Here's my journal of my colony of Aphaenogaster fulva that I had field collected after getting back.
First, I know that colony collecting is frowned upon. This species is extremely common in my area, it was during hibernation so they weren't really stressed out, and I needed a decent colony for my formicarium experiment. I also made sure to collect 100% of the colony. Even going to lengths of putting a light Grey tarp under the wood I found them in for easy spotting and to collect all the larvae and eggs.
I collected them on December 30th,2022 and they were found in a local forest log that was half decayed.
Once I had collected them, I returned home and put them in a plaster setup for a temporary time frame. I had intentions of making a new style of formicarium that seems to work very well at the moment.
Currently, the colony has a huge pile of larvae and the eggs are hatching into larvae. I'm expecting pupae within the next week or following week. The queen has gotten bulkier and seems to be almost ready for more egg laying. I had been feeding them cockroaches and meal worms, but I had to get rid of the roaches since my new girlfriend is not a fan😂. She's OK with the meal worms and ants though.
I'll update here if there are more cool updates! And for any tunnel progress on their formicarium! I'm hoping them make some natural looking chambers!
