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Post by Wood~Ant on May 28, 2018 22:53:34 GMT
Mine still have 8 eggs, just hoping they hatch into larvae soon.
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Post by TenebrousNova on May 28, 2018 23:18:37 GMT
Mine still have 8 eggs, just hoping they hatch into larvae soon. They will! You should find that when the larvae hatch, they grow remarkably fast.
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Post by TenebrousNova on May 31, 2018 17:11:41 GMT
Here is the current brood. 10 pupae, some large larvae, newly hatched larvae in the middle of the pupae and a worker on the right carrying eggs.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 2, 2018 8:46:26 GMT
Judging from how dark the major pupa is, I believe she'll eclose in a matter of days now if not sooner! I'm rather looking forward to it.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 5, 2018 13:25:49 GMT
So, it turns out that the "major" cocoon, which eclosed just now, wasn't a major at all! Everything seemed normal at first: Then I noticed the suspiciously humped thorax and pair of wings. She is a princess, born prematurely into an 11 worker colony. Speaking of premature, she's much smaller than the mother queen. Excited as I am to see an alate born into a colony, I fear that she won't live for long, since the colony is far too young to need or want her.
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Post by UKantz on Jun 5, 2018 17:17:19 GMT
More than likely will be used for food, at least that's whats happened to most of my colonies in the past.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 5, 2018 18:14:05 GMT
That's what I think, she still hasn't been on her feet at all, only giving the occasional leg or antenna movement. On a brighter note though, one of the worker cocoons has already darkened quite a bit so hopefully the population will almost double before long.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 8, 2018 1:05:18 GMT
Here is the princess next to the queen. I highly doubt those stubs for wings would get her very far in the event of a nuptial flight...she seems to spend all her time clinging to the ceiling for some reason. And Worker #12 eclosed, the first worker I've had! But her tiny size compared to the 11 others...why, it's almost as though she's the queen's first biological worker daughter and the other workers came from wild cocoons...
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 11, 2018 15:19:39 GMT
Unfortunately, the princess has died and is now being eaten by the others. I knew this would happen at some point, but still. At least there's 11 cocoons and some quickly growing eggs and larvae at the moment.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 14, 2018 10:42:33 GMT
Two cocoons have gotten very dark now! Hopefully the others will also start to darken soon since most of them pupated at the same time.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 16, 2018 11:37:03 GMT
Workers #13 and #14 eclosed during the night and if I'm correct, #15 will eclose sometime today. The egg pile also seems to have grown a little in size!
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 21, 2018 14:27:37 GMT
Whoops, forgot to update. Worker #15 eclosed two days after I thought she would be due, but I'm not complaining. The latest generation of larvae is already approaching the pupation size and indeed, one already has. There's now nine pupae.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 23, 2018 10:22:43 GMT
Three cocoons have now darkened considerably. I'm still having a bit of trouble feeding this colony, it's very hit and miss. At the moment they're still ignoring insects and they're not interested in sugar water right now either.
Edit, 21:01:
Worker #16 has just eclosed!
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 24, 2018 12:19:49 GMT
Another worker eclosed today, but alas one of the older workers has died. So we're still at 16 workers.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 25, 2018 21:58:43 GMT
Worker #17 eclosed a few hours ago!
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