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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 20, 2018 16:47:51 GMT
One of the larvae has now pupated, so hopefully we'll see the first sanguinea worker sometime next month.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 29, 2018 12:43:09 GMT
At the moment there's a big pile of eggs, about 15-20 very big larvae and 13 cocoons. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at how fast a Formica species is growing, but I can't help it at times.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 2, 2018 18:35:05 GMT
With difficulty, I have moved the colony into an acrylic formicarium. They seem to be mostly settled now! No sanguinea workers yet, but some of the cocoons look darker to me.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 5, 2018 8:23:46 GMT
I was just in time to get a photo of this momentous occasion. The first sanguinea worker is here at last!
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 7, 2018 16:36:06 GMT
There's now three sanguinea workers and the first one has started to darken. Several more cocoons are close to eclosing and the queen has laid another pile of eggs. She's still jumpy and runs around like a maniac as soon as the nest is moved.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 13, 2018 11:39:28 GMT
I can now see eleven sanguinea workers. They're just as fast and active as the lemani workers and I've already seen a few of them join in with the foraging.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 21, 2018 8:46:22 GMT
Today I can count about 23 sanguinea workers. There's still a small pile of eggs yet to hatch and plenty of larvae and cocoons.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 25, 2018 19:55:11 GMT
I counted about 30 sanguinea workers today. Here's the queen doing the rounds of her nest, she's still been laying eggs: It's cool seeing the red and black sanguinea workers living with the all black lemani ones.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jan 29, 2019 20:45:12 GMT
SOMEHOW these little monsters were getting out of their formicarium for the last few weeks. Then they started entering the right water reservoir and tearing great chunks of sponge out, which they dumped on top of the formicarium... Most of the workforce is now made up of the queen's own sanguinea daughters, although a handful of lemani workers remain to help them out. There's just one larva that remained in the colony over Winter, visible in the bottom right:
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 18, 2019 3:57:35 GMT
The queen has laid her first three eggs of the year and the single larva has become a pupa, although there isn't a cocoon surrounding it.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 19, 2019 17:12:20 GMT
The queen is continuing to lay eggs and the larvae are rapidly growing, already approaching the size for pupation! The colony always accepts food when offered.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 20, 2019 17:54:32 GMT
Several adorable callow workers are now running around in the nest. The queen hasn't laid many eggs but there's still several larvae and cocoons yet to develop. They don't take much sugar water but they readily accept crickets.
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