[Upsilon] Messor barbarus

[TenebrousNova]

So my new red-headed Messor barbarus colony has just arrived.

There is a healthy looking queen and ten workers. Unfortunately there's an 1oth dead worker and no brood at all. The queen is quite plump though so I'm not too worried about that.



I gave them a fruit fly and they seemed quite interested. They're chewing on it as I type this...maybe some food will get the queen laying eggs.
Whilst I was putting the fly in, three of the workers immediately walked out of the test tube and onto my floor...I had forgotten how naughty this species is. The workers are safe and sound back in the test tube though.



I have a small tank filled with topsoil ready for them but I'm not sure if I should let them have at it, or keep them in the test tube for a while.
As usual, feel free to post on this journal.

[Wood~Ant]

Feed them up well with a good canary or finch seed mix, and the odd small fly, but keep them in the test tube until she has a few larvae. Then you introduce the colony into the soil nest set up where they can dig a new home.

[TenebrousNova]

Thanks Wood. I had let them have the run of the soil set up today but beyond short forays they didn't stray far from the test tube. I've waited until they were all inside and resealed the test tube. I'll be helping out at the pet shop tomorrow, and canary/finch seed is abundant there.

[TenebrousNova]

I cannot get a clear photo of them but the queen has finally laid three eggs. Unfortunately there is another dead worker, bringing the count down to eight. I'm not sure if this is because the first generation is particularly short-lived or because I'm doing something wrong. The body was tangled up in a piece of cotton which the workers were yanking out in a bid to escape. Perhaps that's why she died?

[TenebrousNova]

Previous comment retracted: I managed to get a good photo of the eggs after all. I also noticed a fourth egg which must've been laid today.



Under the queen you can see the two nurses holding the eggs.

[TenebrousNova]

One of the workers in the silver tank colony was carrying a minor pupa around on the surface today. I was able to relieve her of her burden (Without getting bitten!) and give it to this colony. That should help tide them over until their eggs hatch. As expected, they did not question the logic of a pupa magically appearing in their test tube. As far as Queen Upsilon and her workers are concerned, the pupa has always been part of their family.

[TenebrousNova]

It's hard to see, but one of those pupae has successfully eclosed into a minor worker.



You may also have noticed the larva present in that photo. I was giving the silver tank colony a cricket this morning and apparently they'd been warming their brood inside the seed pot, so they immediately rushed to get them out of there. I took three larvae and three pupae for this colony. One minor pupa, one media and a major (I was unable to resist and wanted to see what function a major would perform in a founding colony).

I think the tiny nanitic Messors were a bit surprised to find this monstrosity rolling towards their seed pile.



The queen still has only three eggs but she plays a big role in looking after her ill-gotten brood. She's constantly fussing over them.



She's also the only ant in the colony able to carry the major pupa. She never lets it out of her sight now.



I'm not too concerned about this queen's lack of egg laying. As I recall, Wood's Q7 queen did the same before suddenly laying loads of eggs and founding a very large colony.

[TenebrousNova]

Well, hello there Major #1!
She's a bit bigger than I expected. Kind of strange seeing a big girl like her in such a small colony.

[TenebrousNova]

It's been a while but the queen has started to lay eggs again. There's nine in total and what looks like a newborn larva.

[TenebrousNova]

So, I decided to put this colony in a soil set up since that worked well for my old colony when it was starting out.
I slowly tipped them into their new tank and made a small starter tunnel along a side. It wasn't long before the whole colony was inside it and workers started to expand it.



I expect that the queen will be more comfortable this way. I was surprised when the workers started to take a few seeds into their new nest. I never had the impression that they ate them at all whilst they were in the test tube.

[TenebrousNova]

Although the occasional worker comes out to collect seeds I place on the surface, I see no indicators of the colony's activity. Time will tell.

[TenebrousNova]

I recently saw the first indicator that this colony is starting to grow under its own power now, without adopted brood.



They readily take anything I give them at this point and the major from the previous entries earlier came out of the nest to drag in a dead cricket. I'm very pleased.

[TenebrousNova]

It's been ages since I saw any signs of activity from this colony so I dug them up. Unfortunately it's just the queen and one worker. No brood.
I don't know how this happened. This colony never foraged much but there was a little granary in the nest so they were eating something. The queen and worker are in a test tube for now and seem to be calm enough. 
A pupa was being carried around on the surface in the silver tank colony so I nicked it for them, the worker is fussing over it now. As long as a single worker remains, it may not be too late to salvage this colony.

The problem might've been the tank they were in- it was too big for a colony of maybe 20 workers at the most. I've found I get best results keeping young colonies in smaller setups. My Manica rubida, for instance, are doing excellently in a tank barely longer than their test tube and my young Lasius niger colony live in a little sample pot (The kind they sell at a pharmacy).

[TenebrousNova]

I'm not dead, but I have been inactive for a while. I apologise for that.

Queen Upsilon is alive too, despite her last worker dying a few months ago. She continues to survive despite this crippling blow.
Not all is lost though! With the coming of Spring, the larger Silver colony has started to bring their brood to the surface to be warmed. Boosting this queen has worked in the past so I'm doing it once more.

She did not question where this big pile of larvae and pupae came from, but adopted them immediately. A few of the pupae are mere days away from eclosing and she's been looking after them for a few days already. This time next week she should have a tiny, but growing force of adoptive workers to get her back on her feet.

I'm not sure if I should move her into a clean test tube now or leave her be for the time being.

[Wood~Ant]

I would be inclined to leave her in the present set up until she has 3 to 5 workers, then move her into a cleaner test tube. Once she has a fairly good sized colony then think about putting this into a larger more permanent set up.