188 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

Here’s my advice after doing this for a few years: Take a deep breath. Ants literally dominate all terrestrial habitats on earth for a reason. They are indomitable survivors, not some faerie beings that need our intervention. Read the guides on here, follow best practices for care, and trust the process.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

day 8 update:

 

1: the battle of outworld seed piles seems to have come to an end now that the bulk of the outworld seeds have been moved into the nest. And a smaller % of the colony seem to be treating the big outworld as nest now, though some still do. The new disagreement in the outworld is not where to pile seeds but, is this the trash pile or the seed pile? The front left corner won and the front right is now mostly empty. however the front left corner is a mix of trash and seeds. the nest ants for sure bring the trash here, but the outworlders are not sure about that and tend to move the trash around a bit, though they commonly wind up bringing it back to the pile.

 

2: that ant that was dead and then not dead is for sure dead now. Their head is in the trash pile but their body gets moved around a bit from time to time. They were fairly small among the colony, and i imagine all the smaller workers in the bunch are probably the oldest ones here.

 

3: i'll admit i did do one deek move on the ants. I gave them a single shelled organic not roasted not salted sunflower seed.  While none of the nest ants have tried to take it back, the outworlders sure do feel the need to move it around a lot. It is hilarious and amazing to watch them move this thing that must be at least 8x their own mass if not more. Most amazing is when 2-3 of them decide to move it as a group they can really truck that seed around if they want to. When i clean the outworld in a couple days i'll crush it up for them into bits they can actually use.

 

4: i missed getting a shot or film of it, but there was a callow worker who came to the mini outworld. This was the first i'd seen leave the nest, expect for when the queen was out in the tube and one or two of her attendants would come out to check on her. But those were also obviously a little older based on their color starting to deepen. This one was real light golden fresh. They were up here for a while and none of the other ants seem to care until one came along and decided they should be in the nest still. Picked em up and carried them off. It was quite interesting to see sorry i didn't get a shot of it for yall. I thought it was most interesting that the ants in the outworld didn't care about the callow, until along comes this one ant that does something about it.

 

5: no one moved into the dark chamber. the queen is still hanging out on the ceiling or water tower so i took it off, only one ant fell out, they clearly didn't need or care for that.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, January 28 2023 - 10:37 AM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

day 10:

 

They sure have done a lot/changed their ways over the last few days.

 

The just good news is, egg clutch is getting really big now, at least 2x maybe 3x the size of the worker that carries it around.

All the pupae that arrived are now working and almost all the larvae that arrived are now pupae, with one last fat larvae to go  still.

 

The real oddity has been their mini hearth outworld, which had been an outworld to them. But how they treat the water dispenser has changed, and now it seems they see the outworld as more nest space.

 

I started with one of each of these on offer

3d printed glass jar style(example image not mine)

and a THA small(my image)

 

for the first 4 days they ignored the glass jar but did drink from the THA screened one. I took out the fancy one and they used the THA.

Then just 3 days ago on their 8th day here they decided they didn't like the "exposed" water screen and by putting seeds and junk on the screen they channeled the water to drain into the outworld.

The hydrostone whatever soaked it all up but the outworld walls was just covered in large water drops they kept getting stuck in. It didn't appear specifically purposeful at this time, they might have just bumped some bug parts into it moving them around overnight. I got the outworld dried out a bit and the next day put a fresh water dispenser back in.

Not 2 hours later they drained it too.

Again a day of helping get it dried out by keeping a watchful eye on it while the lids off for periods of time,  and use a q-tip to dry the walls from time to time when the lid has been on.

 

And then i replaced the dispenser with one of the fancy glass jar style. They seemed to start making use of it to drink water right away, so ok great. Next morning(today) i find they have piled dirt and what not in it until a channel was made and the water was about 1/2 way drained out and the outworld now overly saturated in humidity again.

 

I take this to mean they have decided the outworld on the mini is just more nest space and they don't like any, not even a tiny bit of exposed water in there any more. I had read these ants would commonly clog up nest-mates in their nests so i had not even tried to put one there.

 

Now i guess they can just have a bit of apple in that otuworld, but the only water dispenser they don't fook up is over in the large outworld as an attached nest mate. I had even ordered a couple extra THAs sesne they used it so constantly for so many days straight already. Oh well.

