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Post by Wood~Ant on May 13, 2011 19:04:06 GMT
Anyone who wishes to comment on the ants Kalistes is keeping may post them here.
I think he will have fun keeping the Pheidole pallidula as they may be tiny, but they can be wicked for their size ;D
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Post by kalistes on May 13, 2011 20:02:15 GMT
yeah, Pheidole have always been my favourites. ;D
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Post by Wood~Ant on May 19, 2011 7:27:07 GMT
Regarding your low ratio of soldiers to workers, I wouldn't be too concerned by this as soldiers are only produced if the the colony needs them or feel threatened in any way. My own colony has only 7 soldiers, yet there are easily 300+ workers. Soldiers do act as repletes to store food, and they are only called out when the workers find a prey food which is a bit big and needs stronger jaws to pull it into the nest. As long as the colony is feeding well and feels safe, a large army of soldiers simply isn't required
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Post by Jenny on Jul 3, 2011 15:50:07 GMT
Pheds all over your desk! Watch out for your computer and keyboard these girls are so tiny......
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 29, 2011 18:46:35 GMT
Nice to see your Lasius niger queens doing well. I originally named mine with Greek letters as well, but later changed them to numbers. My Messor barbarus queens are formally referred to as Kappa and Lambda, and the Pheidole pallidula queen is named Omicron (Meaning 'Small', being the opposite of Omega ('Big')). ;D My Queen Beta (Now named Queen Two) had a faster start than the others as well. Good luck with them!
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Post by kalistes on Jul 29, 2011 18:58:20 GMT
cheers Timenova ;D I must admit I wasn't expecting to see eggs straight away.
Their abdomens are also taking on a much more typical swollen appearance as they start egg development (they were so flattened yesterday that I wasn't even sure they were L. niger)
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 29, 2011 19:06:37 GMT
What amazes me is that some queens will lay within the first 48hrs, while others can take a week or more. A lot depends on how well the virgin queen fed before leaving the nest on her nuptial flight, as smaller less well fed queens take longer as a rule to lay Nice to hear that some of your queens have started colony founding Kalistes
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Post by Wood~Ant on Mar 11, 2012 9:07:23 GMT
Nice to hear your Messors are doing well, and are up and running around again. You may even see some newly laid eggs, as my own queens started laying back in late February and with the warm March sunshine it does encourage brood development and colony growth.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 11, 2012 10:05:25 GMT
May I say that it is good to have you back Kalistes, and it's great that your Messors are thriving.
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Post by Zarbi on Mar 11, 2012 11:05:41 GMT
Excellent news Kalistes This forum is fast becoming a Mecca for Messor keepers ;D
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