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Messor genus tends to be easier to start than Pognonomyrmex so you've made a good choice on your seed harvester species to start with. Check out the link in my signature (either one) to find some more information to get you started, but I'll try to answer your questions right now.

An aquarium with a ytong block is a fine idea and work with any species. Provides plenty of nesting room, easy to care for, and plenty of foraging room. This thread will have pictures of those as well as many others for you to peruse. http://antfarm.yuku.com/t...otos?page=1#.UBxY2rRI99M

You essentially carve out your chambers and tunnels then use some aquarium silicon adhesive to glue it to the side. Carve out some sort of reservoir on top, or drill a hole to attach a test tube filled with water or something like that for hydration. You can mist the block manually but it will likely require a lot of watering.

I don't know if Messor barbarus are semi-claustral, but if they are you'll need to keep her test tube in a box to forage anyway. I've raised colonies in nothing but test tubes and boxes, so in reality you can leave her in the tube as long as necessary or until she runs out of room. Don't concern yourself with that too much, just get the formicarium done and move her in when you're ready. I wouldn't necessarily do it before her workers arrive, though.

You don't need to heat the queen at all. Below ground after a few feet it's a constant 55-60 (12-16 C) degrees F anyway. Heating will just shave a week or so off of brood development time. If you do heat, try to heat the nesting area not the outworld or else the colony might nest in the aquarium instead. 76 (24 C) degrees F is about all you're looking for in terms of nest temperature, though.

PTFE will need renewal after some months, generally. It's dependent upon the humidity it's exposed to. More moisture means you need to reapply it sooner. In general it will last some months, though. After three months I'd keep a closer eye on ant activity to ensure it hasn't dissolved enough to let ants out. Once you get a handle on how long it lasts in your setup you'll be fine.

Personally I love the aquarium with a nest inside designs. I think they are very effective, and provide a lot of space for your ants to roam. Decorate it with rocks, plastic trees, small hills, and it will provide even more space by giving ants stuff to run up and down on. I'd use more of them if I didn't have such a collector mentality with my ants (I want every local species) and having that many aquariums... well they won't fit.

Ants can in fact see red, but what shades, and what intensities they can see is more species dependent. It seems most ants can see "scarlet red". Don't ask me what color that is, but I can tell you that light intensity matters more than color. If you use a dark colored heating bulb, or perhaps one of those ceramic heat emitters it won't stress them out. That said, many ants adapt very easily to bright lights, and it won't kill your ants to be exposed to it, but it does affect how they act within the nest. There was a thread I posted about this in linking numerous articles if you want to find it and give them a perusal.

If you use a lid, the ants can survive in a large tank (assuming a large colony as well) for a day or two, but I wouldn't risk going any more. A single queen in a closed, 50ml test tube lasts little over a day (beginner mistakes I've learned from) so scale that up. Just lift the lid quickly to create negative pressure and it will recirculate the air enough to give them another day. Do that once per day/two days and they'll be fine, but I'd try to find a way to get holes in the lid or use a barrier like PTFE or olive oil instead.

Messor do chew through ytong pretty easily, so you might consider using Hydrostone or Tuf-stone instead; but with the ants being in an aquarium it probably isn't a big deal. They'll just make their own entrances, and expand within the block as they desire which isn't such a bad thing.

The L-shaped hydration can work well, but I suggested a straight verticle located on one side because of the seed storage. The side farthest from the reservoir will be relatively dry for seed storage, but using an L-shaped reservoir the water will diffuse up and through the nest. How much water you add, and how warm you keep it matter a bit, too. Water will attempt to diffuse evenly throughout the nest, but if it's relatively warm it won't reach the far ends before much of it evaporates. It will take some experimentation on your part to figure out that stuff. L-shaped or vertical won't matter too much once you find out how much water is necessary and how fast it diffuses/evaporates.

Good luck with your ants, Anders.

Have a good, safe trip, Nuno.