6 replies to this topic

[TennesseeAnts]

Update: 8/23/21

 

The single dealate has gotten her first worker! She's still got 9 pupae, 3 large larvae, a few small larvae and a new batch of 20 or so eggs. I am super excited for this queen! Its been a little over a month since I first collected her from her founding cell, which is a total egg-to-worker period of about 5 weeks. It would have been faster if I were heating her, but my heating cable went out so I'm buying a new one. I'll actually be moving all my ants to a metal rack system where I can more easily view and heat them. Anyway, I'm getting an Inception chamber ready for them I think, but I'm still trying to decide which chamber design I like better for them. I'll get pictures of the incipient colony later.

Edited by TennesseeAnts, August 26 2021 - 6:22 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

Sorry for the sub-par pic, the tube is super scratched up for now.

[TennesseeAnts]

Update: 8/26/21

 

This queen is up to three workers now, and the second generation of eggs has begun to hatch already. I think they've still got 7-8 pupae and a few large larvae left. I'll be moving them into a new tube here shortly, as this one is low on water, dirty and scratched up. 

 

 

[TennesseeAnts]

Update: 9/1/21

 

The colony has reached 12 workers, and the queen has just laid another batch of 20 or so eggs to add onto the existing pile of 10 or so large larvae and pupae. I think there might be a major larva developing in there, since I've seen the workers carrying around a larger-than-normal larva the past few days which is larger than the minor pupae. I don't know for sure yet, since I've never owned this species before now. They took a fruit fly and made it completely disappear yesterday, which is their first protein meal. 

 

 

 

[TennesseeAnts]

Update: 5/18/22

I almost gave up on this colony, since they grew extremely slowly over the end of summer and didn't really do anything much earlier this spring. I'm very glad I held out what little hope I had left, since the queen has been producing very well recently and just got her third major this morning. The colony is at roughly 50 workers and is continuing to grow more and more every day, with lots of brood.

I also dug up two medium sized colonies almost two weeks ago now, but unfortunately one of the queens died due to an injury sustained during a particularly rough collection. The other is doing very well with probably about 150 workers or so and a mountain of brood. I've got an ok picture of this colony eating mealworms today:

[TennesseeAnts]

[TennesseeAnts]

On Sunday and Monday I was able to collect 13 new queens from founding cells. Two casualties so far, one dealate that had a deformed abdomen and one alate that was attacked by Ph. bicarinata right before their flight of the night. As of now the 11 remaining queens are all in tubes with small clutches of eggs already appearing throughout.

Edited by TennesseeAnts, July 19 2022 - 5:59 PM.