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Post by IceWhyte on Feb 2, 2012 20:24:58 GMT
I have had my rubra colony for about 2 years now so its about time I created a journal. I bought these when I had no idea about ants so the fact that they are still with me is a miracle. I purchased them from an eBay seller I think, there was originally 2 queens and about 40 workers or something. I put them in a home made ant farm which I thought was pretty cool. The home made ant farm wasn't very good as one time a lot of ants escaped including one of the queens. For about a year the rubra queen laid very little eggs and and the numbers dropped to around 5-6 workers, once I started to learn more about them I put them in a different any farm and left them in the dark for a while and fed them loads of insects. This helped as the queen laid loads of eggs. I now have them in and ant world and there are around 20 workers and loads or larvae. If you are interested or haven't already, have a look at my blog which I created for them click hereTo ask any questions, post any comments or give any advice relating to my Myrmica rubra colony please do so here.
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Post by IceWhyte on Feb 2, 2012 23:36:06 GMT
I was just making a video to ask if anyone knew what this substance is on the inside of the connector tube? Just as I picked up my phone to take the video I noticed that the queen was just going for a walk also, she seems to be doing this a lot. So if anyone has any idea what that white substance is at the top of the tube please let me know. It has only appeared since hibernation finished for these ants.
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Post by IceWhyte on Feb 13, 2012 16:39:59 GMT
There has been a lot of digging and foraging going on recently. A few new workers have eclosed and seem to be going down the tube and hanging out there for a while before getting carried back by an older worker.
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Post by IceWhyte on Feb 16, 2012 16:47:23 GMT
I found a small fly which a rubra worker was quick to kill.
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Post by IceWhyte on Mar 6, 2012 12:12:07 GMT
When I woke up this morning I noticed that the queen was sitting motionlessly down the tube. There were no workers to be seen which I thought was odd because usually the workers try to get her back in the nest area straight away. Just now I noticed that there was a few workers acting strange around the queen and then going back to the nest, I think they were leaving a scent trail for her to find her way back but she was having none of it. Then one of the larger worker came running down, looking like it was on a mission, grabbed the queen and started dragging her back to the nest area without hesitation. At one point she was being dragged by her antennae, which seemed pretty rough. Here is a video, sorry it is a slim view (need to figure how to sort that).
Still large number of brood and pupae.
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Post by IceWhyte on Mar 25, 2012 10:34:51 GMT
Just as this colony was starting to really grow I have just seen a worker carrying the queen around and she is dead Pretty annoyed by this as this colony has made it through some hard times (my amateur mistakes) and was now starting to produce large amounts of workers and brood. I think I will let the ants just live out the rest of their lives in the nest as I am in no rush to move new ants in and I don't think there is much point in offering the brood to my Messor queen. I will however definitely keep Myrmica rubra again, they were always a joy to watch. Some people say that they can be hard to keep but I think I must of been lucky as my colony would attack, kill and eat anything I put near them. I have no idea what could have caused the queens death. Could have been anything, may have even been old age because I bought the queen over two years ago and was unaware of her age so she may have been captured from a nest.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Mar 26, 2012 18:14:39 GMT
Sorry to hear about the death of the queen, and this journal has been moved into the archives.
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