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Post by TenebrousNova on Dec 5, 2011 22:09:12 GMT
Sorry about the lack of updates. I don't see much of this colony- I imagine they are settled for the Winter, although the occasional worker comes out. I'm not sure of the health of the brood and queen, since none of the chambers are visible.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 21, 2012 10:49:37 GMT
For about four months I was on the brink of giving up on this colony. I had put this off for as long as possible, but this morning I began to look through the soil of this colony's container in search of what I expected to be their remains. When I was nearly to the bottom of one corner, I ended up revealing a chamber- then a blur of activity as a live colony swiftly went into action. I found a brood chamber containing about thirty larvae, most of which were medium or large-sized. But what of this colony's queen? Upon further investigation, I found her, alive and well! ;D She was very calm and simply twitched her antennae at her passing guards, who were covering her protectively. The colony is eagerly drinking from some honey and eating a mealworm. Because of the healthy larvae, it should be possible to restore this colony to its former number. Losing this queen would also be a sentimental blow to me, since I've had her for the longest.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 25, 2012 11:44:08 GMT
The queen's gaster plates have once again began to move apart as she has been fed with plenty of honey recently. Whilst active in comparison to her sleepy state when I uncovered this colony, she has yet to lay eggs just yet. This should change when the colony consumes the cricket I have given them. They turned into little angels of destruction when they discovered it. ;D
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 1, 2012 7:46:04 GMT
Still no eggs yet, but about four larvae are now covered with a thin veil of silk. Good to see that the worker population will grow a little within the coming months.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 4, 2012 17:21:48 GMT
There's about 18 pupae now, over 50 larvae (20-30 of which are close to pupating) and a small pile of eggs. This colony is doing pretty well on the mosquitoes I've been catching around the house recently.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 12, 2012 10:50:46 GMT
I have just seen the queen in the middle of laying an egg, which was added to a pile of nearly fifty. I'm amazed at how quickly this colony is getting back on track. The queen herself is quite diminutive and isn't a very big specimen, but she's certainly making up for her size. ;D
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 17, 2012 12:10:23 GMT
Here's the pupa pile and a new batch of eggs. I love this species. It's pretty hard to go wrong with them once they get going.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 22, 2012 7:31:53 GMT
I shall soon have to take precautions or perhaps to move them, because Lasius niger workers from this colony have been occasionally getting through the air holes. I'd rather not end up with them invading the setups of the other ants, so I'll put them in a different cabinet.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 28, 2012 16:40:35 GMT
The egg pile has just about doubled in size. A pair of big house flies arrived in my room earlier. After briefly dispatching them with a Dean Koontz novel, I gave one to the L.niger and one to the M.barbarus. The Lasius were very eager and soon began to drag it outside their shelter of damp cotton before beginning to snip little bits of meat off to bring inside. With any luck, the brood mass will get even bigger from this little treat. Her Majesty has been very shy recently, and avoids showing herself if she can help it. She's certainly been doing her job though. ;D
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 4, 2012 9:35:08 GMT
A callow has eclosed this morning. There's a small number of dark pupae which will soon be joining the new worker. Once they have all reached adulthood, the worker population will have doubled.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 4, 2012 18:29:25 GMT
One of my Messor barbarus workers has died, and I found a worker carrying the body in search of somewhere to put it. I relieved her of her burden and gave the body to the Lasius niger. Once I put it in, they surged with angry activity and a pair of workers pinned down the body as others began to apply formic acid to it. I also noticed that a callow was in the process of eclosing, but was being trampled underfoot and generally ignored as the rest of the brood were being moved. She couldn't move properly because of a piece of cocoon on her feet. With a twig I was able to gently pick her up by hooking the end under her feet, and then put her in front of the cotton they're nesting under. I was relieved when the workers eventually took notice of their helpless sister and took her in. The dead Messor worker was taken to the nest, presumably to be eaten.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 14, 2012 9:28:00 GMT
Nothing major has happened apart from more callows eclosing and the laying of more eggs. I saw the queen sitting outside the nest with a small battalion of workers, so I thought I'd take a few photos. Here she is, sitting with many of the callows, pupae, and some eggs presumably laid recently: Another pile of brood, featuring pupae and eggs: The queen going back to the nest (Half-dragged actually ;D ):
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Post by Wood~Ant on Apr 14, 2012 14:22:42 GMT
Nice lot of eggs and cocooned pupae on the middle pic.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 14, 2012 19:53:10 GMT
Nice lot of eggs and cocooned pupae on the middle pic. At a rough estimate, there's over 60 pupae and near 100 eggs. An earlier clutch has hatched, so there must be over 50 larvae.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 20, 2012 9:59:17 GMT
I changed the cotton that they were nesting under today, as it was getting a little dry and moldy. There wasn't much of a fuss despite the increasing worker population. Brood pile: The queen for the most part stayed in the centre of a protective phalanx of workers, which just about covered her completely. Here she is as she emerges to join a column to the new piece of cotton: Soon after the new piece of cotton was put in, I put some pieces of soil around the sides to close off gaps, and sure enough the workers found the new enclosed space appealing. There's almost a solid mass of workers in there now.
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