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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 7, 2012 12:55:15 GMT
Last night I gave them a cricket, and looked back an hour later to see it covered in a glittering black mass, which turned out to be about six workers. They removed the legs and brought them into the test tube, and later chewed up the body. I also saw the media worker briefly leave the test tube to look around, although she didn't stay out for long. I had a moment of panic this morning when a polishing cloth was left on top of the lid, not knowing that the fresh air was being replaced with polish fumes. The colony was upset to the point where a few workers rushed around outside with pupae in their jaws. Fortunately, the colony soon settled down and the pupae were safely put back where they belong. If anything, it's my own fault for not warning anyone beforehand of the possible dangers to the colony. There's some more workers on the way, I think they will bring the count up to 23-24.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 8, 2012 14:35:32 GMT
It appears that in due course there will be a population explosion! Her majesty has recently laid a pile of about fifty eggs, and there certainly weren't that many before. Must have been all the protein I've been plying them with recently. I wouldn't be surprised if a major or two were among those eggs. One can hope. On a recent urge I have bought a big and heavy bag of lawn topsoil, intended for the Lasius niger once I've prepared a suitable home for them. When the M.barbarus colony is larger I may provide them with such a substrate, as it's easier to dig in and they haven't attempted with the current one. I'll leave them until they're ready, I would hate to push my luck with a courageous decision like that.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 9, 2012 9:54:38 GMT
A further two workers have just joined the colony. They also devoured a cricket yesterday. I wish I knew what I've done right, but I am cautiously optimistic of this colony's success. The test tube is beginning to look busy. The pale head of a callow can faintly be seen to the left: Here's the media worker hanging from the ceiling. She has participated in helping to drag the cricket: The big media pupa is getting close to eclosing, and she will be larger than the first one. This morning I bought a packet of those large seeds that are generally for Human consumption. They are soft and easily cut to size with a pair of scissors, and I believe I've caught the workers moving some of the pieces into the test tube. --------------------- The aforementioned seeds seem to be a hit with the Messors, they've been harvesting them ever since I put in the broken pieces. ;D The nutrition looks ideal as well:
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 13, 2012 9:19:27 GMT
Curiously, those seeds mentioned in the above post have all been consigned to their rubbish pile behind the test tube. They took a mealworm but it had to be cut into small pieces before they could take it. They still like crickets a lot. There's now about 25 workers or so. Three callows have eclosed during the night, including a second media worker who is even bigger than the first. The brood pile has shrunk in size as pupae have been eclosing, but it will grow again when the eggs hatch. The cotton at the back of the test tube is covered in workers. The queen likes to perch on it or next to it.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 14, 2012 10:51:47 GMT
A picture represents a thousand words. A video represents a thousand pictures. ;D Here it is!Best watched in high definition by the way. As I was recording that, a worker scaled the sides of the container with surprising speed and I had to track her down afterwards. The newest media worker put in a nice introductory appearance at the beginning.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 16, 2012 19:06:28 GMT
About an hour ago I waited for the last forager to enter the test tube, then I carefully blocked it off with a piece of cotton. I emptied the container of the current substrate, and filled it with lawn topsoil instead (As used for my Lasius niger, and rather successfully if I do say so). Afterwards, I used a plastic straw to make two small holes- one by the side so the interior can be seen, and the other more towards the middle of the container. This hole can't be looked into as easily. I then put the test tube in and unblocked it. With a minute about fifteen workers were swarming around. They entered both starter tunnels and split into two teams to expand them. They were hauling enormous clumps of soil at a surprising tempo, and this was before the media workers got involved. ;D They first concentrated on the second hole, but then decided to work on the one by the sides instead. The workers were narrowing the entrance and expanding the interior, and they are currently digging away at at a good speed. I'm hoping to watch the queen when she eventually makes her move. But a nest should be established by tomorrow morning.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 16, 2012 21:41:47 GMT
Update: One of the callow workers took a larva into the shorter, second tunnel that doesn't run against the side. As you may have noticed, ant queens are most likely to choose the site that houses her brood. When she went back for another larva, there was an eruption of sudden activity. Before I knew what was happening, the queen was out of the test tube and down the hole. ;D Seconds later, about a third of the brood was whisked down with her, including a big pupa that took two workers to carry. If they weren't digging quickly earlier they certainly are now! The rest of the brood remains in the test tube under the guard of several workers. Even the queen seems to be helping with the digging, as every so often a bright reddish head appears with a big piece of soil in her jaws. ---------------------------- Curiously, the workers suddenly brought the rest of the brood to the other tunnel. Presumably they already have a first brood chamber in it. I can't tell, because the tunnel curves into the soil. This makes me wonder whether or not the queen's side will join them, or vice-versa. Or maybe both tunnels will be joined, which seems likely. Workers are digging away at both tunnels. I'm leaving the test tube in there for tonight, if they've completely finished with it in the morning I'll fill it with water as a supply for them. The test tube is empty now apart from the seeds, which they will hopefully bring into the nest with them. It's been worth the four-five hour wait to see all of this happen, there's more brood/workers than I originally thought.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 19, 2012 9:55:36 GMT
