23 replies to this topic

[cpman]

Hi everyone. I found a relatively small Camponotus queen on March 23rd of this year. She is almost exactly 13 mm long. I found her under a rock here in Austin, TX. She flew the night before, as I'd not found an ant under this rock the previous day. From her size and coloration, I presume that she is C. texanus.
Amazingly, she already has 14 eggs! This is the largest number of eggs I've had a Camponotus queen ever lay before she had workers. She settled in really fast to her test tube.
She's relatively docile. I can observe her without foil on her test tube, and she does not freak out when I pick up the tube.

Seeing as it seems as if she'll be successful at this point, I decided to start a journal.

Here are some pictures I took today through my microscope:







I'm excited to see how this colony will come out.

Edited by cpman, June 18 2015 - 1:20 PM.

[antmaniac]

Good luck, have you consider give her some honey? it may help.

[cpman]

I haven't given her any food yet. I usually give food only to queens that are having trouble. Seeing as this queen has more eggs than any other Camponotus queen I have kept makes me think she'll be successful.

[Chromerust]

I found that even fully claustral camponotus enjoy a sweet snack during the founding stages. Good luck with her!

[Jonathan21700]

Really beautiful queen! Good luck!

[cpman]

4/9/2015:

She has her first larva! The rest of her large brood pile is certainly intact.

You can't see the larva in this picture, but this is a more up to date one:

 

I can't wait for her first nanitics...

[cpman]

I found another queen of this species on the same day as my Camponotus cf. sansabeanus queen. This species clearly flew on the same day, as there were many of her type. She laid eggs on the same day as my Camponotus cf. sayi. She's got 4 eggs. I would have photos, but she was skiddish, and did not want to stay still, so I didn't take any.

Edited by cpman, June 16 2015 - 2:12 PM.

[Trailandstreet]

Oh, what a beauty!

[cpman]

Update 4/12/2015:

 

So, this queen is up to 16 total brood, with several larvae! The largest one is around 3 mm. I can't believe how many brood this queen has!

Edited by cpman, April 12 2015 - 8:15 AM.

[cpman]

Update 4/12/2015:

 

So, this queen is up to 8 eggs now! I still haven't taken a photo as I'd like to disturb her as little as possible. Pictures will come eventually....

[cpman]

Update 4/16/2015:

 

The second queen has got a lot of eggs now, and I finally managed to get a photo of her without her freaking out!

 

Here she is:

Edited by cpman, June 16 2015 - 2:12 PM.

[cpman]

Update 4/16/2015:

Her larvae have grown INCREDIBLY fast. She has 11 now, and the largest is about 5 millimeters!

She's standing above her largest larvae in the photo, but here it is:

Edited by cpman, April 16 2015 - 7:42 PM.

[cpman]

Update 4/20/2015:
She has her first pupa and two more last instar larvae! I counted 15 total larvae today...

I need to work on my picture I got of her...

Edited by cpman, May 5 2015 - 4:21 PM.

[cpman]

Update 5/5/2015:
She has 6 pupae now! She still has a fair amount of other brood...


Sorry I didn't get a better picture...

Edited by cpman, May 5 2015 - 4:21 PM.

[cpman]

Update 5/5/2015:
She has pupae! I've been impressed with the speed of her brood development.
She's calmed down since her brood have matured more.

[cpman]

Update 5/11/2015:

Her first nanitics have eclosed! It looks like one more is about to hatch too. I gave them a chunk of cheese, as when I've given them sugar water first in the past, they fill up on it and refuse all protein.
The nanitics are 5 mm.

Here they are:


One worker is callow, and one is not. I last checked on this queen on 5/5/2015, so they may have been there a little while.

[AntTeen804]

Nice pictures.

[dspdrew]

Such a cool color. It's not like the red of C. vicinus.

[cpman]

Update 5/12/2015:
They rejected the cheese, and another nanitic eclosed. They were chewing at the paper towel ball keeping them in, so I gave them an outworld. Because they refused the cheese, I gave them some cherry Greek yougurt that I was eating as a snack. They've already started eating it!

[cpman]

Update 5/30/2015:
She's had workers for about a week and a half now and I fed them: