29 replies to this topic

[BDantsalberta]

Noice

[Katla]

I suppose we have our first biological new born !

 

[BDantsalberta]

CONGRAT'S!!!      

[Katla]

Morning everyone 

Here an update on my Rufa"s !

​They have doubled in population and finally adapted to the new nest, grouping chambers for each stage of brood. The Queen is laying a batch of eggs every week and the pupae's are getting visibly larger in size. This week i received a new species of Roaches from Thailand easier to maintain, they prefer humid substrate and don't leave rotten food all over the place nor smell as bad as the Redroaches did, also they seem to multiply much faster (which will be extremely useful for my Purpereus ; ). So i decided to finish up the 20 ish Redroaches that where left and gave them to all my actual colonies. The Rufa's didn't fuss about very long and directly brought them inside the nest certainly giving them a well deserved protein boost and allowing the queen to push out a good amount of brood.

They are not so much reactive to light anymore but still very sensible to any source of vibration when moving the setup, i still can't distinguish the Rufas by their dark red color so I'm asking my self if at the start they don't color up to the hosts species ? if you have any idea about that please share and have a look at it by your self with these small close ups of the chambers.




I will look for a new update once the next generation has emerged from their pupae's, for now that's all for these amazing wood ants i hope you enjoyed the little update..

Tanks for reading !
 

[BDantsalberta]

You can tell which ones are the bios by their thorax. Their thorax isn't as slick and shiny as the hosts and a more rough look so to speak. Glad to see that they're  thriving, good job! Also the first generation of workers are often darker and smaller so there can be a lot of confusion there.

Edited by BDantsalberta, April 30 2023 - 10:30 AM.

[Katla]

Thank you for the information, i will keep an eye on the larger pupae that have emerged now and give an update as soon as they hatch !

[Katla]

Hello, sadly i have to put an end to this blog. The queen died during last weekend without visible reasons, she had just layed a pack of eggs so i can't explain my self what happened to her.

R.I.P

[Ernteameise]

Oh no

[ANTdrew]

Sorry for your loss.

[BDantsalberta]

Maybe a nonvisual fungal outbreak? sucks man