Dreamer's Lasiuss Flavus colony #2 (Hope colony)

[dreamer]

After the sad demise of my previous Lasius Flavus colony (Yellow colony) that I got last year, I decided to start over and order a new queen. Partly this was because my original aim was to see if I could get my Prenolepis Nitens to share an outworld with my Flavus, but also I wanted to compare their growth rate with my Lasius Niger.

28th April
My new queen arrived and with 3 nanitics as well There also appear to be 3 large pupae and some smaller eggs:


There are really beautiful in the daylight, they are a honey yellow. They seem to be quite slow moving and cautious. I've connected their test tube to another test tube with extra water along with food - marmite, a fruit fly and honey. This should give them additional water if they need it, but without too much space to get lost in - I hope (my first nanitic in my last Lasuis Flavus colony seemed to get lost during hibernation and was killed on it's return) The second test tube is on the heat mat, but the queen in her test tube is not. The queen seems to be a bit darker than my last queen:



I'm really happy with this colony as it is starting off just a little further along than where my previous colony was before the queen killed the only worker then died.


May 4th
The 3 large pupae have not yet eclosed, but I'm hoping they will do soon. No other changes, but here's a picture:


Here's the queen, she's definitely slightly smaller (maybe less well fed) than my previous queen and darker:




May 9th
I decided to remove the 'outworld testtube' as some of my Nylanderi had died after condensation mixed with honey and I didn't want the same to happen to my Lasiuss Flavus. The workers are quite hard to see as they are so pale, but there are still 3 and 3 pupae. Once the 3 pupae eclose and there are 6 workers I think I'll probably then connect them to something, but currently they seem quite cautious - staying mainly on the cotton. I also don't think they've touched the fruitflies.

May 24th

I'm really excited about this colony, they seem to be growing at a good rate. Initially I was not sure as the queen looked smaller and darker than my previous one (who died  ), but they seem to be doing really well. They spend most of their time hiding in a tunnel they have excavated in the cotton wool. It's quite difficult to spot them actually as they are hidden underneath and inside:

As I shone the light on them, everyone got a bit excited and from a lower angle you can see 3 pupae and several lavae. They seem to be growing fast, but I've not seen them really take any food as of yet and the fruit flies look intact.

June 8th

Checking in on this colony they were out of water in the test tube, so I decided add another test tube with water and a small amount of honey (really small so they can't drown). I also got in a bit closer with my microscope and turned the nest around to get a better view of underneath. They didn't like it, but that's okay, because I'm wanting them to move around and find the connection to the new test tube.

This was a really exciting shot, because it was the clearest I've seen of the queen an workers (better than the naked eye). You can see 5 workers, then a 6th behind the queen.

I took the opportunity to count and they are already up to 7 workers! Here is a slightly zoomed out shot where I think you can see them all:

I think with 7 workers they should be fine making their way across into the connected test tube. It's interesting looking at the photos again as it seems that some of the lavae have probably just become pupae. It's also hard to tell how many eggs are in there. There could even be more pupae or lavae in the cotton wool tunnel.

They are just such a great colour, I think they are my favourite colour of worker that I currently have. Slow and tiny, but beautiful.

June 12th

The colony is still at 7 workers and they have made it through the tube to the clean, more humid test tube.

They still have about 3 pupae and quite a few larvae wriggling about under that:

I then connected the new test tube they have just moved into, to a simple white sand outworld with honey water in a feeder and some honey, marmite and fruitflies:

I have only seen two workers come out briefly once, so despite the colony having at least half a dozen lavae, they don't seem to be looking for food. After a couple of days there has still been no sign that they have taken any food. I have heard they are quite a shy species and they generally live underground, so it maybe that they don't go out very often. I will keep an eye on them.

July 1st

I saw one worker venture out in the daylight to look for food. I took the risk of opening the outworld and popping in a small drop of maple syrup, which they seem to have had a go at The fruitfly also seems to have disappeared.

It's difficult to see quite how many workers there are as they are so tiny, but I think they are still on 7 from the count I made. There is still one large pupae as you can see:

There are quite a few lavae, so I expect the colony to grow at a good speed. I had actually expected them to be slower to develop than this, so I'm very pleased. They have such a great colour, but they are so small - only about 2-3mm. We'll see how the workers grow over the next few generations. I'm also hoping they will venture out of the nest more as the colony grows - I've heard mixed things about this though as usually this species seems to forage underground. Ideally I'd like to have a larger outworld at some point with peas and pea aphids for them to farm