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Post by bobdol on Mar 25, 2012 9:42:46 GMT
Last year I bought myself a young Crematogaster scutellaris from Ant store. There is 10 workers and a plump queen - all with the characteristic red and black bodies. The colony goes mad for meal worm but does not seem interested in sweet food. The queen has not yet begun to lay fresh eggs this year and I'm not even sure the colony feels they are out of hibernation as the large pile of larvae has still not started growing bigger.
Hopefully soon the colony will begin to grow for the new year!
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Post by bobdol on Apr 5, 2012 17:31:20 GMT
I'm happy to say this queen has finally laid some eggs. They are much larger than I expected and there is only about 5 but I expect more will follow. The workers have completley torn apart a piece of mealworm, feeding from the scattered peices when they choose. I've still yet to see pupae in this colony but they must come soon as some of the larvae are almost larger than the workers.
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Post by batspiderfish on Apr 5, 2012 20:12:50 GMT
I'm waiting for the first workers of a native species of Crematogaster to eclose. One of them looks like a male, which is one of those weird things that seems to happen to myrmicines on occasion. Crematogaster are beautiful and I love them!
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Post by bobdol on Apr 8, 2012 11:02:11 GMT
Yeah it's strange how some ants can spontaneously produce males even in the founding stages. When I first saw my Crematogaster colony I was shocked at how they look as they do have a really beautiful gaster shape and C. scutellaris have a bright red head but all black bodies which just adds to their style!
It also looks as if my colony will have their first pupae of the year soon as two of the largest larvae have turned completely white so it looks like pupation is starting.
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Post by bobdol on Apr 21, 2012 8:25:08 GMT
The egg laying in this colony has continued with about 2-3 new eggs every day. This means there is now a batch of about 15 as well as the 20 or so larvae that have always been there. I'm also very happy too see the first pupae of this colony after 3 larvae pupated over the last few days.
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Post by bobdol on May 4, 2012 21:25:13 GMT
The larvae in this colony seem to take ages to pupate but there are now 5 pupae. Two of them are even starting to turn brown so hopefully I will see the first eclosion ever of this colony soon adding to the current 8 or so workers. There is also plenty of eggs in the colony which have started turning into larvae. This colony seems to eat anything and are probably my least fussy ants. They never go crazy for anything but will always be interested in whats put in their tube ;D.
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Post by bobdol on Jun 23, 2012 15:58:25 GMT
Things have been going really well for this colony recently. The queen keeps laying fresh eggs and the worker population has been slowly increasing. I think there is 14 workers though it is hard to count. I had a sad case a few weeks ago though when the tube got overheated causing 2 workers to die and some larvae to shrivel up. They seem over it now though and have plenty of fat, healthy brood. They also eat almost anything which is great as picky ants can be frustrating.
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