6/30/21
Date is accurate to within 1 to 2 days. I collected all of my queens so far in a very short time frame. I found 3 of these queens floating in a puddle mid to late morning the day after some heavy rains. This leads me to believe they fly much earlier in the day than other Pogonomyrmex (possibly even late night or very early morning). But until I find more and notate times more accurately, there's really no way to be sure.
I placed one queen in a test tube set up with a tarheel insert. She has since drown after becoming wedged between the insert and the cotton. Wonderful idea those inserts but so far I have no luck with them.
Two queens went into small round containers with a hydrostone base textured with sand. One shed her wings the other has yet to remove hers. They seem much more capable of climbing smooth sides than their larger cousins. Perhaps this is due to their small size. They are quick but not as quick as a lot of other small species and overall seem mostly calm.
7/8/21
I watered the founding chambers once before with no changes in the two queens. Today I watered again and fed them hummingbird food and a termite each. The queen with wings does not appear to have eggs. However I did notice the wingless queen carrying around a tiny white chunk. I think she has laid a decent little clutch of eggs in the time since she was caught. I do not know when she began to lay but a small amount of eggs would be hard to spot with her. She is absolutely tiny. A termite is easily as big as she is and these are not large termites.
Edited by Mikasa, July 10 2021 - 5:10 AM.
