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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 12, 2018 15:16:59 GMT
I'm very happy to report that there's now a cocooned pupa. I've only been waiting since last August for this to happen! One of the large larvae is very active and moving its head around in a weaving motion. Perhaps it's spinning a cocoon of its own? The workers have been tearing bits of cotton off, I imagine it's to help the larvae with pupation since other species that spin cocoons tend to cover their larvae in a thin layer of dirt and debris when they're ready.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 16, 2018 18:49:37 GMT
When I decided to check on this colony today in hopes of getting photos, they promptly moved their brood right to the other side of the test tube. As it's the open end, it's going to be most inconvenient when I try feeding them later today. Here's part of the egg pile. There's about 20 now. As you can see, a few of those larvae are now larger than the cocooned pupa is. Regular (Non-nanitic) sized workers, or very early majors in the making?
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 18, 2018 0:33:17 GMT
My previous question has now been answered as those two large larvae have now pupated. They shall be regular sized workers! I look forward to seeing an additional three workers bringing the colony up to eight. The current workers are growing increasingly bold and will run aggressively up to the open end of the test tube when I check the colony. Perhaps they feel more defensive at this stage, where the colony is set to overcome a major hurdle and start growing in earnest.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 22, 2018 17:45:18 GMT
Two more larvae have pupated, bringing the cocoon count to 5.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Feb 22, 2018 23:09:15 GMT
You must be giving the correct care, as I never had much luck keeping this species. Did you enjoy eating the bucket of broken glass? ( re: your first post about the turkestanus).
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 23, 2018 1:35:04 GMT
You must be giving the correct care, as I never had much luck keeping this species. Did you enjoy eating the bucket of broken glass? ( re: your first post about the turkestanus). I had completely forgotten about that post at the time! How awkward! Still, as it turns out my family never asked me to justify spending over £100 on ants, I think I've dodged that ordeal for now. As for how I've been caring for them, until January I for the most part checked them maybe once a week at most. My previous queens stressed very easily at repeated disturbances and quickly cannibalised their brood so I was very sparing in my interactions with this colony. When it became clear that they were taking food, the larvae were developing and the queen was laying eggs, I decided checking them once a day can't hurt. The long wait appears to be paying off.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 24, 2018 15:35:36 GMT
The pupa count has now risen to seven. Oddly, one of them doesn't have the usual cocoon. This does occasionally happen in cocoon-spinning species however and shouldn't harm the developing worker. I've seen a few such bare pupae in my Lasius niger nest recently.
There's maybe four larvae left that are rapidly approaching the pupa stage as well. The eggs have not yet started hatching but it's just a matter of time. The herculeanus nanitic workers are roughly the size of my Formica fusca workers. Judging from the looks of those pupae, the second generation workers will be bigger. I can't wait for them to eclose.
The queen spends most of her time snoozing with her head resting on the cocoon pile. Such a hard life! This does bring me to a concern I have for when the colony eventually outgrows its test tube, however. The acrylic formicariums I bought from Ant House are great for a wide variety of species, but I think the queen is too big to fit inside it. I have a Messor barbarus queen doing just fine in one and she has plenty of room to move around, but she's shorter than the herculeanus queen. Even if she does fit, it would be very cramped...I may need to consider an alternative.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Feb 24, 2018 18:56:16 GMT
Ant House do a deep chamber nest for large ants, as I have several homing my bigger Camponotus such as singularis which has a massive sized queen.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 25, 2018 22:11:17 GMT
Ant House do a deep chamber nest for large ants, as I have several homing my bigger Camponotus such as singularis which has a massive sized queen. It's one of the 1.5cm deep ones, right? I took a look at them yesterday after seeing your post. I might have to get one eventually, although it should be some time before this colony outgrows their test tube. Here's the brood at the moment. I tried counting the eggs earlier (Unsuccessfully) and estimate there's at least 25 now. It seems the larvae take two or three days to metamorphose into pupae, as I held the test tube up to the light and could see the silhouettes inside the cocoons. A few of them contain what are still unmistakably larvae.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Feb 25, 2018 22:42:50 GMT
Yes that's right, the 1.5 cm deep nests. I prefer the medium sized nest for large ants with huge queens as they have plenty of room to move about in.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Feb 26, 2018 13:22:08 GMT
I find this nest is the best, as it is a good size with large deep chambers and a large foraging arena. 30 cm nest You may have seen these when you visited to collect the silver Messor colony as I have 6 of them on the table I keep my ants on.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 1, 2018 17:45:02 GMT
An 8th cocoon is being spun by a larva right now, leaving just three remaining larvae that have yet to reach the pupa stage. I imagine it takes about a month for C.herculeanus pupae to eclose? I've been keeping this colony on the heat mat to hopefully speed up development a little.
I examined the eggs with a magnifying glass earlier and believe that a few of them will hatch soon. Most of them appear "half empty" when viewed up close, but the developing embryo of a few of them just about fills the eggs completely. Has anyone ever seen an ant egg actually hatch before?
The colony hasn't accepted any food recently, including honey. I guess that's because the existing larvae are nearly ready to pupate and the eggs have not hatched yet.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Mar 2, 2018 12:57:42 GMT
I did see an ant egg hatch once years ago. The little larva chewed a hole in the end where her jaws were, then ate the empty egg skin seconds later as she recycled it. Workers then cleaned her and fed a proper meal 3 minutes later.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 3, 2018 15:39:31 GMT
I did see an ant egg hatch once years ago. The little larva chewed a hole in the end where her jaws were, then ate the empty egg skin seconds later as she recycled it. Workers then cleaned her and fed a proper meal 3 minutes later. That's interesting! A pity it couldn't be recorded. There's now nine cocooned pupae. Oddly, the bare pupa appears to be gone and replaced with a cocooned one...not sure what happened there. Did they eat it or did it somehow gain a cocoon afterwards? Regardless, there's just one large larva left. I was also correct about the eggs, as there's a newborn larva in the test tube today. I expect the other eggs will begin to hatch soon enough! There must be about thirty now.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Mar 4, 2018 0:13:21 GMT
I did see an ant egg hatch once years ago. The little larva chewed a hole in the end where her jaws were, then ate the empty egg skin seconds later as she recycled it. Workers then cleaned her and fed a proper meal 3 minutes later. That's interesting! A pity it couldn't be recorded It was before I had a camera or camcorder that filmed macro, back in 1975. So I only had a magnifying hand lens and was lucky to see a Formica egg actually hatch, as I've never seen this event happen before or since then.
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