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Post by Tom on Mar 1, 2012 13:51:22 GMT
Hey everyone, my name is Tom and I just received a colony of Lasius niger which consists of a queen and 7 workers + about 20 eggs and larvae. I keep them in a test tube inside a plastic tub with sand with a pipe leading to a foraging area. I will keep you updated how the colony grows in weeks to come. Any comments and advices are welcome. cheers, Tom  |
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Post by Jenny on Mar 1, 2012 15:17:18 GMT
Hi Tom and welcome to our Ant Hill World.  You will find that your nigers benefit from good feeding, and they will need a proper ant set up to grow into a bigger colony later on in a few months time. You might want to consider a soil home, as these girls love to dig out large nests in my own garden. Photos of this can be found in our Ant Photo Gallery, so enjoy digging around our ant hill  |
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Post by Tom on Mar 9, 2012 13:45:15 GMT
I just connected a new foraging container. Ants are a bit shy but one of them doesn't seem to care much, it walks there and back over and over again (they made me think that they have designated one to scout the area). The eggs are much bigger than they were last time I checked their tube (twice as big, in fact). I feel there were more eggs before but it's really hard to tell since the queen is sitting on them all the time and she won't move when I ask  Today's menu: - sugar - roasted ham chopped into VERY small pieces - dead spider |
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Post by Tom on Mar 16, 2012 13:51:10 GMT
I got some flies from my mate, but the ants look like they are afraid of their new friend on the playground (and rightly so, the fly is almost double the size of my ants). Ever since I put the fly inside, not a single ant left the test tube so this might have been a bad idea. I will kill the fly eventually if the situation won't change, I don't want my ants to be terrorised in their territory.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Mar 16, 2012 16:06:48 GMT
It's always best to kill any insect prey you put in for food, or at least nobble it so well that you immobilize it and so it can't fight back when the workers attack it. While small worker ants can deal effectively with smaller prey, they are a bit reluctant to tackle the big stuff if it's still wriggling or seems to have the power to fight back.  |
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Post by Tom on Mar 17, 2012 0:26:52 GMT
It's always best to kill any insect prey you put in for food, or at least nobble it so well that you immobilize it and so it can't fight back when the workers attack it. While small worker ants can deal effectively with smaller prey, they are a bit reluctant to tackle the big stuff if it's still wriggling or seems to have the power to fight back. haha alright, I will do some delicate "impairing" next time with live food. thanks for the advice |
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Post by Tom on Mar 21, 2012 23:45:00 GMT
I took some new photos, have a look. It looks like all the eggs are still there, in fact, there are more than I thought. Please excuse the quality and resolution, I use a small and far-from-professional camera. i1170.photobucket.com/albums/r527/tomekg33/1.jpg thanks for your time, Tom |
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Post by Tom on Mar 28, 2012 12:46:17 GMT
It's been nearly a month since I got my colony and it looks like the babies are about to hatch. There are a few larvae with black spots at the end, so the colony should grow in a matter of days - I CAN'T WAIT! Queen is laying eggs like crazy too, there are loads of new eggs every time I check how are they doing. You can see the black spot on the larva that's just below the queen's head. I will have to replace their test tube though, it's getting dirtier by the minute  |
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Post by Wood~Ant on Mar 28, 2012 13:10:37 GMT
It's been nearly a month since I got my colony and it looks like the babies are about to hatch. There are a few larvae with black spots at the end, so the colony should grow in a matter of days - I CAN'T WAIT! Queen is laying eggs like crazy too, there are loads of new eggs every time I check how are they doing. You can see the black spot on the larva that's just below the queen's head. I will have to replace their test tube though, it's getting dirtier by the minute Actually Tom the "larvae" with black spots are in the pupal stage, which means they have spun a cocoon so they can change shape from a grub into a more adult ant shape. The "black spot" is the rear end of the larva where it excretes waste (urine and faeces), and this makes the cocoon dark at the end opposite from the head end. So the larvae will change their appearance inside the cocoon and eventually emerge as a callow ant, which is a very pale young adult. This paleness gradually goes as the ant matures and takes on the colour of the adults of the species, which in this case will be a brownish black. |
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