: 1

21.03.2007 20:34, Guest

There is also a monograph on the genus Formica, and there is a section on cohabitants.

21.03.2007 22:02, RippeR

Today, inspired by your speeches, I gutted the red forest anthill. Neither sit, nipokryvalov, nor kleenog I have a mute, so I worked with my hands, looked with my eyes and caught with my hands smile.gifFound 2 interesting staphylins, maybe I'll take a picture soon.

22.03.2007 11:55, stierlyz

Well, sieves and oilcloths of some kind-no you can definitely buy on Privoz. And you need an exhausterfor small things. And there is another beetle, like a myrmecophile, Thoracophorus corticinus (Staphylinidae, Osoriinae) is found in wood dust, often together with Lasius. In Kiev, they catch it regularly, but here I found only two pieces - and so far that's all. The beetle is small, but very cool under the optics. At first glance, it looks like a small flatboat. The only representative of the subfamily in Europe! Images are available on the Internet, for example. koleopterologie.de

24.03.2007 12:24, Aleksey Adamov

Has anyone ever taken ground beetles out of anthills? And yet, (a separate topic) from the burrows of rodents and, in particular, from the mounds of "barrow mice"?

24.03.2007 13:01, RippeR

These are the myrmecophiles that I recently collected in an anthill. smile.gif
Now you can not even suffer with the definition of the species, I wonder if they are more different types of staphylinids or the same?

Pictures:
 the image is no longer on the site: 23.jpg 23.jpg — (365.82к) 24.03.2007 — 07.04.2007

24.03.2007 13:12, Bad Den

Lomechusoides sp. (strumosa ?)

By the way, was the anthill large and did it have to be dug deep?

This post was edited by Bad Den - 03/24/2007 13: 14

24.03.2007 17:26, RippeR

well, the anthill is about 20 cm high.. from the surface of the earth. I dug up about more than half of it and found staphylins, I only dug up a little more than the surface of the earth, but nothing else interesting. I dug it out with my hand, but the ants didn't have time to grab it..

Is it a name for staffs or an ant?

25.03.2007 11:50, Bad Den


Is it a name for staffs or an ant?

For staphylinids, it is natural (for the left one - exactly, but the right one is not very similar, like). Ant-Explicit Formica

This post was edited by Bad Den - 03/25/2007 12: 03
Likes: 1

26.03.2007 23:01, Aleksandr Ermakov

Staphylinchiki of different types, that's for sure.
Likes: 1

27.03.2007 13:12, stierlyz

And even different kinds. On the right is Dinarda dentata, on the left you need to look. And don't forget to mount an ant at the bottom! You can have one working specimen.
Likes: 2

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