 

the Queen

The Queen does just come out to the tube from time to time. She will come out in a bit of a tizzy if the nest got disturbed too much, quick  motions and moving to at least 1/2 way down the tube in a hurry. But otherwise when they have been left alone and covered in darkness for long periods of time. She will just roam out into the tube kind of casual like and just hang out a bit like she preferred it here for some reason. I never see her stay out for more than about 10-15 min at most, and that's from a nest disturbing. Mostly though when she comes out for no apparent reason it's maybe just about 5 min at most. Like she's just taking a break from the nest or whatever strolls out slowly, taking her time to smell the flowers or whatever. She seems relaxed about it in these moments.

 

 

On food:

I still plan to feed them some insect about once a week until they move into the fallen fortress.

 

They got in for crickets to be sure, but those were a bit of work as they are all jumpy and good at escape. I'm forced to chase them down under couches or behind bookshelves as my honey is just way anti-insect.

So i wanted to move to worms/caterpillars, something less escape prone.

I stared on mealworms from my local reptile store, they're not into it.

I cut em up and put em on some foil to keep the goo off the outworld floor just like i did the crickets. But this time instead of tearing them up and hauling bits back to the nest, they treated them like garbage and immediately started covering them in dirt. By the next morning had a newly started trash pile going with them as the basis and clearly had not been taking the trash to the larger outworld, but piled it up in the mini outworld with the mealworm bodies. Really didn't see anything that looked like anyone was treating them as food but just unwanted junk that needed cleaning up.

 

No mealworms for them i guess, i'll try superworms next as i see those in a lot of ant videos. I was going to use those but they were out of small quantities and i didn't want to buy 100 of them so went with the mealworms instead.

 

 

Note of interest:

Meg is now a worker. She still looks like meg, bigger than all the others, bit lighter too though there are some others also about her color around now. But she does worker stuff these days, and with real gusto. She got the message about black chia seeds and hauled a pile more than most of the other ants. I noticed most were a little fussy on exactly which seed they were going to take. Not meg she took the first seed she came into contact with each trip.  There are also several more that are much closer to her in size, but she still remains a little bigger than all the rest.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, January 30 2023 - 5:06 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Store crickets in the freezer. Thaw them as needed.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Feeding update:
they totally went for cricket from the start. once the first ones were gone i waited a few days and plan to do a couple bugs a weeks for a while, then one a week until they need to move into the next bigger nest. Then i'll move to maybe a couple a month at most as their regular routine.

over the last few days i found out i got the cat of ants when it comes to food fussy apparently.
They immediately treated meal worms like trash and covered them in dirt and started a fresh in mini outworld trash pile with them.
So i tired superworms, higher % of "meat" on them and more fat too.

Nope they recoiled at those and just avoided them. They were dead of course as i cut them up. An ant would approach one carefully use it's antennae to touch the worm's body or goo and basically jump back in horror from it. After a couple hours of them just totally avoiding the food tray i took it out.
I was ready this time and had some cricket just in case, and they were so excited for that everyone in the area was swarming it before i had pulled the tweezers all the way out of the outworld.

No to mealworms and superworms apparently.
I plan to try wax worms next just to see if they could get some variety or maybe they just want cricket and only cricket.

^
Also thanks for the freezing tip on the bugs. Once i settle into a routine i'll pickup more than 5 at a time and just freeze them.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, February 1 2023 - 10:05 AM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

The egg clutch grows.

 

Her majesty continues to exit the nest arbitrarily from time to time. I just ignore it now as this seems to be her normal routine 2-3  times a day to spend 5-15 min out in the tube.

Also Meg, the extra big one, only did that one run of grabbing chia seeds like mad and went right back to do nothing now. She's not shown up for cricket nor did she care about the poppy seeds. Though only a few ants did really, they are taking in the poppy seeds just with less gusto than the chia.

 

I noticed one of the ants had decided that half way down the tube was plenty far to carry seeds. They would literally be walked over by two other workers hurrying back to the nest wit seeds, but they would just stall out, drop the seed there and go back for more.

A couple days later the ants had cleaned up the tube, now it just has bits of sand a few seeds here and there in it.

 

 

 

the egg clutch between the pupae and ant,  queen on back wall, several callows from what arrived, leaving only one or two more to wake up and one or two larvae yet to pupate from that initial brood pile.

 

this is the fancy style liquid feed/water dispenser they mussed up

 

 

 

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Among the larvae that arrived with the colony and have been eclosing over the last few days, of the last 5-6 in the batch, 2 have not made it and 2 more likely won't.