I had a look at the chamber structure at the bottom of the container today. There's one tiny granary and one very large brood chamber, which is over 5cm long and 2cm wide. Presumably there are more, because the workers began to move the brood out of sight. There's a lot of well-developed brood at the moment. I spotted a few callows and some pupae that are getting close to eclosing. The chamber's proximity to the heat mat below must be helping with the brood development. The only real problem is the amount of moisture in the soil- it condenses into big droplets on the side and lid which I have to remove regularly. A side effect caused by this is that the workers have been scattering seeds from their test tube and granary around the surface, where they grow mold filaments within six hours. The soil will dry out a bit at some point if I keep the heat mat on, with any luck. I would keep the lid off to allow it to evaporate but I wouldn't put it past the workers to sidle out when I'm not looking. Apart from that, things seem to be okay. They took a medium sized fly yesterday and also a tiny piece of sausage. There's a lot of freshly dug soil around the two nest entrances.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 21, 2012 14:14:34 GMT
I saw the queen moving around the brood chamber this morning, she's alive and well. Along with the assorted brood, I also spotted a very big looking ball of eggs being pulled out of sight. ;D The brood chamber appears to have quite a high ceiling, and the shapes of the workers are hard to spot. There's another very big larva at the moment. It's a bit early to tell, but it looks slightly bigger than the media pupae. I'll keep an eye on its progress. I'm experiencing difficulty in feeding the colony at the moment, as they have closed their nest entrances and won't come out for food. I'm willing to give them a week before I'll get worried about it. Final item of note for today is that the condensation is lessening. The soil is pleasantly warm during the day. When the heat mat is on, the colony appears to move from the visible chambers to one of the unseen ones closer to the surface. When it's off, they come into sight when it cools down. Quite a few of the pupae are dark, so I'd imagine that there will be plenty of workers soon.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Aug 21, 2012 14:36:34 GMT
My Q7 colony forage on the surface about once a week, and then it is only 2 or 3 workers who come out, yet they survive perfectly well. My 2 larger barb colonies so forage almost daily, but then they have vast numbers of hungry larvae to feed, so don't worry if only a small amount of food is taken until your colony gets really large Timenova.
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Post by Smudge on Aug 21, 2012 20:47:48 GMT
Yeh don't worry this happens a lot with barbs mine for instance only open the entrance at night to get seed so I miss a lot of the action. Until the colony gets large enough that they feel they can defend themselves they will continue to do it.
Have to say you are quite lucky as I am yet to have a large ammount of eggs ony small clutches hence why my colony only grows slowly and I only have about a hundred workers or so.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 22, 2012 10:06:24 GMT
Yeh don't worry this happens a lot with barbs mine for instance only open the entrance at night to get seed so I miss a lot of the action. Until the colony gets large enough that they feel they can defend themselves they will continue to do it. Have to say you are quite lucky as I am yet to have a large ammount of eggs ony small clutches hence why my colony only grows slowly and I only have about a hundred workers or so. "Only"? As you both predicted, they have come out to feed during the night and I caught two of them foraging this morning. And just now I saw a third one collecting seeds. She slowly and steadily dragged them along, occasionally scouting ahead to be sure she was on the right path. Yesterday I sank a milk bottle cap into the soil and filled it with some seeds. The nest now appears to contain a number of seeds that weren't there before. Curiously, the seeds they have taken are all unopened ones. Before, they would only take ones that had been shelled. Maybe they last longer when they're unopened. I had also left out a fly for them which has been taken into the nest. Here's the set up. Two nest entrances can be seen towards the bottom.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 25, 2012 14:26:44 GMT
The workers still seem to restrict foraging to night and early morning, but they're taking a wider variety of foods than they used to. For instance, the largest and smoothest seeds in the mix were ignored at the beginning. I assume that the medias are coming out of the nest, because they've managed to bring several of them into their brood/granary chamber. Said chamber is filled with many seeds. I haven't seen the big larva recently, it might be out of sight or it may have become a media pupa. I have been giving them dead flies and each night they vanish. I've brought another box of crickets, so those will do fine in the absence of any flies. In the meantime, I'm leaving my windows wide open to increase the chances of flies wandering in.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 25, 2012 17:11:22 GMT
Watching the Messors feed is not easy these days. If I open the lid, the fresh air startles them and they won't come out again. Earlier I gave them a cricket which I had cleanly cut in half after (I thought) killing it quickly. After waiting for a while, I lifted a corner up and saw at least ten workers dragging the top half (Which was astonishingly still alive and struggling) towards the nest entrance. Then they noticed the lid was open and ran back inside. It's good to see that they still have a big appetite. Must be all the brood they have below decks.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 28, 2012 10:30:34 GMT
Until now, they had gone off fish flakes. But they brought in three pieces this morning, along with a bit of ham. There is evidence of more nest expansion, the already big chamber is now an inch longer. I haven't seen the queen for the last few days, but I am confident that she's healthy and well. Insect food is taken readily.
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