9 replies to this topic

[DustyDoes]

On April 2, 2022 I collected two queen Veromessor Pergandei from the north-east edge of El Mirage Dry Lake bed in Southern California, one alate and one dealate. I've never collected a queen before, but after reading Dspdrew's v.pergandei journal, I'm optimistic about getting a colony going.

 

 

 

Edited by DustyDoes, April 11 2022 - 11:23 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Best of luck on your new colonies! Just a tip: capitalize genus name, but not species name, ie, Veromessor pergandei.

[DustyDoes]

Best of luck on your new colonies! Just a tip: capitalize genus name, but not species name, ie, Veromessor pergandei.

 

Thanks!  LoL

[DustyDoes]

On April 6, 2022 I found the dealate queen with a small pile of eggs. I was wondering what the timeline might be for this. Four days is quicker than expected. There is no change with the alate queen. She still has her wings and spends a lot of time chewing at the dry cotton plug at the end of the tube. My suspicion is that she's not fertile, so I'm wondering what to do with her.

 

 

 

Edited by DustyDoes, April 11 2022 - 12:32 PM.

[ANTdrew]

I think I’d enjoy keeping this species very much. Give the alate queen more time; she may surprise.

[DustyDoes]

On April 8th, I noticed even more eggs in the dealate queen's tube. She's up to about 20 eggs now. I'm excited to see how they do. She seems like an attentive mother so far, tending the pile all the time.

 

 

This video doesn't seem to play from my V.pergandei gallery when I link it here. Weird.

 

Edited by DustyDoes, April 11 2022 - 1:37 PM.

[azzaaazzzz00]

 

Best of luck on your new colonies! Just a tip: capitalize genus name, but not species name, ie, Veromessor pergandei.

 

Thanks!  LoL

 

I just realized I do that all the time too, it's become a habit lol

[DustyDoes]

The egg-laying queen continues to rearrange her egg pile every day. She chews on the wet cotton so much that it's making these weird artistic squiggles that stick out from the wall. Kind of cool, actually.

 

The winged queen I collected the same day has died.

 

I am going to buy a starter formicarium and a bag of seed from DSPDrew so I am prepared in case workers do eventually eclose from these eggs. I'm sure it's a little optimistic to prepare for the long-run this early, but I've got my fingers crossed that we're on that path.

[DustyDoes]

Eggs first appeared on around April 6th, and more eggs seem to be gradually added to the pile to a total of about 25 by my best estimate. In dspdrew's V.pergandei journal started in 2014, he had large larva in just a few weeks. My eggs seem to be exactly the same as the day they appeared. How long might it take for larva to begin to appear? They're in a dark cardboard box with a warming lamp outside of it. Thermometer inside the box reads about 80F most of the time.

Edited by DustyDoes, May 8 2022 - 8:03 PM.

[ElisAnts]

mine took a while as well, before you know it youll have workers, you just put her away and stop looking at her for 2 weeks


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