Day before yesterday i spotted a tiny light golden pupae out on the trash pile. They were particularly small/anemic and had not actually woken up ever. The next day another one.
When i looked in the nest last night i spotted two more extra small pupae starting to golden and i'm betting they too don't make it. But there was also one obvious full sized still white pupae there too.
I'm guessing whatever was up with those particulate ones was just them and not something that's effecting the colony as a whole. Maybe they didn't get fed right for a couple days in the mail while they were larvae or something maybe? Or the cold during shipping maybe as i noticed they were fairly cold when they arrived?

Anyway after hearing about how to help avoid mites a bit too late(boil feed insects a few seconds to kill any mites and eggs) i'm a bit paranoid having fed them 5 crickets sense arrival without knowing to do so.
I'm being extra watchful of them to try and spot anything as early as possible just in case i did introduce something already.


Though i have some amount of faith in my local store, not by personal use but long term reputation, and am hopeful they didn't give us any cooties.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, February 3 2023 - 8:24 AM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Arrival was Friday 1-20-23 Friday 2-3 marked  two weeks.

As best as I can tell 4-5 of the larvae that arrived didn’t make it. They became pupae that were very undersized looking. They did change color to a light golden orange but never woke up, all winding up on the trash pile in the big world over the course of about 3 days. Of the last 2 of the arrival brood, one is now working and the other looks fine, probably wakes up today or tomorrow.

 

Leaving the new brood pile of eggs laid after arrival and I spotted several larvae in it yesterday.
As I spotted the tiny egg clutch 4 days after arrival, I’d guess the first workers out of that somewhere in 2.5-3.5 weeks from now. Assuming it’s in the 3-4 weeks zone from egg to ant on average.

 

I took up putting feeder insects into boiling water for a few seconds to be sure and kill off any mites and mite eggs as suggested by Antdrew.

Also this made feeding easier as the boiling water kills the insect. So I don’t have to try and grapple a cricket to cut its head off, just out of the bag, into the pot, and insta dead. Like no twitching for an hour insta dead. Also the al dente cooking just slightly firms up the bug goo enough to not stain the outworld flooring so I don’t need little foil sheets anymore either. I can just dump the cut up bits into the outworld.

 

Even without the mite avoidance at hand, I’d recommend a 3 second boil for feeder insects just to make your life easier. A junk pan and about ¾" of water comes to a boil real fast, or a tiny microwavable dish works too. Just drop the bug in after micing the water for a couple min. Give it a dunk and swish to be sure any air bubbles come off so the hot water direct contacts any mite eggs.

 

 

I do notice something interesting when a fairly fresh insect is being interacted with. There is something about the fresh bug goo that that flips them out a bit. As they come in to check it out, or even as they are working to tear it up. If the come into contact with some of the goo or the wrong bits of it maybe or whatever they flip out about it. They start rubbing their heads into the floor and rubbing their antenna. Clearly trying to get something off them. but whatever it is is minuscule in amount. An ant inspecting the bug that only just barely touches their antennae to fresh goo(including cooked goo) will recoil from it and spend 15-30 seconds crazily rubbing its head all over the ground and rapidly rubbing their own antennae attempting to get something off them.

 

 

Last on Meg the MutANT ant. i saw her getting a bath from another ant for the first time yesterday. She had been mostly not too interactive with them and when she was it was an off interacting from normal observations. But yesterday i saw her doing the whole belly to the ground submissive state while another ant was giving her a full cleaning like the rest consistently engage in.

Though she has not engaged in any other work sense that one time with the chia seeds.

 

 

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Last night i decided to try another water dispenser in the mini outworld. I noticed the nest mate in the large outworld is much busier than it had been so figured more water options might be good.
Nope, they piled dirt and seeds on it till water started draining. It was about 1/2 empty this morning and lots of condensation in the outworld.

I took it out, and when i looked into the outworld i saw a single larvae there that had apparently been up next to the water dispenser. It wasn't there long but it did not appear to be moving, after about maybe 5 seconds an ant came along and took it back into the nest.

For sure no more water dispensers in the mini, they clearly don't want that. But the one lone larvae out there worried me as an odd behavior or sign that larvae in the nest are dying for some reason maybe. Wish it were a little easier to keep track of the brood numbers as a gauge on their health. To know what % of brood make it or not on average and if the nest is tracking off from average or not would be a nice "gauge" to get a read out from.

