100 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

Name her Gerd: A radiantly beautiful giantess, loved by Frey.

[NPLT]

Name her Gerd: A radiantly beautiful giantess, loved by Frey.

Alright, by the way, should I be concerned about my Myrmica, since I'm not sure if she was coming out into her outworld much/at all.

[ANTdrew]

I’ve never raised this species, but their need for food at this point is probably minimal. Her foraging will probably vary over time.

[NPLT]

I’ve never raised this species, but their need for food at this point is probably minimal. Her foraging will probably vary over time.

Alright, hmm, I wonder if that's the result of me overfeeding her and her stomach is filled, or maybe because she doesn't yet have larva ( unless I am very bad at observing and I'll be pleasantly suprised by pupa in a couple of weeks ).

[NPLT]

Update 6: 04/06/21

 

Myrmica sp.

Size: 1 queen, eggs

I'm starting to doubt if her eggs have even started developing, maybe I should get a heating cable or something? I dunno, should I be concerned? Or am I just not seeing the larvae, my biggest fear is that I'm causing too much vibrations by generally walking around and putting and taking stuff nearby her setup and that she keeps eating and laying over and over so I'm just not noticing it. As always, a out of focus picture of Gift, because my camera refuses to focus on her, she was standing over her brood pile with her gaster curved towards it ( maybe laying eggs ).

 

Camponotus fallax

Size: 1 queen, eggs

yeah, yeah, you guessed it, no larvae, just eggs, my thoughts about Gerd's ( thanks ANTdrew for the name ) eggs lack of development are basically the same as those I voiced with Gift's eggs. Her brood pile is much smaller than Gift's. I noticed something funny, her eggs are yellow... come to think of it, should I be concerned?, also, she finally moved somewhat closer to water and is not just next to the cotton blocking the opening all the time. Also, an out of focus picture.

Edited by NPLT, June 4 2021 - 4:00 AM.

[Kaelwizard]

Camponotus eggs often vary in color. Yellow is pretty normal for them.

[NPLT]

Camponotus eggs often vary in color. Yellow is pretty normal for them.

*phew* I've been worried there for a second.

[NPLT]

Update: 08/06/21

 

Myrmica sp.

size: 1 queen, 2 larvae, some eggs

Ok! I've done something I shouldn't have, today while feeding, curiosity took over me and I went in to check on her, and oh god, she got larvae! 1 big and at least 1 small, I was so happy that I actually didn't take immediate proper precautions and moved fast to grab my phone to take photos of it. Not only have I moved fast instead of slowly, I have also moved the camera close to the test tube, and Gift moved her larvae closer to the cotton, I hope she is not going to eat it since one of the larvae looked really fat and looked like it might have pupa'ed any moment as it was nearly as big as Gift ( , maybe 4 mm or 3, which probably means it slipped under my radar until now, lol, and I've been worried the whole time about her eggs not developing ).

 

Camponotus fallax

size: 1 queen, eggs

Did not check on Gerd.

Edited by NPLT, June 8 2021 - 11:59 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Camponotus eggs often vary in color. Yellow is pretty normal for them.

*phew* I've been worried there for a second.

Camponotus castaneus eggs are bright golden, just like you’d expect.

[NPLT]

 

 

Camponotus eggs often vary in color. Yellow is pretty normal for them.

*phew* I've been worried there for a second.

Camponotus castaneus eggs are bright golden, just like you’d expect.

 

Can I ask, since I saw Gift quite rapidly moving her larvae to the cotton, is she going to eat them?

[NPLT]

Soooooooooo, I bought something called a mystery package, and it arrived, and what I got I think is enough to make a new journal entry, so, first of all the package cotained a 3d printed nest, an outworld, 3 "food plates", 2 liquid feeders, 2 screw caps, 4 small test tubes, forceps and a pipette, also, 2 new ant colonies.

Update 8: 11/06/21

 

Myrmica sp.

Size: 1 queen, ~5-6 larvae.

So, Gift is her normal self, spotted her in the outworld the other day, peeked into her tube, saw larvae, took a blurry photo ( actually forgot my to put on my macro lens ), left alone.

 

Camponotus fallax

Size: 1 queen, lavae.

