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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 21, 2018 14:31:19 GMT
At the moment I can count six cocoons and several more larvae are quickly approaching that stage.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 3, 2018 23:20:14 GMT
Currently there are 15 cocoons and counting! There's still lots of larvae and new eggs being laid. A few of the cocoons have finally started to darken so I'm hoping the new generation of workers will start eclosing in the next few days. The original 6 workers and 2 majors are still doing fine, as are the queens. It's remarkable how dramatically their gasters swell when they drink sugar water, you can see all the way through them. Their nickname of "sugar ants" is well earned.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 4, 2018 20:04:04 GMT
Worker #9 eclosed today, to my pleasant surprise! I'm surprised at how darkly coloured the new callow is in comparison to the ghostly colours I normally associate with newly eclosed ants.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 5, 2018 13:48:29 GMT
There's now ten workers! They seem to be doing great.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 7, 2018 19:29:40 GMT
There are now at least 20 cocoons and the queens are definitely laying more eggs. I get the feeling that the colony will need an accommodation upgrade once they've all eclosed, a boiling tube should be fine.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 12, 2018 17:37:20 GMT
With fourteen workers in the colony, things are looking busier than ever. There's two large egg piles.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 16, 2018 15:24:45 GMT
There's currently sixteen workers in the colony and 20 cocoons, two of which are very close to eclosing now. I'm surprised at how quickly the brood pile has grown considering what a slow start this colony had at first!
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 23, 2018 22:12:49 GMT
Right now this colony is enjoying a piece of homemade cake. I've also ordered a formicarium for them to move into, which will hopefully arrive next week. It's getting harder to count the workers since they're in fairly confined quarters and move around a lot, but I think there's about twenty now.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 31, 2018 20:31:40 GMT
I decided it's about time to move this colony out of their test tube, so I've given them the acrylic formicarium formerly occupied by my second Messor barbarus colony. The moment I opened the test tube, ten workers shot out as though launched from a cannon. They're busy exploring their new home at the moment, hopefully it won't be too long before they decide to move in.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 1, 2018 9:03:08 GMT
The colony has now moved over half of its brood into the nest. The queens remain ensconced within the test tube, but I'm hoping they'll move out later today. I counted thirty workers!
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 1, 2018 17:28:41 GMT
The first queen moved out on her own but I had to "encourage" the second one by gently tipping her out of the test tube since she refused to budge. They're nice and settled now.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 3, 2018 17:45:48 GMT
The colony has settled in well and two more callows have eclosed, making 32 workers in total. They have a ravenous appetite! When I fed them some sugar water just now, both queens went straight up to the entrance to get fed by the incoming foragers before returning to their brood chamber. The queens still seem to like each other's company even though they've got lots more space now; they spend most of their time sitting next to each other. I also noticed there's very slight differences in their markings, so I can at least tell them apart now.
I've estimated there's 30 cocoons yet to eclose. This is definitely the fastest growing Camponotus colony I've got so far.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 4, 2018 22:51:05 GMT
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Post by Wood~Ant on Aug 4, 2018 23:49:40 GMT
You ain't seen nothing yet. Put a zero on the end of your 35 workers and that is the size of my colony with just 1 queen, so imagine what 2 can do. In wild nests a colony can have up to 100 queens and about 130,000 workers, but 2,000 to 3,000 is more normal in a captive colony with 1 or 2 queens.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 7, 2018 10:46:47 GMT
At 38 workers, this is now officially my largest Camponotus colony!
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