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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 24, 2018 17:52:33 GMT
Took a look at Antsrus this evening to find that this lovely red ant is in stock. As some of you may know, I have tried this species a few times before and fell in love with them for their size, colour and attitude. I did swear to myself I wouldn't get any more ants after my Myrmica colony arrived, but you know what? Sod that! This queen was advertised as having plenty of eggs. I look forward to her arrival! As always, feel free to comment.
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Post by UKantz on Jun 24, 2018 18:23:09 GMT
As soon as I saw Chris had updated his stock on facebook, I came to check in here to see if you had given in to the dark side! Ah well, I'm sure to enjoy reading this journal, as I've also kept this species before and absolutely love them. Wish you luck! Can't wait to see some pictures:)
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 26, 2018 10:15:08 GMT
Here she is! She's arrived with plenty of pupae in varying stages of development, larvae and eggs. It looks like the first workers will eclose any day now. As expected from this species, the queen is aggressive and immediately started charging around with open jaws when I unwrapped her test tube. I'll give her a bit of sugar water and maybe even a little cricket once she's settled down. I can already tell that this is going to be a productive lady.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 27, 2018 15:42:15 GMT
It begins! The first worker is eclosing now. I've noticed that three or four other pupae have been deposited with a larva at the other side of the test tube for some reason. I hope they're not damaged or dead. The queen has already eaten a small cricket and given pieces of it to the hungry larvae.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jun 27, 2018 16:08:27 GMT
Mature pupae that are close to becoming adult ants are very tough, and pupae (bare or cocooned) are not normally eaten unless something is wrong with them. I have noticed larvae are sometimes placed on empty cocoons, but I can't see any nutritional value in the larvae eating them unless the discarded cocoon helps them when they in turn pupate.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 30, 2018 16:31:58 GMT
Mature pupae that are close to becoming adult ants are very tough, and pupae (bare or cocooned) are not normally eaten unless something is wrong with them. I have noticed larvae are sometimes placed on empty cocoons, but I can't see any nutritional value in the larvae eating them unless the discarded cocoon helps them when they in turn pupate. I'm afraid it didn't turn out that way, the excluded larva and pupae turned green and died yesterday. The other brood remains healthy though and a second worker has eclosed today.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 6, 2018 9:21:43 GMT
Here's the colony at the moment. There's still just two workers, but one of the larvae has just pupated and they're feeding well. Because I was worried about the brood deaths from earlier, I decided to get a second colony just in case. This queen has no larvae yet, but a big pile of eggs and eight workers.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 16, 2018 15:22:05 GMT
Not much to report so far. The first colony has plenty of brood right now that are growing very fast, there's at least 5 pupae, some big larvae and a small egg pile. The second colony with more workers appears to have ate most of their eggs, I can only count three.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 19, 2018 15:53:36 GMT
Sadly, the second colony's queen has just died, leaving one very tiny larva (That I may attempt to introduce to the other colony) and several orphaned workers. I don't believe they will be friendly towards the other colony, so I'm not taking the risk of introducing them.
As for the first colony, the queen seems to have laid some more eggs. There's several pupae and one of them looks like it will eclose today. Let's hope this one lives.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 20, 2018 7:51:06 GMT
The third worker has eclosed and seems to be just fine.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 26, 2018 17:02:16 GMT
There's now five workers, several pupae (Two of them are very dark), lots of well grown larvae and a pile of eggs. The colony eats a cricket every other day.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 31, 2018 11:56:44 GMT
There are now nine workers!
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 14, 2018 0:06:32 GMT
Most of the brood are now larvae but there's also a few pupae. I moved this colony to a clean boiling tube so they'd have more space and although at first they reacted badly and a few workers acted very sluggishly, only one died. I fed them just now on a cricket which rolled down the tube and into the brood pile, where without prompting the larvae immediately turned their heads and set upon their feast with the greediness I've come to know from them.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 15, 2018 15:30:43 GMT
Here's the brood pile:
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Post by TenebrousNova on Oct 10, 2018 23:25:32 GMT
Today I can count 14 workers. There's not much brood left this year but the workers are still quite active and making one hell of a mess in their test tube. I might have to move them again if they keep it up!
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