Gerd's situation is the same as Gift's, though she body blocked me from counting the larvae.

 

 

Now, for the new arrivals!

Manica rubida

Size: 1 queen, a lot of larvae, like, a whole lot.

So, Manica rubida, basically a bigger Myrmica right? hah, just joking, anyway, I received her only today and decided to not stress her with feeding today ( also to sync up her's and Gift's feeding schedules ), gonna work on attaching the outworld tomorrow and figuring out how to move her and the larvae into a bigger test tube because her current one has very, very small amount of water ( it's full, just, the shop shipped them in very small test tubes that didn't allow for much water ). Taking inspiration from ANTdrew's habit of naming queens after Norse godesses, I decided to name her Devana, after the slavic goddess of hunting and wildlife.

 

Lasius (chtonolasius) sp.

Size: 1 queen, eggs, ~6 Lasius niger host workers.

Right-o, I also got Lasius (chtonolasius) sp. queen with hosts and brood, and honestly, I'm not sure, should I pass it on to another antkeeper, should I keep her, do I need to get more hosts or is this much okay for now. I will also feed them tomorrow. 

[NPLT]

So, another minidate. Devana received an outworld and a new test tube along with her first meal, and, holy smokes she is absolutely not one to reject food! She ate honey as soon as I placed it in and presumably also devoured the cricket because she laid a nice, healthy, and absolutely massive egg pile alongside the already existing larvae ( which were successfully moved by the way ). Also, Gift appears to have some pre-pupae or even pupae, in any case, she'll most likely have workers soon enough. Unfortunately the heat wave has ended with quite the "bang" of a storm, thankfully it will return next week supposedly reaching temperatures of 31 Celcius at the peak.

Edited by NPLT, June 13 2021 - 2:04 AM.

[NPLT]

Update 9: 19/06/21

 

Myrmica sp.

Size: 1 queen, eggs, larvae, pupae

Oh God, disaster! Gift's setup had become unplugged and I only managed to fix it fully after needlessly stressing the queen for 2 days, Oh god, I nearly buried her because she was bringing substrate into her tube and now the plastic tube that connected the tube and her outworld ( and was kept in place by cotton which started slipping, the cause of this whole thing ) pushed the substrate nearly all the way, I think I buried one of her larvae. oh god, I'm awful at this aren't I?! Will she eat her brood? Due to all this I discovered she has several pupae, will she eat them?

 

Camponotus fallax

Size: 1 queen, larvae, pupae?

So, yesterday I checked on her, and she kinda freaked out and took what looked like a prepupae into her mandibles, she put it back down soon enough but will that mean she will eat it?!

 

Manica rubida

Size: 1 queen, larvae

Things going as normal

 

Lasius (chtonolasius) sp.

Size: 6 hosts, 1 queen, eggs

Things not changing, still didn't get more hosts

 

 

 

I'm not sure if there's any sense in continuing the journal, nobody ever comments on it and when I ask questions they go unanswered.

[ANTdrew]

Keep at it. Unfortunately most people only like to comment about species they know well or keep themselves. Not too many European members on here, but it doesn’t mean people aren’t reading the journal. Interest will rise once you have workers to talk about as well.

I wouldn’t worry about your queens. In my experience, they usually do not eat late stage brood. They will eat eggs, but not pupae.

[NPLT]

Keep at it. Unfortunately most people only like to comment about species they know well or keep themselves. Not too many European members on here, but it doesn’t mean people aren’t reading the journal. Interest will rise once you have workers to talk about as well.

I wouldn’t worry about your queens. In my experience, they usually do not eat late stage brood. They will eat eggs, but not pupae.

Oh, okay, *phew*, will the stress harm her in some way? I'm really stressing at what happened, because I try to keep my queens in a stress free enviroment, and it all must have been pretty stressful, I saw her running around the cotton and now she is motionless near the brood.

[ANTdrew]

Nah, man. Ants don’t just drop dead due to stress. Just leave her be a bit and she’ll be fine. Keep looking for a zero stress species like Tetramorium caespitum or Lasius niger.

