My Messor Barbarus

[Smudge]

To say there are only the 3 workers at the moment they sure are aggressive. I found a mini mealworm in my tub which was white, so I assumed it had just shed its casing.

Being that it was soft I placed it in the tank and within a matter of minutes, one of the workers found it and lunged rather effectively, as she drew blood. She fought but was overpowered and ran back to the brood chamber. Next thing I know all three came back and well lets just say I'm genuinely shocked at how powerful these little girls jaws are.

Mealworm for tea I think ha ha

[Smudge]

Well well there has been a lot of changes in the nest. Where as they still all reside in the same chamber and only come out at night. . . . There numbers have increased to about 12 with hatches every day yesterday there were 8. Struggling to keep track at the moment.

The amount of seeds collected has increased dramatically their are about three times as many as ants. I have noticed they collect them early in the morning or late at night... I'm guessing they will collect during the day when their numbers increase.

There is one thing that is concerning me however 2 seeds have started mold and the ants will not take them out so I can remove them. They are in the next chamber separate to the rest, and the same goes for whats left of a spider and a tiny patch (which has been there for 2 weeks) of greenish blue mold which is in another next to them, which I think is from the condensation. Not sure what I can do about them because I dare not remove the glass cover and jeopardise this successful little colony.

If anyone does have any ideas please feel free to leave a comment in my comments thread.

[Smudge]

Again another increase in number with 16 workers and I think one major. She is somewhat bigger than the others at about 7-8mm in length. but is still dwarfed by my queen haha.

I am very pleased at how well this colony is doing as there is at least one worker born a day. As well, today I saw my queen holding something with the major and 2 other workers on closer observation I revealed it out to be a rather large piece of antbread.

Things couldn't be better for my Messor formicarium. I just hope the Pheidole start to pick up.

[Smudge]

The funniest thing today I put a fly into the set up for a bit of protein. I thought I had killed it turned out it was just stunned. It got dragged into the nest by the Media worker (its not a major sorry guys) and then decided to wake up 5 minutes later to my horror.

It was buzzing around not being able to fly and really disrupted the queen and workers in the nursery, before eventually being smothered and overpowered by the obviously very angry worker. Any way while this was happening the queen and a few workers were moving the eggs to a differant chamber very frantically... Bar one, the little worker for some strange reason was taking bits of y'tong which had crumbled off. Must have thought they were eggs in all the havoc.

[Smudge]

After the shock they had the other day the messors seem to be fine. They have sealed half of their nest of I suppose to stop another incident. queen and workers are doing fine, not sure how many there are now cannot really count as they never stay still. My guess would be around 20.

Other than that nothing else to report.

[Smudge]

Not really much activity over the last few days. just crushing seed and tending the larvae I have got more pictures but havent quite finished editing them.

[Smudge]

Here are some photos I took a few weeks ago
















See if you can spot the Media

Recent update I have my first major pupae and what looks to be a media one as well. Lots of eggs, larvae and pupae. They for some reason sealed their chamber but still collect the seeds I put in. They have readily been taking insects which are eaten by the queen and workers.

The major is pretty big with a head almost in equal size of the queens should be at least a centimeter in length by my calculations but we shall see.

[Smudge]

Ok so on checking my ants today, I found that the major was uncurled after a short while she started to explore. I know this one is definatly a major as although its the same length as the biggest of the three medias. It is much, much bulkier with a head half the size of the queens. Very pleased its finally come as been getting confused because of the medias. Will try and post up some pictures soon

[Smudge]

Well this colony is doing extremely well with over a hundred workers now. I am happy to report that they are using more of the ytong nest noe instead of only the 2 chambers.
I did wake up yesterday and had a nice suprise a rather large pupae that I had been following started uncurling into a fully fledged major and wow is she big. Her head is nearly the size of the queens and even my dad couldnt get over her size.
I do however know that she will not be the largest major I will have but a welcome addition to the early stages of this young colony.
Pictures ti come soon

[Smudge]

Ok so to update all is well. They have for some reason decided to heavily block the main entrance, but I'm not worried they have plenty of seed.
I have also found a new insecr for them to eat waxworms and they thoughrily enjoy them attacking them with ruthless efficiency. I am also begining to wonder if I do have any majors because I have another pupae which dwarfs what I thought was the last major so who knows. Its head is bigger than the queens and I am astonished about the size.
Will keep you psted when it does uncurl so I can better judge the size, at the moment I would say the head is roughly about 3 - 4 mm across

[Smudge]

Here we go some long over due potos




here is the new massive pupae I was talking about, not the best picture but you can see she is very large at about 12mm roughly






not a very good pic I'm affraid but this is what I thought was my first major but she is dwarfed by the new pupae


as you can see the number of ants has dramatically increased since my last lot of photos
















and last but not least another photo of the new major pupae

Enjoy the pictures and feel free to comment

[Smudge]

I have decided it would be much easier for everyone to comment on this journal so feel free to ask any questions or place any comments here

[Wood~Ant]

Is the nest made from plaster or aerated concrete (a.k.a. Ytong)? The condensation doesn't seem to be a problem for those girls of yours Smudge, but then Messor barbs are a pretty tough bunch on the whole. ;D

[Smudge]

It is made of Y'tong and its a great nest. The condensation does come in quite handy as they do use it to drink from as well as keeping the inside quite moist which is excellent for the eggs so they don't dry out.
I am beginning to wonder if I do have any majors in there at the moment because that pupae is bigger than the next biggest. Her head is bigger than the queens and its way too early for it to be a super-major and none of what I thought were majors have red heads they must just be Media workers

[Smudge]

Ok so on checking the girls this morning all seemed well masses of seeds piled in areas and the usual activity. I did catch a glimpse of the largest pupae be it major or possibly even super major with its size.

On checking them again now I had noticed that the clutch of eggs that had been there had grown dramatically from 15/20 to about 40 I was astounded and there was me telling timenova yesterday that I hadn't had the fortune of having a large clutch of eggs. Anyhow as I observed them cleaning and caring for them my elbow slipped and I accidentally banged the top of my bearded dragon tank, where my ants reside.

What I then saw shocked me even more, this wasn't the same clutch of eggs, it was a new one as a worker was running off with the other lot; so I suppose that old saying of do not count your chickens or ants in this case before they hatch is valid haha.