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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 26, 2019 16:14:55 GMT
The queen didn't take the last cricket I offered her, but did take a small fly. It seems that she wants variety. I'm told that it's by design that most of the larvae are still tiny. The queen is trying to get the larger ones to the pupa stage as fast as possible first so she can get her first workers sooner, which makes sense for a semi claustral queen.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Sept 9, 2019 21:57:01 GMT
The queen is still not interested in crickets but just now she accepted a small dead moth. Its wing got stuck to the tweezers as I was trying to withdraw them and the queen grabbed onto the moth just before it got pulled out! She's a fairly small ant but surprisingly fierce. Her larvae are still doing fine. Hopefully it won't be too long before the largest begin to spin cocoons?
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Post by TenebrousNova on Sept 11, 2019 2:06:47 GMT
I have noticed that one of the largest larvae is now paler than the others and partially buried in the sand, which in my experience is a telltale sign of a larva that's preparing to spin a cocoon. Of course, I might be jumping the gun. What do you think? It's the one in the middle. Additionally, you can see the larva on the top left eating a bit of moth. Even the smallest larvae have noticeably grown lately.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Sept 15, 2019 16:15:29 GMT
Today, I discovered that the queen now has her first two cocooned pupae! And here she is with a small fly. I'm very excited. It's only a matter of time now until the first workers are here.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Sept 19, 2019 15:58:03 GMT
Last night I got the queen to accept a very small cricket, the first she's had in quite a while. She positively snatched it out of the tweezers. The test tube is getting littered with the remains of her previous meals, but I'm waiting until the first workers eclose before I start disturbing her too much. The largest larva looks like it'll be ready to pupate soon. Now that the older ones have pupated, the queen is providing more food to her smaller brood.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Sept 19, 2019 18:34:47 GMT
I'm looking forward to seeing her first workers, she is doing so well your lady from down under.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Sept 20, 2019 19:56:51 GMT
Disaster almost struck just now. I killed a small cricket for the queen and watched her approach it through my magnifying lens, only to spot loads of tiny pink parasitic mites crawling on and around it! I threw it and most of the sand away just in case. The queen is unhappy about this, but it's preferable to her getting slowly killed by the things. I'm still a bit paranoid that I missed one or two, but don't want to transfer them to a new test tube for fear that the queen will eat her brood. We'll have to wait and see what happens.
Moral of this story: boil any insects you give your ants first!
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Post by TenebrousNova on Sept 22, 2019 23:13:43 GMT
I've checked the queen several times over the last few days and haven't seen any evidence of mite infestation, so I think I got away with what happened on the last update. That could've ended very badly. The queen now has three pupae! There's just six larvae left now.
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Post by 1moldavite on Sept 23, 2019 12:13:01 GMT
Disaster almost struck just now. I killed a small cricket for the queen and watched her approach it through my magnifying lens, only to spot loads of tiny pink parasitic mites crawling on and around it! I threw it and most of the sand away just in case. The queen is unhappy about this, but it's preferable to her getting slowly killed by the things. I'm still a bit paranoid that I missed one or two, but don't want to transfer them to a new test tube for fear that the queen will eat her brood. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Moral of this story: boil any insects you give your ants first! They could have been clover mites,which eat sap from plants,but they could also have been red velvet mites which are more harmful,you did the right thing as just guessing could have led to fatalities,glad she seems to be doing so well.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Sept 23, 2019 12:47:19 GMT
Disaster almost struck just now. I killed a small cricket for the queen and watched her approach it through my magnifying lens, only to spot loads of tiny pink parasitic mites crawling on and around it! I threw it and most of the sand away just in case. The queen is unhappy about this, but it's preferable to her getting slowly killed by the things. I'm still a bit paranoid that I missed one or two, but don't want to transfer them to a new test tube for fear that the queen will eat her brood. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Moral of this story: boil any insects you give your ants first! They could have been clover mites,which eat sap from plants,but they could also have been red velvet mites which are more harmful,you did the right thing as just guessing could have led to fatalities,glad she seems to be doing so well. These ones were definitely parasitic since they were covering the cricket. In fact that might be how mites ended up infesting and killing my first Carebara diversa colony in the first place.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Sept 30, 2019 17:32:37 GMT
Unfortunately a few days ago the largest larva got eaten by its four smaller siblings, which have now grown substantially. There's just four larvae left with the three cocoons, but otherwise they seem to be doing well. They're eating a cricket in this photo. I can't tell how the pupae are doing inside the cocoons but I think it'll be a week or two until the first workers eclose.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Oct 3, 2019 14:41:57 GMT
The queen has laid two new eggs! Perhaps it's because she'll soon have workers to help raise the next generation.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Oct 12, 2019 2:31:38 GMT
Two more larvae are currently busy spinning cocoons, which will make 5 pupae in total, 1 larva and 5 eggs (Which you can see just to the left of one of the larvae spinning a cocoon). I just wish the cocoons would hurry up and eclose, since the cotton in the test tube is growing an unpleasant looking green mold and I'd like to move them into a new set up when there's workers. It's been almost a month now since the first cocoons formed, so surely they're almost ready? They're quite dark in colour even when they're newly spun, so it's difficult to gauge their development by how dark they are. With luck, the next update will be me excitedly showing you the nanitics.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Oct 22, 2019 12:19:53 GMT
To my dismay, the queen unwrapped one of the pupae (Which was quite dark in colour!) and fed it to the last larva. All I can say is that it had better pupate soon to replace the one that was sacrificed to it and might well have eclosed soon.
I suppose if there is an upside, I now have a rough idea how well the pupae are developing within their cocoons. Too bad it cost what might've been the first worker.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Oct 25, 2019 19:04:31 GMT
Today I performed the "torch test" again and shined a torch underneath the cocoons to see how much light passes through them. One of them lets virtually none through and is dark, so I think our long wait might soon be over. There are currently seven eggs and the lone larva has been buried by the queen under a thin layer of sand, where it will hopefully spin a cocoon of its own, bringing the count back up to five.
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