I suppose I should document the progress of my three young colonies, but three separate topics would be too much for me, so you get to see the "best moments" abridged version.
First off, there is the Solenopsis fugax queen I caught last year. She has already been through hell of one catastrophic hibernation with flooding of biblical proportions where she was the sole survivor of my blunder with the cooling system. Her hibernation mates all died, but she survived and now has a few cute little workers. I tried to count them several times, but they are so tiny and light colored that I seem to have lot of trouble counting them all. They could also be hiding. Another plausible explanation is that my eyesight isn't what it used to be. In any case, there isn't much activity, I offered them a few mosquitoes, but they don't seem to be interested in them. Sunburst is available.
The other two test tubes are housing a Lasius emarginatus and L. niger. They were caught late June. Both have a nice clump of brood, emarginatus being a bit more productive. Apparently she's also a bit faster since today I noticed the first worker. Another one looks to be coming shorty as well. I suppose this is good enough of reason to post a picture.
Worker bottom left, another one almost ready to eclose on top. If you look closely, you may notice the queen in the middle. She's not too tidy with her brood. There are eggs all around the test tube. Hopefully now that she has help, things will sort out and order will be established.
In other news, I'm making small nests for all three, but that will go into the Pictures of Formicariums thread.
