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Post by formica on Oct 26, 2009 19:17:27 GMT
I appreciate your opinion Wood but do bear in mind I live in temperatures of about 5 degrees and I do not want a repeat of the messor barbarus again. The colony has at least 12+ eggs now and I don't want them to be eaten but I will find a way to feed them. There is a pupae that is a lot bigger than the other ones. Is it a major? I thought Campos developed majors when they have about 50+ workers. I can see five larva now.2 medium, 2 large and one super large. I am sure she will lay more eggs as well.
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Post by formica on Nov 2, 2009 18:11:54 GMT
There is some pupae now. Unfortunately one of the workers has died so I moved them into the habitat where there is food and water. They have excavated a chamber as well.
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Post by formica on Nov 23, 2009 19:46:17 GMT
I have ordered two more of these queens so I will keep the findings of them here. The original colony will beknown as Colony 1 the other colonies will be known as Colony 2 and Colony 3. I ordered two as antsectopia have a special christmas offer which is buy one get one three so I am getting two queens with workers for £14.99 which I think is great value. I was going to order a Formica Lusatica colony from ants kaltyya but forty-five euros is a bit much when I can get ants for better value from antsectopia.
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Post by formica on Dec 2, 2009 18:07:31 GMT
Both colonies arrived today, one with a queen and three workers(Two died in the post ) and the other with only one queen and worker. They are in the airing cupboard for now so they will soon be able to feed. ;D
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Post by formica on Dec 13, 2009 18:12:07 GMT
Colony one My original queen has lost all her three workers but the good news is that she has a batch of brood with larva in it so she will be okay. Colony 2 This is the colony with one worker. The queen has laid 10 eggs which are getting bigger and there will soon be larva. Colony 3 I am starting to think this queen is unmated. She has no eggs yet but still has her three workers.
All the colonies are in my airing cupboard, so they grow quite quickly as I don't like being freezing cold and I have my heating on all the time(I'm a wimp ;D).
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Post by formica on Dec 21, 2009 18:19:10 GMT
Colony 1This queen will be alright as she has some really big larva, about ten I reckon. The only problem here is that she hates her nesting habitat, only staying in the green cap she arrived in. I have a testube with water in it which she seldom drinks from. Colony 2This queens eggs are still growing and she has one larva. Colony 3There is definitely something up with this colony as there is no eggs or brood and all they seem to do is run up and down the tube. They also do not touch food at all unlike colony 2 which rapidly destroy any mealworms or anything I put in. For anyone who has ordered these ants, I have some advice. They enjoy extremely dry habitats and they like some stones to be in their habitat. They are very nice ants, but are very fast movers. They are also extremely aggressive and have good eyesight. I was lucky enough to observe this species in the wild in Cyprus and I noticed they are solitary hunters for most of the time. When I went down to pick one up, the worker bit me and ran straight back into the nest. Within 5 seconds, 8 majors and 2 super majors came running up to me trying to attack my fingers. They do not have wars with neighboring ants either but only if other ants come into their feeding territory. I saw the nest I observed was beside a Camponotus Aiethopias(Can't remember its proper name, but I know it is roughly the same size as camponotus lignerda.) Being able to observe them in the wild lead me to ordering them as I was more interested in the ants than the millions of water slides at Paphos water park, which people found very strange!
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Post by formica on Feb 3, 2010 20:03:02 GMT
colony 1The queen has four pupae and about five or six eggs, so I am just waiting for them to hatch. colony 2Something extremely strange has happened with these ants. There is one larva and one pupa. These ants are meant to have cocooned pupae, but with this colony this is not the case. The pupae is a NAKED cocoon. I think this is due to the fact there is no dirt in the tube and some ant species need to have dirt to spin their cocoons. I'll insert some soil as I don't want to go around messing with the evoloution of ants! When I saw these ants in Cyprus, they lived in the ground where it was very dirty, so I think I am correct. Colony 3I moved the queen into a habitat and shes dug a tunnel and all but I cannot tell if she has laid eggs. Only time will tell.........
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Post by formica on Feb 23, 2010 16:36:50 GMT
colony 1 this colony has two workers, eggs and a larva. By the end of 2010 I will move it into a plaster nest.
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