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Post by Wood~Ant on May 21, 2015 18:13:40 GMT
She is as big as this baby then Occultus? Winged female of the "bala" or bullet ant, Paraponera clavata
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2015 20:45:31 GMT
I just bookmarked this thread as I will be watching very closely. It might sound slightly mad, but I would love a sting from the monsters I suffer from a strange medical condition and very uncommon in men called fibromyalgia so it will probably be just annoying to me. I snapped a finger a year back and I just reset it myself, then using a cut down chop stick and duck tape, made my repair. Next day at work my boss went nuts and I was dragged off to hospital. The nurse had to x ray but my diy splint was the only way to sort a broken finger and we just laughed
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Post by Jenny on May 22, 2015 5:35:57 GMT
That queen looks huge on the video, I wouldn't like her to get loose in my kitchen
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Post by Wood~Ant on May 22, 2015 7:45:02 GMT
The way she moves is very like a tarantula spider hunting, and to look at her gaster you would think she was a worker rather than an egg laying queen. Ponerine ants are very wasp like and one of the most primitive ant species on the planet from the time of the dinosaurs, such as the fossilized ants found in amber from the Cretaceous and Jurassic periods. Very ancient indeed, which is why I can see your interest in her Occultus.
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Post by occultus on May 23, 2015 0:40:05 GMT
She never runs but walks about her set-up with confident and slow but sure steps. It's as if she knows that other animals should leave her be or else.
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Post by Wood~Ant on May 23, 2015 7:28:22 GMT
The queen has been lapping up quite a lot of sugar water from the test-tube so this is a good sign. She still hasn't touched any proteins yet. Last night I offered her a choice out of 1 mealworm, 1 mealworm pupae, 1 waxworm, 1 adult cricket. All were ignored. This has given me an idea. I have created a solution of 1 raw egg, half a cup of milk and plenty of sugar. I then soaked a cotton wool bud into this solution and have left it inside the nest box. In theory the Queen should treat this like regular sugar water and hopefully the proteins that she absorbs will do her some good. I have frozen the rest of this mixture inside a freezer bag for later use. Tomorrow I'll see if she takes to this solution and if so I could try my other colonies with this. Just be aware that milk goes sour and combined with raw egg it will soon form nasty bacteria. So I would suggest you remove it after 48 hours. You could mix it with some gelatine which you can buy in supermarkets to make a kind of protein high milkshake jelly.
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2015 8:59:34 GMT
Great looking queen occultus, will look forward to reading about your progress with her.
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Post by occultus on May 23, 2015 11:10:16 GMT
Good thinking with the gelatine Wood. I'll pick some up at Asda today.
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