trueviper's F.cinerea colony: journal

[Deleted]

25th April 2015

 I received an F.cinerea colony from anthouse today. The colony consists of 1 queen, 8 workers and 1 larvae and were in excellent condition with no casualties when they arrived. I connected their test tube to a small acrylic nest with a piece of tubing as was able to gently manoeuvre the queen into the tube and into the nest. I then gently tapped the workers from the test tube into the nest via the removable dome. The nest was then connected to a small double arena foraging area where water and honey water is provided.

Here you can just make out 2 workers exploring the new nest with one worker taking some honey water. With it's gaster visibly expanded it made it's way back to the test tube and shared it's bounty with its nest mates.

 

[Deleted]

2nd May 2015


The colony is settling in well and have taken 4 gnats in the last week. They are very entertaining to watch and there are also some eggs present, roughly 4-5.

[Deleted]

3rd May 2015


I've been worried that perhaps the nest this colony is being kept in is a little to big as the workers have started dumping their waste into an un-used chamber instead of the foraging area. However I discovered earlier that the waste has now been moved to the very end chamber, the one furthest away from the queens chamber, which has a removable lid enabling me to remove the waste with a pair of tweezers. How thoughtful of the ants to help me out like that! 

[Deleted]

6th May 2015


The colony now has a nice little ball of eggs, not sure how many but definitely more than there were a few days ago.

[Deleted]

7th May 2015


Today I placed a small cricket, which was gut-loaded with fresh banana before freezing, into the foraging area. There was already a worker in the foraging area and she found it immediately. She responded very enthusiastically, running around it really fast in a hyper state and began munching on it before trying to move it. However it was way to big for her so she ran to the nest really fast and recruited another worker to help her out. They both returned to the cricket and again tried to move it. It was still a struggle for the both of them so eventually one of the workers returned to the nest for more recruits!

Eventually after half an hour there were 4 workers trying to move the cricket to the nest entrance which is raised off the floor of the foraging area with a twig bridge attached to it. These ants are very strong as one of the workers eventually lifted the cricket with another worker sat on top of it off the floor and onto the twig! This was an amazing feat of strength to observe.

They soon got the cricket into the nest entrance however it got stuck so I had to help them out, gently nudging the cricket into the entrance with a cotton bud. Seems they managed to recruit yet another worker in the form of their Homo sapien keeper lol!

Soon after one of the workers dragged it all the way into the queens chamber all by itself when it was then gladly accepted by the whole colony. It would seem crickets are very popular with these ants..

All the workers have been feeding very well on insects and honey water and all have nice fat gasters and are constantly sharing their food stores with each other and the queen. They are an absolute joy to watch and there's only the 8 workers!

[Deleted]

9th May


There has been a naked pupa in this colony for a couple of days now but I'm not worried as I've read that Formica queens don't mind them.

[Deleted]

18th May 2015


The naked pupa disappeared a few days ago I'm sorry to report. At least the egg pile has increased slightly.

[Deleted]

27th of May 2015

Nothing new to report except maybe the queens gaster is really swollen and there does seem to be a slight increase in eggs but not much.

...but that may very well change given the size of her and if the warm weather continues.

[Deleted]

7th June 2015

Nothing new to report, the eggs are still just eggs lol. I'm not heating this colony and it's developing very slowly I'm afraid.

[Deleted]

12th June 2015

The other day I noticed a dead worker in the nest and I've really started to fear for this colony's survival considering it's slow rate of development. However I've now noticed some larvae in the nest now, possibly thanks to the lovely warm weather we've been having so hopefully things are on the up.

[Deleted]

3rd July 2015

We have about 7 naked pupae and 3-5 larvae so things are starting to look better for the future of this colony

[Deleted]

9th July 2015

Yesterday evening I noticed that the first worker of this new brood had eclosed, however it was on it's back and on closer inspection it seemed that it's back legs were stuck together with fibres from the cocoon. The queen and one of the workers would attempt to free it from time to time so I went to bed and left them to it, thinking that they'd sort it out. Unfortunately this morning the new worker was dead and to make matters worse so was one of the other workers. Talk about bad luck!
Anyway this colony had better get it's act together soon or its days are numbered.

[Deleted]

I have given this colony away to a friend so this journal is now closed.