Its time for my second desert ant journal, and its an awesome species, Aphaenogaster meggommenta
Never heard of them? Well hardly anybody keeps them, let along getting them to workers. I am really excited for this semi rare species. They are extremely nocturnal so I was lucky to spot one at my blacklight. I originally thought this was M.navajo in the darkness, but I identified her later. Super glad I caught her, because I assumed she was infertile since she was still flying fine, but she shed her wings when I git home and laid 6 eggs in her test tube.
She now has one worker and one that is very close to eclosing, maybe a few hours. I noticed the worker helping the developed "pupae", cleaning her legs . The queen took about a month and 15 days to get her first nanitic. She was pretty chill in her founding stage, but is now a bit more jumpy after her first worker eclosed. From my observations, this is pretty common. Maybe because the young worker is weak, so her mother is more defensive over the worker? I also noticed the same thing with my P.hyatti, found in my Pheidole journal.
Heres a picture and a video of the colony:
(the video is currently uploading so it may not show up if you are reading this shortly after it has been posted)
Hoping for an awesome Aphaenogaster meggommenta colony in the future!
Thanks for checking out my journal
Edited by AntsCali098, June 5 2024 - 5:02 PM.