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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 17, 2011 17:11:20 GMT
First of all, I would like to apologize for my absence for the better part of the week. Normally I come on every day, but activities at my Nan's have been keeping me busy. But to the subject. There is a large Myrmica colony here, which has been active for at least six years. The good part? The alates came to the surface today. The bad part? They all went back into the nest after four hours of me sitting there and watching the princesses and drones climbing the grass blades around their nest. I have got two unwinged queens, but I think that one of them belongs to the main colony since she was wandering around outside a few days ago. I introduced a worker to her test tube and the next time I checked, she had the poor worker by the antennae and seemed determined to kill her. I released the worker afterwards, since she doesn't seem to like the nest I found her near. I have the other mated queen in a test tube with the last one I collected- I don't think she's mated, since she still has a wing. I'm not sure. I feel kind of let down though, that after four hours of sitting outside in anticipation of obtaining some mated Myrmica queens, they all decided it wasn't worth it. I was in the right place at the right time, but the weather probably wasn't satisfactory for them. I leave tomorrow, so I doubt I'll get another chance.
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Post by Jenny on Aug 17, 2011 19:31:37 GMT
The same thing has happened to me several times. Waited and waited especially for the flavus flights. Then all at once they have taken off only to come back down over the neighbours fence, or a time when I am at work The weather also lets them down, a bit of a wind and they won't fly, flavus particularly leave it so late some evenings, nearly so dark you can't see........
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