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Post by bobdol on Sept 4, 2011 19:29:55 GMT
I collected this small colony from a large nest of Myrmica Sp. around 200 workers with a few queens on the island of Tiree in Scotland. They were living in a large piece of wood and it took some time to get to the royal chamber... Eventually I spotted a queen running through the grass which was not easy as this Myrmica species seem to have very little difference in size between worker and queen. I grabbed her 3 workers a larvae and a pupae and put them in an ex hotel complementary shampoo bottle filled with soil as it was all I had to hand:P A couple of days later they had tunneled a fair bit and had fed from the honey water I had given them but, they were not having the best of time due to the fact that they were kept in a car (We were camping) and it was not the biggest of set ups When I got home a few days back I moved them into some tubing attached to a small foraging tank as I am still working on the nest. Since then they have been feeding from a fly and some honey and today I was happy to see the Pupae eclose so now I have a pale callow trying to find its feet ;D I was also extremely happy to see an egg has been laid! This is great news for me as it shows they are getting rather comfy. I just hope there is a few more laid soon as 1 egg does not go that far Anyways I will update this as regularly as possible, Thanks!
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Post by Wood~Ant on Sept 5, 2011 8:11:06 GMT
If the queens are almost the same size as their workers, then I am 99% certain that these ants are Myrmica ruginodis microgyna, as this sub-species has many queens to each colony/nest, whereas M. ruginodis macrogyna has fewer queens which are much larger than the workers. Hope you don't mind my adding this on your journal Bobdol, but I thought you'd like this information about your newly acquired colony
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Post by bobdol on Sept 5, 2011 8:51:14 GMT
Thats great thanks! No problem about talking on the journal I will rename them Myrmica ruginodis then:)
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Post by bobdol on Sept 5, 2011 8:53:34 GMT
I cannot tell if any more eggs have been laid as they seem to be sticking them to the larvae But the callow is walking around happily now enjoying her first couple of days of life ;D
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Post by bobdol on Sept 7, 2011 17:27:22 GMT
The colony does not seem to be foraging properly and would not take any of the insect food offered However, today I placed a small piece of meal worm directly into the tube next to them as I am worried the larvae and queen are not getting enough protein. Surprisingly the callow was the first to munch it after about 30 seconds of it being there, as soon as the rest of the colony had moved the egg (as in 1 egg:p) and larvae away they all came over (queen included) and had a real meal worm feast. After seeing this behavior I am hoping the queen will lay some more eggs as she is now packed with protein
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Post by bobdol on Sept 11, 2011 18:09:38 GMT
There has still been no more eggs laid so I came to the conclusion that the queen was not happy in the set up so, yesterday I attached the tubing to an ant world set up. The workers and queen had a look around but seemed to stay in the tubing. When I checked the following morning the workers were still in the tube but, the queen was no where to be seen I removed the tubing from the nest to look for the queen as I was worried she had somehow escaped or had been separated from the rest of the colony. I could not see her anywhere in the farm and was getting worried so I took off the sides of the ant world. As I did this a large amount of sand fell from the bottom of the ant world into the tub I had ready. I ignored this and carried on looking for the queen. Then, to my surprise I saw an ant running around in the tub and realized it was the lost queen. I quickly reunited her with the rest of the colony which is still 4 workers a larvae and an egg and she was accepted back warmly. I have no idea how she managed to get to the bottom of the ant world on the opposite side to the rest of the colony but, I think I may have failed to set up the ant world properly as, there was quite a bit of leaking sand. They are all fine now though and I will sort out a new nest soon. I have actually been thinking of boosting this colony as it was caught in the wild so I guess adding some wild brood is probably not a bad idea
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Post by bobdol on Sept 14, 2011 17:47:05 GMT
There is good news and bad news for the colony. The bad news is that the other day the young worker became ill and could not walk properly. When I woke up he had escaped through the cotton which I thought was impossible He could be anywhere in the room now or more likely he has died of the illness. The good news is that the egg count is up to about 5-7 now as the queen seems to have settled in well feeding on a small fly the other day
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Post by bobdol on Sept 26, 2011 15:22:30 GMT
I actually released this original queen and her workers with some larvae and eggs a few days ago after I aqquired a new queen with loads of larvae and a few workers from another nest.
At the moment this new colony is housed in side a test tube filled up with sugar water. Hopefully this queen will do well as she has so much brood.
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Post by bobdol on Sept 30, 2011 16:57:18 GMT
I have also released the other queen now as they do not seem to be very happy and one of the workers died I'm sure I will keep a Myrmica sp. again soon although at the moment I have a lot of ants running around If someone could delete this topic that would be great, thanks.
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