Still got two large enough white pupae to know they had to come form the arrival brood and i expect they make it. Also had another fresh callow yesterday so the colony seems to be doing ok.

The last decent count i got yesterday is 37-40 active workers, but the brood pile is fairly small and often has ants blocking the view. I might guess around 5-10 larvae now but not sure about eggs.


Tried out a new seed, organic sesame seeds. One ant was taking them back to the nest. Everyone else that bothered to interact with them put them on the trash pile. But mostly they were ignored.
So far they get in for the black chia seeds like they mean business. the rest are taken back over longer periods of time, and they don't take them all. They cleared out every single black chia seed from the big outworld, but leave some of everything else strewn about the outworld untouched(poppy, bluegrass, dandelion).

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, February 7 2023 - 9:51 AM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

something interesting about the ants and light.

generally speaking the in nest workers seem to not care too much about light or dark in the nest. Only the queen gets a bit jittery under the light, but even then her behavior relative to the light is fairly specific.

 

First off, my head lamp also does red light, and they really don't care or notice it, including the queen, who is still reacting to it so she senses it in some way, but it is her most easy going reaction to just move slowly into a deep shadow. Though it is red light and so kind of a low detail situation for observation with only a deep red light source.

 

When i use the white light, it is all about how i use it that influences their reaction or not to it.

 

If i just turn it on on them to 'blast' them wiht it, they have good odds to not like that and start scrambling around.

But if i turn it on and then not too quickly move it onto them, they won't generally react at all. But the queen will seek out a shadow to hide in.

And now i have to hold the light source A: fairly still and B: not from above, needs to be even on or from below.

 

If the light moves a fair bit, is fast motion or jittery, they will start to freak out.

If the light is shined down from a high angle on them, again they will likely freak out.

But as long as the light is mostly still/moves slowly, and shines on them from level on or from below(light actually under the water tower is almost never a bother), they will not care about this for long periods of time.

However the queen will eventually decide it's bad and bail out of the nest for a while.

But only if kept on them for a good long while this way,will she get bothered, but for common observations she just moves into a shadow. Though she does it wiht more speed/purpose when the light is bright white.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, February 9 2023 - 3:49 PM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

This morning i spotted the last of the arrival brood callows walking around in the nest. I'm now on to just eggs and larvae as 100% post arrival brood.

The other day the queen came all the way into the big outworld and ate apple for a while. I had not interacted with them yet and was sitting wiht my back to them, when i turned around there she was right up front on the apple slice. She seemed quite calm and was just enjoying a  bit of apple. After about 10 min out she  casually wondered back to the nest.

 

They so get in for chia seeds over all others now. They emptied a feeding dish of chia seeds in about 4.5 hours. But at other times they mostly ignored a dish of poppy or dandelion seeds for 2.5+ days on. Then i swapped them out for chia seeds and they were back on taking in seeds again right away.

 And lastly Meg the MutANT is still doing fine. I have seen her twice now in the nest appearing to process larger cricket parts into smaller ones, but she has done no other normal worker otherwise. Mostly she hangs out in the larger outworld. A major distinction in her behavior is that she is clearly tasting everything. She unlike the other ants consistently uses her mouth on basically all the surfaces. Once she is familiar wiht an area she is not doing this as much there. But anytime i put anything in the outworld she alone will spend a fair amount of time tasting it.

I think it seems clear she is using what sensors she has available to her to figure out her world as best she can. Obviously in the wild she'd not have made it long and probably been lost from her colony in short order.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Here's a decent shot of the new brood. egg clutch on the left with a tender, and larvae middle to right side of the shot, the queen upper right side on the ceiling. No pupae yet but i expect to start seeing some maybe late this week to middle of next sometime, if my timeline estimates are accurate.

I notice most of the pupae are given chia seeds, though someone clearly thinks some cricket leg might be good too(brown out of focus thing in the middle).

 

And a nice side shot of Meg. Of all the ants she will hold still for long periods of time and often right up next to the wall too.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, February 14 2023 - 8:58 AM.

[VenomousBeast]

Has anyone else noticed that Meg has no antenna!? I'm sure that plays a huge part in her behavior.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Has anyone else noticed that Meg has no antenna!? I'm sure that plays a huge part in her behavior.

 

Yes and i got a great answer about her too.

 

I started a thread asking and after i posted some better images to it i got a professional answer.