[NPLT]

Nah, man. Ants don’t just drop dead due to stress. Just leave her be a bit and she’ll be fine. Keep looking for a zero stress species like Tetramorium caespitum or Lasius niger

That's good to hear she won't die. As to the species you suggested, I'm not really a fan of species with small workers that get incredibly large numbers, I mean, the species you've said are undoubtedly are interesting, but I think the fact that they would eventually reach tens of thousands of workers would certainly be a cause of stress for me, while species I keep currently/will keep will only reach 6k workers at most.

Edited by NPLT, June 19 2021 - 4:38 AM.

[NPLT]

Update 10: 26/06/21

Smooth sailing now, I guess

 

Myrmica sp.

Size: 1 queen, 6 or 7 pupae, 1 worker

First workers arrived today! Yay! Imagine that at a certain point I worried she will not make it

Camponotus fallax

Size: 1 queen, pupae(?)

Well, I am fairly certain she has pupae, but Gerd is body blocking me from counting

Manica rubida

Size: 1 queen, many larvae, some eggs

Still has larvae, but they've definetly grown, also some new eggs appeared.

Lasius (chtonolasius) sp.

Size:1 queen, lots of host pupae, 8 host workers, biological eggs

Acquired pupae! And some new hosts already arrived, I also saw some biological brood but I'm not sure if they survived through the adoption, a shame if they didn't because they looked like they were gonna hatch soon, and since the future of this colony is secure, I will need to name the queen.

Edited by NPLT, June 26 2021 - 7:44 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Congrats! I told you to trust. I would stick to Slavic names.

[NPLT]

Update 11: 02/07/21 ( I know it's the third already, but I meant to post it on the second ).

Good quality photos? Never heard of 'em, But for real, how do you guys take them?

Also, I'll be going on vacations for the next two weeks so won't be able to update, thankfully enough my mother agreed to take care of ants while I'm away.

 

Myrmica sp.

Size: 1 queen, 4 or 6 workers.

Well, all the pupae eclosed and Gift now has a bunch of workers for herself, I am now even more sure she isn't Myrmica rubra as her workers are bright orange while to my understanding M. rubra workers are a bit more darker. Not sure if any new brood appeared. Due to a sudden ( but benign ) mold outbreak, chances of good pictures are ruined and I need to resort to the flash setting, at least it makes counting workers easier. I'm not sure if it's because the colony is small and in their first stages, or just their nature, but these workers are very shy it would seem.

 

Camponotus fallax

Size: 1 queen, 1 worker, 1 small larvae, 2 pupae.

Gerd did it, she now has her first nanitic! I attached an outworld today and gave them their first meal. I am starting to doubt if they're actually C. fallax and not C. vagus, maybe they're a darker variant of C. fallax or it's the lighting, I dunno.

Nanitic with brood.

Queen

Manica rubida

Size: 1 queen, pile of larvae of all sizes

I found her biting at the cotton leading to the water, I hope she won't flood herself. The new eggs grew into small larvae, existing larvae grew larger. I noticed Devana stopped foraging as much, no idea why, but I noticed this with Gift a week or two before she got her first pupae, so, fingers crossed.

Lasius (chtonolasius) sp.

Size: 1 queen, large pile of biological brood, hundreds of host workers.

From meager beginnings come huge surprises, I've started to call this queen Cthono ( I'm gonna give you three guesses why. ). That pile of host pupae from last update? Yeah, all workers, I've had some DOA hosts, but a majority of them has seemingly eclosed and joined the colony successfully, so much so I actually can't spot the queen anymore, but you know what I can spot? A buttload of brood they conveniently lined up against the wall of their test tube, some eggs have even started showing development into larvae! 

They became active in their outworld, and very hungry ( I will clean it soon ).

Biological eggs, in a month they'll probably be fully formed yellow biological workers!

 

Anyway. new segment in journal, the sign off section, where I'll share final thoughts and so forth.

I'm very pleased with the colony growth this week, especally with Gerd, getting workers just before I went away, how nice of her! It will certainly make the life for both of us much easier and less stressful ( her more than mine, lol ). As I said, even though I doubt anyone really cares about this journal of mine, I'm not gonna be able to update for the next two weeks.

So, bye, and it would be really nice of you if you'd comment something.

Edited by NPLT, July 2 2021 - 3:19 PM.