Dreamer's L.Flavus (Yellow colony)

[dreamer]

I always liked Coldplay, hence the colony name. This queen arrived at the same time as my L.Niger, with a few small eggs. Again as a new ant keeper I was excited to have a second colony that is supposed to be easy to care for to compare with my L.Niger colony. We'll see how easy they are, I've not managed to find a journal online of a colony that's grown over 50, so I'm curious to see what happens as I've read colonies can grow to 4,000.

5th September
Here's a shot of the queen a few days after arrival:



10th September
A few small eggs, but I'm trying not to disturb her more than once a week. She's covered up in the dark and under that in red celophane. At around 25*C. Unfortunately you can't see much detail in this shot from my phone, but she has settled at the moist end of the test tube.



9th October
The eggs have grown somewhat and you can see the queen standing over them seemingly protectively in the shot below. I'm not sure how long it will take these to be come lavae and pupae, or even if some are very small lavae.



14th October
Here is a close up of the queen and her brood with my new DSLR lense, you can see there are quite a lot of brood



28th October
Yellow queen is the only one of my queens not to have any workers, L.Niger Trinity has 3 already! I'm still trying not to disturb Yellow queen, but as it has been two months now I decided to put in some honey for her.



She likes it



5th November
Still no nanitics/workers! It seems that L.Flavus brood takes quite a bit longer to develop than L.Niger and also C.Barbaricus. There do seem to be quite a few lavae now that are moving around slightly, so hopefully they will all arrive at a similar time. I'm hoping over the next 3 weeks at least one will eclose before I put her into hibernation. Here is a clearer shot of the brood.




12th November
That last photo looks darker than I'd realised, I'll try and work on that for future shots. Had another check this week, there is definitely a large-ish pupae, so we'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks before hibernation. The queen is still very active as soon as there is light, so it maybe she's not quite ready to hibernate yet. She's at around 24*C. Definitely very different to my L.Niger queen that arrived at the same time - it's interesting to see how slowly Flavus develop in comparison.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the first worker Here are a couple of shots of the queen moving around:







November 18th
Little change. There are currently 2 piles of brood. You can see a particularly large pupae on the right:



It's about 2mm long and the same size as the L.Niger nanitic pupae that I have, which eclosed so far. It must be close!


November 25th
Marginal change. A great shot of the queen with 1 pupae.




December 3rd
The first worker has arrived! I think it's smaller even then my L.Niger. In comparison to my smallest C.Barbaricus it's just tiny. Smaller than the Prenolepis Nitens that I'm hoping can share an outworld system with them at some point. Still quite a few pupae, but I'm starting hibernation for them soon, dropped the temperature by 1 degree today and will bring them down to 12*C over the next week or so.



December 30th
The colony has been in hibernation for the last 3 weeks. They are currently at about 13*C. I had connected another test tube with lots of water in as they had run out in their tube and when I had a look this week the first worker was in the new tube as far away as he could get from the queen was still in the old tube.




After my first Niger's getting lost/dying in the outworld I decided to move the worker back manually and to dampen the cotton in the old tube before reconnecting them together. Here is them reunited a few minutes later. As you can see there are still a few larvae.




I'll probably bring them out of hibernation toward the end of February, so probably no updates until then.


4th March
Despite the snow this week I am starting to bring my colonies out of hibernation by slowly increasing the temperature by 0.5*C per day. It will be a couple of weeks.


14th April
Sadly on the way out of hibernation the queen has died . She must have got too hot or dehydrated on the heat mat. I think I've learnt the lesson the hard way to keep my queens and water off the heat mats as I'm not sure the thermostat is sensitive enough to get the exact temperature of 27*C.


DECEASED.


28th April
I have ordered a new Lasius Flavus queen, which has arrived with 3 tiny workers and some brood. I'll be starting a new journal for this if you want to read it.

[jeoff82]

The brood might not develop now until next year because they should be hibernating. I caught a few Lasius flavus queens this year and none of the larvae have developed into workers yet. Well done for feeding her she should be fine until spring.

[Wood~Ant]

I did have a colony with 7 queens, all were related sisters from the same nest; but unlike L. niger which only accept 1 queen, flavus will live peacefully together in a polygynous group. The ants forage mostly below ground, but will forage on the surface if kept in the shade or darkness.
This might help} Wood's Flavus Journal.

[dreamer]

Thanks Wood, that was an interesting read. I'm looking forward to seeing my colony develop next year

[Wood~Ant]

Nov 19, 2017 22:49:52 GMT dreamer said:

Thanks Wood, that was an interesting read. I'm looking forward to seeing my colony develop next year

I must say that the yellow Lasius species are by far the best for observation and study, as they look so lovely in direct sunlight and shine like little jewels. My own colony did not die out, as I eventually released them back into the wild after a few years and they established a nest in our garden. I will keep my fingers crossed that your colony does well.

[dreamer]

Thanks, the 1st worker has arrived!