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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 8, 2018 11:21:46 GMT
One of the cocoons has now darkened significantly, so hopefully the 6th worker will be joining the colony before long.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 12, 2018 15:14:41 GMT
Hello, Worker #6! You certainly took your sweet time getting here (7 months!) but that doesn't matter now. The colony is growing at long last and I even spotted a few newly hatched larvae.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 21, 2018 15:11:00 GMT
Worker #7 is up and about! And I suspect that Worker #8 will be here sometime today, because the two cocoons have been changing colour at the same rate.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 22, 2018 19:11:23 GMT
Worker #8 eclosed a bit later than expected, but she was there in the morning! So far she seems to be the largest worker with a head nearly twice as wide as the others. Two more cocoons have begun to darken and the new larvae seem to be growing quickly.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 27, 2018 9:57:42 GMT
We're now up to nine workers! It's starting to look much busier in there now. Three more cocoons are darkening so there will be 12 before long. I decided a few days ago to offer them a few fruit flies since I used to feed them to this colony when I first got them. Oddly, they provoked a very aggressive reaction in the queen, who ran around snapping at them and accidentally grabbed one of her daughters at one point before letting her go. She looked like she was trying to "sting" the flies once she had them...she calmed down in a few minutes though!
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 28, 2018 17:10:29 GMT
Ten workers at last, leaving just five cocoons left. Two of those are getting very dark now. The queen seems happy.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Mar 28, 2018 21:42:01 GMT
I didn't do so well when I kept this species, but have had better luck with C. cruentatus as both of my colonies came free from Anthouse in Spain. You colony is coming on nicely.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 29, 2018 14:10:32 GMT
I didn't do so well when I kept this species, but have had better luck with C. cruentatus as both of my colonies came free from Anthouse in Spain. You colony is coming on nicely. I did unfortunately lose a few other small colonies before having more success with this one, but thank you! I can only attribute it to me being more patient this time around. I do like the look of C. cruentatus because of the bright red spot on their gasters.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 30, 2018 20:02:08 GMT
An 11th worker has just eclosed!
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 31, 2018 23:26:59 GMT
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 3, 2018 17:28:20 GMT
Ant House has gotten the 1.5cm deep acrylic formicarium I've wanted in stock at last, so I've ordered one for this colony to eventually live in. I doubt I'll move them until there's 20-30 workers however, since the test tube is still fairly clean and has a lot of water.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 5, 2018 14:09:12 GMT
There's now thirteen workers in total. Not the luckiest number, but by the looks of it the fourteenth worker will be here by tomorrow. The newest generation of larvae are already very big and should pupate soon. I wonder if any of them will grow up to be majors?
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 6, 2018 13:24:00 GMT
There's now fourteen workers and the colony has almost finished eating the cricket I gave them last night. Many new larvae have hatched but as the egg pile doesn't seem to be shrinking, I believe the queen is still laying more.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 11, 2018 14:00:05 GMT
There are now fifteen workers! I'm not sure if I should wait until there was twenty before moving them into their new formicarium, or not.
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Post by UKantz on Apr 11, 2018 15:01:49 GMT
Personally I always prefer having more than 25 workers before moving them into a small formicarium, though Camponotus are a much larger species than I'm used to. I assume its an anthouse arcylic nest?
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