 

She's a mutANT, something went wrong in the amount of hormone of some kind during development.

She is extra large, compared to even the next biggest worker she's clearly bigger than any of them.

She also has slightly different proportions to her body, looking like she has slightly longer legs and a bigger head than normal.

Her color remains slightly lighter/brighter red than the rest of the deep red workers.

Her mandibles are symmetrical instead of a-symmetrical as Pogonomyrmex c. normally would have.

And most telling of all, she never had any antenna, she was 'born' without them.

 

An up close image of her head shows she has no bumps/scars where they ever were in the first place.

 

Here's the thread, includes images to see what i described above there.

https://www.formicul...ny/#entry222823

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, February 15 2023 - 9:23 AM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

The Queen's News:

 

For the last 4-5 days the queen has basically taken up residence in the tube to the big outworld. She is there better than half the time when i'm checking them out. She's just visiting the nest when there's high traffic going on in the tube these days.

Today i decided to take a long look in the nest while she was out in the tube and i discovered the possible answer to why she has recently relocated.

looks like she was ousted from her spot for the brood.

 

That was her spot in the right side plugged tube hole where she was most of the time, or just above it where the light callow is.

But the hole is piled wiht brood now and the ants looking after it. No more room for her there.

 

 

 

Also interesting. The last  few times i've swapped in fresh apple slices(about every 3 days). She comes to the big outworld for it. Usually in about 1-2 min after putting it in she comes out and heads straight to it, clearly having gotten a message from a worker that it's here.

 

I intend to keep this "big" outworld hooked up when the bigger outworld arrives and hopefully she'll keep treating it like safe nest space to come to.

It would be cool if she came out reliably in this way to get to see her without giving the nest the "yes officer?" flashlight treatment.

 

 

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

The colony is doing great. The Queen continues to make regular visits to the big outworld, and Meg the MutANT is doing well too.

I've lost about 5-6 workers from the arrival group. They were all smaller than the newer workers so I assume they were the nanitics form the first generation. And 4-5 of the arrival brood didn't fully eclose.
The colony has been holding around 35-40 workers now. And i imagine we could loose a few more before the next group of brood starts waking up.

On that note we have our first pupae now.

 

This is like a repeat of the ant that turned and showed me the eggs while i was trying to get an image. I saw the pupae and was trying to get a shot but it was in the back out of focus from the macro and partially obscured.

While i was removing the macro lens, the ant that was holding the pupae just climbed up there on the ceiling and made themselves easy to photograph for me.

Oh were you trying to see this? Here let me make that easier on you.

 

 

I also gave them an insect yesterday after not getting any for a while. I had placed an order from Josh frogs, fish flakes and canned roaches, but they never showed up. I'll have to prod them for a refund once the post office "we're looking for it" timer expires in a few days.
In the mean time i picked up some dubia roaches from a local shop yesterday and they went nuts for it. More so than the cricket i would say.

They didn't want mealworms or superworms, both were turned into a trash pile right away. But crickets and roaches they get in for.

 

They were hooking up huge bits of roach to tiny larvae, and then they would pick up the roach bit that had a little larvae attached to it as they shuffle them around the nest.
It's this kind of stuff that is fascinating and entertaining to watch for me.

 

 

And i got to reiterate, black chia seeds are crack for these ants.

They get all kinds of choices in the outworld.

Most recently i found a 9 grain organic mix that had loads of seeds to choose to from.

I had sprinkled it around their outworld, where it was mostly ignored for several days.

Then i added some black chia seeds and the next day they were all gone from the outworld.

These were not separated piles but randomly sprinkled into the world all mixed up and everywhere.

They took only and all chia seeds, they left everything else.

 

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

The new outworld arrived. A THA 9x5x5 with all the deluxe trim and a little something special i wasn't expecting.

 

The colony seems to be doing great. The egg clutch is generally hard to find, still small enough that just one worker carries it around all the time. But the brood are otherwise kept out on the water tower easy see.

 

Here's the new outworld

top down

 

I think that little rock in the front middle is in fact a bit of petrified wood. I can't dig it out to get it under magnification, but it surely is from the look of it.

