I set up this sort of nursery for our test tubed queens. I feel like this is a much better setup for the Manica Invidia queen, because me disturbing her tube every time I needed to feed her, seemed to really bother her. Now, I can feed her with no real disturbance to the test tube. So, I went ahead and put the Pogonomyrmex Occidentalis queens in this setup as well, because they are potential foragers. But, they have reacted rather differently than the Manica queen has. She comes down the tube from the nest, eats, goes back, etc. Just like you would expect. Not the Pogonomyrmex's though. They almost immediately began carrying food back up the tube and they also started bringing the eggs down into the tube during the day. They take them back into the test tube at night.
So, the question is... Does anyone foresee any problems caused by them carrying food back up the tube? Not that there is probably much I can do about it anyway. I'm just concerned about mold. I suppose it's just the nature of Pogonomyrmex to want to stockpile.
In case you're wondering... The Manica queen is the one with the foraging area on the far right. The rest of them are all Pogonomyrmex. The top row of test tubes are Tetramorium. Three of the ones in the middle are more Pogonomyrmex that I haven't set up foraging for yet. The other three are the new ants we just found and I do not yet have a positive ID on.
I'm working on getting some seeds for them. The formula blue is feeding them for now though.
Is it reasonable to feed just seeds to Pogonomyrmex queens?
I appreciate any insight you may provide.
Thanks,
Tory
Franz
