Colony update - 27th May 2018
Melophorus sp.- red black 6-7mm queen
No eggs, no brood, and just 1 regular worker and a nanitic.
Their cotton and test tube is dirty and mold infested.
Yet the queen happily sits on it. Makes me wonder if this is what killed all the larvae..,
Will likely move them to a new test tube or a new founding nest soon.
May go back to non outworld setup, colony is just so small and they rarely venture out.
click for largers
Melophorus sp.- black orange 7-8mm queen
No eggs. 5 workers
They don't touch the food I give them.
Opisthopsis Rufithorax (strobe ant) 10mm queen
5 nanitics
No change on the 3 cocoons
Camponotus humilior
3 nanitics, 1 egg.
No change and I haven't seen that 4th nanitic that escaped since I last saw it
I may have a buyer for them, if not, they will most likely get released.
Phediole sp. red head/black body 9mm
9 nanitics. Doesn't look like any more pupa are ready to eclose this week, but still a lot of brood
Their cotton is starting to mold on the right side, the rubbish/toilet side, and they shifted all the brood to the left side glass.
Dirty nest, and you can see all the rubbish they dump on the leaked honey
Pheidole sp, all black 7mm
3 nanitics, and it looks like two pupa are ready to eclose this week, and 5 more in the coming weeks.
Nest is getting hard to see inside, it's just so dirty and smeared.
Polyrhachis rufifemur 9mm
No eggs, 1 cocoon, 1 nanitic
Either she is still settling down, or she will lay when spring arrives
Nanitic is sitll very passive and just stands over the cocoon, while the queen is the guard dog and forager - a role reversal compared to claustral ants
Edited by CoolColJ, May 27 2018 - 6:11 AM.