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Post by UKantz on May 19, 2018 10:52:55 GMT
Since exams are coming to a close, and a friend in Europe had a colony going spare for a good price (15 euros for a 2 queen colony and 15 workers), I figured I'll make space for another colony of a native species.
In the next 2-3 weeks I'll be moving out of my university house, and moving back home, so they will not spend much time here. I'll update once they arrive.
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Post by UKantz on May 26, 2018 18:42:08 GMT
This colony also arrived today all the way from Poland. I was initially worried as the water supply had turned pink (probably due to the formic acid) and a few workers had appeared to killed themselves because of this. However the queens and the remaining workers all seem okay. No brood spotted yet, but it may just be hiding under some workers.
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Post by UKantz on May 28, 2018 9:41:39 GMT
I attached a clean test tube and the colony has moved in, at present there isn't any brood but hopefully that will change in the coming weeks as they settle in. They've been eating some protein jelly and sugar water I've provided  |
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Post by UKantz on May 31, 2018 9:54:02 GMT
Last night I gave them a mealworm. I honestly didn't expect them to take it since they didn't have any brood. This morning I fed them some sugar water and noticed the mealworm had been chewed up a fair bit, and that also a worker was carrying around a cluster of newly laid eggs! This is hopefully a sign they're settling in well |
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Post by tatufmetuf on May 31, 2018 17:45:39 GMT
Happy to hear that, its seems the transport scared them if they sprayed formic acid with no threats threatening them. Do you have any pictures of the pink water ? or from the colony now ? it would be nice to see them |
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Post by UKantz on Jun 1, 2018 9:17:58 GMT
I'll be updating all my journals with pictures as soon as I'm home (I left the macro lens there), though I threw out the tube that had formic acid in unfortunately.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jun 1, 2018 10:41:02 GMT
This colony also arrived today all the way from Poland. I was initially worried as the water supply had turned pink (probably due to the formic acid) and a few workers had appeared to killed themselves because of this. However the queens and the remaining workers all seem okay. No brood spotted yet, but it may just be hiding under some workers. The pink water might be caused by a chemical additive to avoid bacteria or mould, as I doubt that formic acid would have had such a reaction on the water, it wouldn't have soaked through the cotton wool. |
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shadowynne
Nurse Ant 
Posts: 84
Country: UK
Pets: Many, many pets...
Favourite Ant: Lasius flavus
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Post by shadowynne on Jun 1, 2018 22:26:11 GMT
I have had pink water appear as well in a test tube I made myself, so the same water, cotton, and test tubes I always use.
It was very strange indeed, I transferred the ants to a new tube as soon as possible as I didn't like the look of it.
It was bizarre, a very definite pink. I figured it must of been some sort of fungal/algae/bacteria contamination.
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Post by UKantz on Jun 7, 2018 17:18:09 GMT
There are quite a lot of eggs now, to the point where if I make a sudden disturbance, the worker holding them can't run away quick enough, and so another worker dashes over and rips half the clumps of eggs off her  . This colony has been moved into a new nest too:    |
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Post by UKantz on Jun 11, 2018 11:29:48 GMT
The first larvae have started to emerge from the piles of eggs. I'm wondering if I'll see a similar trend in relation to my Formica lemani, where the majority of the eggs get eaten and only a small number of larvae emerge relative to the number of eggs laid.
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Post by UKantz on Jun 20, 2018 9:00:11 GMT
These two queens have been going into overdrive recently. The brood pile now consists of 3 cocoons and around 50-70 larvae of all different sizes. Seems many of the eggs so far have been making it to the larvae stage after all! |
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Post by UKantz on Jun 21, 2018 19:16:20 GMT
7 cocoons now, and 3 more fresh batches of eggs laid. Seems like I'll need to move them into a new nest, only 1 generation after they've been in my care |
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 21, 2018 23:16:27 GMT
Haha, I know the feeling. I feel that my fusca are going to need a new nest next year with how fast the colony has been growing! Glad to see that yours are doing well. |
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Post by UKantz on Jun 26, 2018 16:03:01 GMT
15 cocoons now, with a mass of eggs and larvae of all different stages in the works |
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Post by UKantz on Jul 5, 2018 17:07:47 GMT
Almost all of the larvae have pupated now, there are 60-70 cocoons in the nest. Its quite amusing to watch 20 workers franticly hurry their brood to safety when I go to feed them (they are still very skittish to disturbances).
This means I'll have to attach a new nest very shortly, as there is only 4 chambers.
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