That's like off the hook deluxe premium decoration to my eye, i was totally in awe of that  when i was cleaning it up. The rocks all had a bit of the pour material (ultracal/hydrastone/whatever) on them and as i scraped it off with a wood skewer, it very much appears to have the right kind of texture and shape to the rock that i'm pretty sure its petrified wood. I know it'd just be a tiny rock to a lot of eyes, but to mine that was a real wow moment when i was cleaning it off.
If that is what what i think it is and that's what  Mack is calling a "premium decoration." Let there be no doubt about it, that is just so choice.
I'll see if i can get a real close up shot later to show off better.

 

 

This is the full setup now. The whole thing is on a desktop computer display stand about 16"x9" with thick foam stick on feet that help absorb vibrations.

Far left is the nest, now facing sideways to the "display front." I got to move and sit on the end of the couch to look into the nest, but now they don't get any direct room lighting into the nest, so i don't keep a dark cover on it any more.

The middle is the outworld from a FallenFortress, whose nest they will move into next whenever they are big enough.

The right is the new 9x5x5 outworld.

 

As you can see it all just edge to edge fits on the stand there.
The tube form nest to middle outworld has been cut in about half from about 18" to 9". I used hot water from the kettle to soften the tube so i could give it a tight u bend without putting a kink into it that would'a closed it off. Just shape it then hold it till it cools in about 60-120 seconds and  it holds the shape a lot better. I just pour it over the part i need to shape, i don't need to soak it or let the water inside the tube.

 

And then just a little 1" long bit of tube seals the med and large outworlds together that sit next to each other. I did have to find something to raise the larger outworld up to be level with the fallen fortress that comes on a little stand.

 

And the so awesome unexpected bit is this:

 

I had asked Mack to add a 2nd port opposite the first, and that these ports should be near the front facing side of the outworld, to direct traffic near the wall as a planned spot for macro lenses photography.

And he then built up a little bit around those ports and made the tops into little cups where seeds can be offered too. It's a neat look to the entrance/exit area. And i not only get the traffic location but also a forage spot right next to the wall in macro lens focal range.

Just so super above and beyond what i had imagined here.

 

And then once hooked up, it was Meg the MutANT who is way more exploratory than her sisters to be first in, by a good 5 min or more.

 

 

And while i don't have images of it, the very first order of colony business was, taking out the trash.

They had been keeping one official trash pile in the front corner of the med outworld, and they got busy moving it out to the new world's far side from them.

They even politely put it in location that is out of sight from the display front of the out world, only seen top down or from the back side. And like really cleaned up took out every tiny piece of everything from the old trash pile.

But not everyone got the memo about the new trash pile. Some of the ants have still been putting trash in the old place, and then other ants move it on to the new trash pile.

 

 

Lastly, the queen still comes to the middle outworld for apple after all the remodeling. And she still spends a fair amount of time out in the tube itself. I've not seen her go into the bigger outworld yet and i suspect she won't.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, February 27 2023 - 10:04 AM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Six weeks and one day from arrival the first of the new brood has been woken up. She is a bit more light shy than the rest of the nest so i didn't get the best image but i managed one.

 

I saw them working on it early in the day, doing the articulating of its limbs. When i got home later in the evening there she was running around, still very light almost white in some places. That image is about 5 hours after that and she had clearly turned a bit more golden over all.

I can see a couple more are likely to eclose in the next few days. That one out of focus in the middle starting to change color and the well formed one being carried on the left is probably coloring soon too.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

The 2nd 'wave' of eclosing has been happening. I've had about 7 new workers wake up over the last week and a half. Based on deaths i think the colony is in the 40-50 range.
There is now a small egg clutch, a couple larvae, a pupae that should eclose today judging by the color of it last night.
 

And lastly, one of the biggest pupae i've seen yet, still all white, but easily 2x as big as any i've seen so far. No clue what it's going to be as the colony is only about 40-50 strong i'd not imagine a queen coming along yet.

But then i'm total noob, no real clue what to expect other than that alates wouldn't be produced until the colony was more in the 100-200 range at least. And i don't see anything looking like wings on it anyway.

 

I'll see if i can get a picture posted later.

 

 

And sadly Meg the MutANT died on Friday 17th. I found her winding down and put her in a little tube before the colony could make trash of her.
She showed up with the colony so no idea how long she'd been around, but was here for 8 weeks and was the most interesting ant among them all.

It was really cool having a specific ant you could come back to see because she was uniquely identifiable among them all.

Hopefully the next mega pupae coming along might fill that now empty void.
 

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, March 28 2023 - 10:10 AM.

[ANTdrew]

RIP Meg 2023-2023