[2011] Lasius Niger

[TenebrousNova]

(Introduction)

Yesterday the Lasius niger nests around Portsmouth released many queens and drones, who soon descended having fulfilled their goals in the air.
I caught four Lasius niger queens. The first two are kept seperate and are settled in their own test tubes. The other two are kept together, as a experiment. One of these queens will undoubtedly fight the other for dominance once the first workers are born, but the victor should see a larger pile of brood than she would normally have.

I planned to start this journal as soon as one of the queens began egg laying, and two of them have indeed laid their first egg each. Queen Two and either Queen Three/Four, to be precise. I won't be able to update the journal much for the first months, as of course these queens are all new ones and won't get get their first workers until late August or September.

(Log 1)

All four queens are settled and in good condition. Queens Three and Four initially stayed away from each other, but they seem to be co-operating in looking after two eggs. Queen Two is the calmest queen of all of them and went into her test tube yesterday without a fuss, and she already has her first egg.

Queen One has not yet laid an egg, but is sitting by the cotton in her test tube. Maybe she will lay an egg tomorrow or later today.

That concludes this journal entry. As with all of my journals, please feel free to leave any comments, but it won't be updated much with the queen's progress since they are fresh from the mating flights.

[TenebrousNova]

(Log 2)

Last update for today. Queen Two has now laid her second egg, and Queen Three has her first egg- she seems to be staying close to Queen Four, who now has two eggs.
Queen One is the only one who hasn't laid eggs today, but I hope she picks up within a few days.

I don't want to discourage them, so I won't check on them tomorrow. They seem to be settling down a lot quicker than my 2010 queen, who didn't lay her first eggs until two days after mating.

[TenebrousNova]

Are you sure, Lotsofants? That sounds like a huge number of eggs for a single queen to lay in a few days.

(Log 3)

Queen Two now has about seven or eight eggs in total, which isn't bad at all. The same goes for the paired queen who has about six eggs.

Queen Two is probably the best egg layer right now, and she doesn't mind me observing her for a few minutes each day- she simply stands just behind her eggs while peering at me. Queen One still has no eggs.

At any rate, the first larvae could start hatching in about three weeks time.

[Zarbi]

Jun 28, 2011 20:22:07 GMT @lotsofants said:

Hi Timenova I have also caught a Lasius niger queen and she had 2 eggs in the second day so I gave her a small piece of cricket abdomen and in the third day she had around 50-60 eggs Good luck with your queens

50 to 60 eggs in 3 days seems a bit of an exaggerated estimate lotofants, as even with food to help egg production it wouldn't work that fast

[TenebrousNova]

Let's not start an argument, please.

(Log 4)

Queen Two has about 10 eggs now, she's doing very well. My 2010 queen took a day longer to reach that amount of eggs.
Queen One is still not laying eggs. I'm not concerned about her though, I'll only start worrying about her if she fails to lay eggs after a week.

The paired queen who has been laying eggs has almost the same amount as Queen Two. ;D

[TenebrousNova]

Ah, thank you for that information.

[TenebrousNova]

(Log 5)

Queen One has finally left the cotton she has been sitting in and now has her first couple of eggs.
Earlier I checked Three and Four to find them sitting right next to each other, both cleaning their combined eggs. ;D

I'm not sure if Two has laid any further eggs, but she is still calm as ever.

[TenebrousNova]

(Log 6)

I'm pleased to report that Queens Three and Four are fully co-operating with each other. They have a big pile of their eggs and stay close to each other at all times.
When I checked them, humorously the queen sitting on the eggs looked directly at me and so did the other queen, who was sitting on the cotton before checking the other queen and the eggs.

I apologize for the bad quality, but this should at least show the amount of eggs laid. The second queen was on the cotton at the time of taking the photo, so you probably can't see her.

[Wood~Ant]

I see you've got sooty mould growing on the cotton wool. This is a nuisance and looks bad, but it hardly ever seems to cause problems for the ants or the brood as adults try to keep brood away, and regularly lick the brood clean, so you should be fine unless it spreads too much

[TenebrousNova]

Jul 2, 2011 10:50:44 GMT Wood~Ant said:

I see you've got sooty mould growing on the cotton wool. This is a nuisance and looks bad, but it hardly ever seems to cause problems for the ants or the brood as adults try to keep brood away, and regularly lick the brood clean, so you should be fine unless it spreads too much

It has caused no problems from what I can see. I imagine the queens will move their eggs away if it does.
I wanted to replace the cotton since it is old, but the test tube is too long and the cotton is wedged in too much for me to retrieve it.

[TenebrousNova]

I have just obtained a newly mated Queen Five and Queen Six.
I think it's strange, because there are no alates out there...yet these two are mated. I'm just trying to sort out accommodation for Queen Six.

[TenebrousNova]

Correction: I now have a Queen Seven, Eight, and Nine. There's a nuptial flight outside. I'm finding it tricky to find accommodation for these ladies, but I'll think of something. As with my other 2011 queens, I intend to keep them until they get first workers, then let them go.

All six of these new queens are big and healthy looking, presumably because they waited until later to have their flight.

Queen Six is now living in my Pheidole's old box, which is now filled partway with soil.

[TenebrousNova]

Released Queens Seven, Eight and Nine. I can't find anywhere for those to live, and I'll have my hands full with six anyway.

[TenebrousNova]

(Log 7)

Queen Five: Claustral state achieved, first pile of eggs attained.

Queen Six: Claustral chamber created, first pile of eggs attained.

I think I saw some first larvae with Queen Two, but it's hard to tell. They're doing well so far.

[TenebrousNova]

(Log 8)

The first larvae have begun to hatch for Queens One, Two, Three and Four.
One and Two have also accepted a tiny bit of honey.