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Post by occultus on Apr 24, 2015 23:14:56 GMT
Feel free to comment directly on this journal. Hello everyone. I had ordered a Camponotus vagus colony with 20-40 workers from Ants Kalytta. They arrived on the 13/04/15.
24/04/15My Camponotus vagus have settled in nicely now. I have 31 workers and a nice pile of eggs and brood. Most of the cocoons and eggs are never stored with the queen herself, perhaps the workers move them just in case she gets peckish. I love how they tap their gasters hard against the floor to warn other nest mates of potential danger. Its very audible. They are always busy fighting the dead insects that I provide them with instead of just feeding My maple syrup water solution is drunk by the workers readily throughout the day. All of my colonies prefer this over sugar/honey water.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2015 3:29:09 GMT
A very nice and well established colony, the workers look huge! I witnessed my Queen Camponotus ligniperda also banging her gaster on the floor when I shined a torch on her the other day whilst checking on her, I perceived this as a stress reaction so I immediately covered her back up and left her alone. The maple syrup diet is also interesting, I shall give it a try with my colonies. Good luck with your new colony
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Post by Wood~Ant on Apr 25, 2015 8:09:29 GMT
Nice colony with lots of cocooned pupae. We had a colony of C. nicobarensis which regularly drummed loudly at night, as they were kept in Jen's room and used to wake her up. They did this a lot if our dog bumped the cabinet where the nest was sited. Hope these girls do really well for you, and is that cotton wool they have in the container?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2015 8:11:52 GMT
Nice colony with lots of cocooned pupae. We had a colony of C. nicobarensis which regularly drummed loudly at night, as they were kept in Jen's room and used to wake her up. They did this a lot if our dog bumped the cabinet where the nest was sited. Hope these girls do really well for you, and is that cotton wool they have in the container? I think it's tissue paper
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Post by occultus on Apr 25, 2015 10:05:34 GMT
Nice colony with lots of cocooned pupae. We had a colony of C. nicobarensis which regularly drummed loudly at night, as they were kept in Jen's room and used to wake her up. They did this a lot if our dog bumped the cabinet where the nest was sited. Hope these girls do really well for you, and is that cotton wool they have in the container? I think it's tissue paper Yes it is moist tissue paper inside the small container. That is how they were delivered to me from Kalytta. I suppose it helped keep the colony stress free during the shipping and no risk of drowning inside a test-tube.
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2015 11:02:56 GMT
How's the colony doing?
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Post by occultus on May 11, 2015 22:04:24 GMT
Hiya just noticed your comment, after just doing a head count on the workers I cannot believe it but I now have over 50 workers (20+ in 34 days) . Here is a video overview of the girls tonight. If you look closely at the end of the video you will see a nice large major that I didn't know I had until just now! I'll have to start thinking about getting a popper formicarium for this colony (looking at you Eden Formicaria) as they enjoy dumping rubbish onto the escape barrier and bridging an escape route. Loving this species right now, so entertaining I'd recommend them to anyone.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2015 22:12:31 GMT
Wow they've really made a mess of their outworld haven't they? lol Fantastic colony and video footage occultus. So the workers have removed all the brood from the queens chamber it appears?
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Post by occultus on May 11, 2015 22:19:14 GMT
Thanks, they are very messy. I have a mini USB vacuum hoover that ill use to clean most of the set up next week. All the eggs and brood are still kept separate from the queen ever since day 1. I find this a little strange as far as ants go. At least shes less likely to gobble them up haha
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Post by occultus on May 17, 2015 21:24:24 GMT
This morning I have raised this colony a little higher up inside my Ant cupboard (the aquarium cupboard under the S.geminata set up). This means that the colony is a few degrees warmer and on closer inspection I can see that most of the brood was moved out of the test-tubes and are now gathered in the center of their set up.
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Post by Wood~Ant on May 17, 2015 22:55:16 GMT
Wow, this vagus colony is doing well with lots of brood, and it helps having plenty of workers to raise and feed the larvae. Did it arrive with all those workers or has the colony grown in size?
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Post by occultus on May 17, 2015 23:02:17 GMT
I started out with 31 workers on the 24/04 and last time I checked I had at-least 54 workers on 12/05. Speedy development considering this is a Camponotus species.
I add 3 micro crickets and the occasional wax worm moth for them to feed on each night, they must like them.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2015 21:57:54 GMT
Glad the colony is doing well for you occultus, makes me feel very optimistic about my own colony considering I've read many accounts of how well this species responds to a heated environment. Great photo by the way.
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Post by occultus on May 23, 2015 22:57:35 GMT
New Nest - Day 41So today I was looking over my Camponotus vagus colony and thought things are getting a little too cramped for these guys. Its been harder to clean the set up lately and removing waste results in a squadron running up my arm. They are going to have a DIY formicarium that I built a few months back for just such an occasion. The materials used for this nest only cost me £5. I was lucky enough to catch the queen in the act leaving her test-tube and heading into the new set up. Took about 45 minutes for the entire colony to move out. They have moved into the first chamber room at the entrance of the nest. The video overview is coming up shortly.
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Post by occultus on May 24, 2015 0:03:49 GMT
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