I received this queen from fellow Floridian 123LordOfAnts123 in late April, to whom I'm grateful since this species' range ends about a 2-3 hour drive north of me in South Florida.
July 13th - Although I received this queen with a sizable larva in April it seems that her brood was developing rather slowly and it took almost a month for her first pupa to appear. She also appears to have a few more larvae and possibly eggs so I'm hoping she has quite a few workers in her first generation.
August 17th - One month later and she finally eclosed her first worker, I made sure to give them some sunburst ant nectar. The worker found it and quickly began drinking the nectar that she shared with the queen, and went back and fourth between the nectar and queen until she was full.
August 19th - I'm pretty content now that this queen and her worker are picking up the pace a little, they have eclosed two more workers in the last couple of days and seem to have another two or three pupae to go. I'm also planning on moving them into an empty mini hearth I have to minimize the difficulty in test tube feeding within the next week or so.
