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Post by jeoff82 on Oct 6, 2016 20:59:52 GMT
I found this queen at the end of August, in the same place I found my other umbratus queens. Same weather conditions, same sort of time of day. I introduced her to a small colony of Lasius niger, this colony consists of 1 niger queen and around 20 nanitic workers. Immediately she was surrounded by workers as soon as she entered the test tube. No aggression but lots of interest show to the parasite, the umbratus queen mainly remained very still. I added some honey to the tube to create a distraction and within minutes everyone including the umbratus queen was being fed by the workers. Over the following weeks the colony and the parasite have lived side by side with lots of brood in the nest. Not much foraging is taking place now and I expect the colony to go into full hibernation in the near future. Time will tell how long both queens remain in this colony and it will be interesting to see what brood is produced whilst they are still part of the colony.
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Post by danovsan on Oct 7, 2016 18:01:41 GMT
Do the Queens of this species have similar keeping difficulty to Lasius niger?
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Post by jeoff82 on Oct 7, 2016 20:58:47 GMT
Do the Queens of this species have similar keeping difficulty to Lasius niger? I have 3 small colonies of these and I found them easy so far
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Post by jeoff82 on Oct 18, 2016 20:14:14 GMT
All the colony seems to be hibernating this evening as its pretty cold, around 8c. Most of the colony is motionless though I have not checked them during the day when temps have been around 12c to 13c and there is plenty of brood in the test tube still developing.
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Post by jeoff82 on Nov 16, 2016 20:28:39 GMT
Sadly this evening I have found the umbratus queen dead in the test tube with the rest of the colony. I do not know if the workers killed her or something else but it is most likely the colony decided the niger queen was the stronger one and turned on the umbratus parasite. She lasted 3 months with the colony and almost immediately appeared to have settled as the workers fed and groomed her like she was their own. I am down to one umbratus queen now and she has a colony of around 20 workers, hopefully she makes it til next spring and onwards.
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Post by jeoff82 on Mar 4, 2017 16:48:17 GMT
The niger queen has also now died from this colony, so this leaves around 20 workers and larvae/eggs on their own. I'll try keep them going until I can find another umbratus queen later this year around August time.
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Yama
Ant Larva
Posts: 15
Country: UK
Pets: 2 Cats and 10 Ant Colonies
Favourite Ant: Lasius Niger (They are just so tiny and harmless!)
I Hate: Spiders
I Am: a content wife
Likes: 7
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Post by Yama on Apr 14, 2017 19:24:20 GMT
Awww sorry to here this colony didn't thrive.
I had a colony of Niger last year from the nuptial flights, when the first workers hatched they must have attacked the queen as one day I checked them and she was in 3 segments in the test tube!
Very bazaar! I put their tube out in the garden under a shrub and saw them throughout the summer.
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Post by jeoff82 on Apr 30, 2017 15:50:29 GMT
Here is my last umbratus colony from August last year. The colony is very small at the moment, 4-5 workers but they have some brood and survived hibernation. You can just about see the nice colouring of the queen in this picture, a nice light brown colour with golden legs. The legs are also quite long to fight and brush off attacking workers when she attempts to enter a nest. The gaster small and the head large, though hard to see in this picture. Definitely one of the more interesting native Lasius species. This small colony live inside a small test tube placed into a small outworld. I will attempt to add some niger cocoons when I can find some over the nest few weeks.
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Post by jeoff82 on May 5, 2017 21:01:34 GMT
3 cocoons now present and quite a large pile of larvae. These seem to be doing well in there little nest. They stay up in my loft, complete darkness, slightly warmer than outside, seems to work.
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Post by jeoff82 on May 13, 2017 22:54:17 GMT
I have brood boosted these with some niger larvae, not much only around 10. I did not check on the colony I just dumped the larvae into the out world as I was in a rush. They had some cocoons last time I checked so maybe the first lot of umbratus workers?
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Post by jeoff82 on May 23, 2017 20:22:09 GMT
There has been a slight incident with this colony, they have chewed through the cotton wool and flooded the tube. Some brood looks like it has had it but the workers and queen look ok. I tipped a bit of soil/sand into the tube to help soak up the water, hopefully they will recover.
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Post by jeoff82 on Jun 20, 2017 17:44:11 GMT
Unfortunately the whole colony killed in todays heat.
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Post by jeoff82 on Aug 21, 2017 19:56:18 GMT
Today I caught 3 more queens and I have kept some workers aside now for the past couple of months ready for them. 2 queens seem to settle in with the workers straight away with only some minor leg tugging but the other 1 is completely separate from the workers and still has her wings. I don't have much hope for her but the other 2 look like they may do ok.
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