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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 27, 2019 22:34:42 GMT
Obviously she hadn't finished her meal,did you end up leaving it in for her? It was completely hollowed out. She just saw something moving close to her eggs and reacted by attacking it. I gave her a new fly to make it up to her.
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Post by 1moldavite on Jul 28, 2019 0:34:28 GMT
Oh right,sorry didn't realize,she sounds very fiesty.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 29, 2019 15:15:16 GMT
In this photo I can count 24 eggs.
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Post by 1moldavite on Jul 29, 2019 17:54:48 GMT
She is doing well for you,I'm pleased.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 29, 2019 18:55:17 GMT
She is doing well for you,I'm pleased. She's doing better than I'd hoped for so far. I'm just impatient for the eggs to hatch! The larvae are supposed to grow fairly fast though.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 2, 2019 23:48:00 GMT
Wonderful news! When checking on the queen just now, I discovered that the first larva has hatched. To make sure it was one (And not an oddly shaped grain of sand) I looked under my microscope and did indeed see head movement and the clicking of tiny jaws. Hopefully others will soon follow. This queen is one step closer to having her first workers. It turns out the medium sized fly I caught for her a few days ago was too big, but she accepted a very small cricket yesterday.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Aug 3, 2019 16:07:46 GMT
I can see another egg close to hatching near her front feet.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 3, 2019 22:30:36 GMT
I can see another egg close to hatching near her front feet. Look closely and you'll see three little larvae! I think you were right. A few days ago I noticed three eggs that were turning slightly brown and I worried they were dead, but it looks like they were just close to hatching. The queen has been calm today and was grooming herself during the inspection.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Aug 4, 2019 0:56:23 GMT
In the previous photo there was only one larva, but 8 hours later you definitely have 3. As this species isn't cheap to buy I am pleased to see she is doing so well and raising a family.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 6, 2019 2:49:35 GMT
Today I think I see four or five larvae. They're already a little bigger than the surrounding eggs, here's a photo I took of one with my microscope:
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 7, 2019 20:54:33 GMT
The larvae are already growing quicker than I expected- look at the one on the right! Apparently she's feeding them well.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 10, 2019 14:13:00 GMT
The larvae are still rapidly growing! I've noticed there aren't as many eggs now. I hope the larvae haven't been eating some of them, because they seem to be ravenous. Queen dragging a new cricket over to the larvae. I thought I'd cleanly killed it but it was still kicking a bit when the queen grabbed it. Nonetheless, she seems to feel it's no threat since she didn't try stinging it. She placed it right on top of the larvae.
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Post by crockatt on Aug 11, 2019 20:39:33 GMT
Lovely ant and great photos, I do enjoy looking at the photos, they really help immerse you into the journal, will look forward to your up dates.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 15, 2019 12:34:01 GMT
There are 11 larvae in total in different stages of growth. There's just a few eggs left, so the rest are definitely getting eaten. Perhaps the queen just wants to focus on the larvae she already has? Still, 11 potential workers is more than I expected from a first brood.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 21, 2019 21:58:32 GMT
The larvae haven't been growing as fast lately (Although they're still a bit bigger than they were) and the queen doesn't seem as interested in crickets. Maybe she wants something different? Still, overall they are doing well.
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