|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 28, 2016 10:07:47 GMT
So this is my first foray back into ant keeping for a few years now. Here's my new Manica rubida queen, Tau. There's roughly six or seven larvae, it's hard to tell because she immediately started moving them onto the cotton wool when she was unboxed. Gorgeous colour. I gave her a fruit fly and she quickly stung it and gave it to her larvae. A few of those larvae are quite big so they should start pupating within a couple of weeks. Until then I'm only going to check on them maybe once a day to ensure that the queen remains calm. I have a nice small tank that she can go in once the first workers are born. Still need to take a trip to Homebase to get some lawn soil for it. Hope this attempt goes well! Also, please feel free to post comments on this thread. I welcome the input.
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 28, 2016 23:56:33 GMT
The larvae appear to have eaten the fruit fly during the five hours I was at the pet shop today, I could only see the wings remaining. I decided to see how receptive the queen would be to a cricket. Unfortunately it was stunned rather than outright killed and made the terrible mistake of kicking the Manica queen away from it. It turns out that if you kick a Manica rubida queen in the face, she will be very angry about it. She stung the cricket a few times and then tore off one of its legs and gave it to her larvae. She then returned to lick at the wound she'd inflicted and to finish the cricket off.
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 29, 2016 18:15:19 GMT
I think I said it before in my previous journal, but Manica rubida larvae seem to be very active in comparison to Lasius or Messor which mainly lie still. These larvae are always moving their heads about and even wriggling slightly. The queen moved the cricket over to the larvae and you can see them stretching their heads towards it. I was even able to make out a tiny set of jaws opening and closing on one of the larger larvae. One of the larvae seemed to be trying to roll itself over to better reach the cricket. The queen started to move a few of the larvae around as they fed. I'm not sure if this is so they can be relocated to a better position for feeding or if she was just fussing over them. And here she is standing watch over her brood as they eat. On a sidenote, I've just ordered a small Messor barbarus colony from AntKit since the Manica queen arrived in great condition. Ordered a red-headed queen, I shall start a journal for them once they arrive.
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 30, 2016 17:51:10 GMT
So far, things still seem to be going well. The largest larva (Bottom left) has turned opaque...prior experience suggests that it will pupate soon. They've taken a few more fruit flies. Her Majesty has a temper though and will charge at the entrance of the test tube with open jaws if you remove the cotton. I'm hoping that she will lay a few eggs at some point.
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 5, 2016 18:28:52 GMT
Got a new surprise just now when I found four newly laid eggs among the larvae today. The larvae are swelling to ever greater proportions. The queen seems to have trouble carrying them at this point. All four eggs can be seen here. I figured I'd give the queen a nice big bluebottle since she's started to lay eggs again.
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 5, 2016 21:59:37 GMT
The opaque larva which I said could be ready to pupate has just finished its transformation. I'm super excited! I'm curious about the sizes I can expect from the first generation workers. The largest larvae are bigger than the pupating one thanks to all the food they've been given, so will they become larger workers? I suppose it's because claustral species have limited resources to expend on their first larvae whilst species such as Myrmica and Manica will hunt during the founding stage (And they also seem to have a smaller number of larvae, perhaps to ensure that they'll grow quicker?). Or I could be talking a load of nonsense and none of this is correct. I'm looking forward to seeing the first worker finding her feet in a few weeks from now.
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 6, 2016 15:52:13 GMT
Another of the older larvae has turned opaque. This time though, the queen has placed it at the opposite end of the test tube. When I was brushing out the remains of her previous meals I gently rolled the larva back towards the brood pile and the queen immediately placed it back at the other end.
I suppose she has her reasons. Anyone know why she'd want to separate them? I would've thought that if she were sorting her brood by their stage that the pupa would also be at the other end.
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 10, 2016 21:25:11 GMT
I'm afraid the larva from my last post is missing. I believe it was in the cotton used to seal the test tube and fell out, I can't find it anywhere. Very annoyed at myself for that.
The egg count is now 13, the queen is starting to lay them frequently. The larvae are still growing but I haven't seen any further changes today. I give the pupa a quick look each day to look for any colour changes, I know it's a bit soon. I'm just looking forward to seeing the first callow.
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 11, 2016 16:23:08 GMT
The egg count has increased to 18 today. I'm very pleased with this queen's progress so far, although she is foul tempered and easily disturbed by small vibrations. She has a tendency to run around with opened jaws when I'm observing her which is why I keep it to once a day. She even attacked the cotton at one point thinking it was a potential intruder.
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 14, 2016 10:34:00 GMT
One of the larvae is beginning to pupate, it's turned opaque and the eyes are starting to show.
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 19, 2016 19:10:24 GMT
I'm happy to report that there is now a second pupa. The first one is darkening, I expect the first worker to be here sometime next week. Pretty proud of how these photos turned out. Those eggs have been here for about two weeks now, so it can't be much longer before they start hatching?
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 20, 2016 14:00:03 GMT
That pupa is now twice as dark as it was yesterday. Forget next week, that first worker is going to be here by the weekend!
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 21, 2016 13:38:59 GMT
Hopefully the pupa will eclose today. There is now a third pupa and more eggs, I'm very pleased with this queen's progress. Both of the new pupae are a bit larger than the first one. Maybe they got fed more as larvae. She's still very aggressive and charges at me when I open the test tube to give her food but maybe she'll start to mellow out once she has some workers helping her. To her credit, she hasn't eaten any of her brood at all.
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 23, 2016 8:35:15 GMT
Here's the first worker! A day later than predicted but still close.
|
|
|
Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 26, 2016 12:07:14 GMT
The worker has coloured up quite nicely. She's rather shy and stays close to her mother. Also, they're a bit difficult to see in the photos but the second generation of larvae has started to hatch out. There's about five or six of them in a small ball right now. Since the eggs were laid shortly after each other, I expect there will be at least 20 larvae next week. The second pupa is slowly starting to change colour! Queen and worker are enjoying a bit of apple. I probably ought to buy some honey at some point.
|
|