16 replies to this topic

[The_Gaming-gate]

Backstory

As you might know, I have a boosted Solenopsis invicta (fire ant) queen in another journal. That queen turned out to be a dud, so I'm raising three more queens of her species to replace her.

 

 

Introduction

The queens you'll see here are all competing in a race- first to nanitics (first to hatch their own workers) wins. To keep this fair, all of the queens start the race the same day, all from the same flight. These queens will all be raised in the same 15 x 100 test tubes, with spring water. The only variable here is the identity of the queen. The losers (who ever does not get workers first) will either be given away, or have their brood given to the winner. 

 

 

 

Meet The Contestants

 

 

Queen A - ``Radiance``

This queen has been through a lot over the last few days. Her test-tube flooded, meaning she needed to be transferred to another tube- and she also lost a large amount of her 12 eggs, bringing her brood count to 8. Despite this, the queen is doing well to recover, and I'm not losing hope in her just yet. Second Place.

Queen B - ``Solar Flare``

 

This queen is currently in First Place, with about 18 eggs! Congratulations! She's quite calm and does her best to keep her tube and eggs clean. She has the highest chance of winning so far.

 

 

 

 

 

Queen C - ``Corona``

Just thougt I should clairify her name has nothing to do with the virus,

or the drink brand.

 

 

I won't keep my hopes up for this queen- she's quite slim,

and has her eggs all scattered instead of in a neat pile like

the other queens. She's also not doing much in the whole "caring-for-her-children" department, instead chilling on the other side of the test tube and refusing to intereact with brood. She has 8 eggs, just like Radiance, but due to these habits will be taken all the way down to Last Place.

Edited by The_Gaming-gate, May 18 2024 - 9:32 AM.

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

Good luck on all these queens(aka solar flare)

[The_Gaming-gate]

Haha! If Solarflare is truly mated, than she is almost certainly winning. Next update comes tommorow, so we’ll see then. The only way another queen is winning at this point is if they get larvae before Solar-Flare.

[The_Gaming-gate]

Not a real update since not much has happened.
Radiance has 20 eggs in a pile. Second place.
Solarflare has 30 eggs in her pile. First place.
Corona has 15 - 20 eggs, all scattered. Greenish-black mold has also formed a small colony in her tube, but I’m not too worried about it.

[The_Gaming-gate]

Solarflare (who I’m nicknaming Solara because it’s shorter) has 5 or so larvae, and some of them are quite big. None of the other queens have hatched eggs at this time.

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Edited by The_Gaming-gate, May 24 2024 - 6:45 AM.

[The_Gaming-gate]

Babysitting 101 with Solara.

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[AsdinAnts]

Her brood pile exploded over the course of 4 days! Sheesh

[The_Gaming-gate]

I know! No wonder Solenopsis takes over the world- they’re taking over my test tubes!

[The_Gaming-gate]

Solara’s eggs have all hatched. I expect pupae by the next update!

Corona has overtaken Radiance for the second place. Corona now has fifty eggs (I know, a lot!)
Radiance only has 30.

Solara pics:

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[The_Gaming-gate]

6/24/2024 - "Tables Turn"
QUEEN CORONA: Dead, dead, and very dead. Covered in white mold. She might have had up to 100 eggs at her time of passing, doubt they would have ever hatched. Last place.

QUEEN SOLARFLARE: Back to square one. A hair-like fungus spread over her tube and killed all but one larva. Solarflare was able to clean most of it up though. Second place.

QUEEN RADIANCE: I was rooting for her, and it seemed to have worked! This queen has 7 workers, with 2 more on the way. She also has about 5 larvae left to pupate! Since this queen won, I gave her a new home. Introducing: The Sands of Time. It's a standard outworld with some sand, rocks that mimic a basalt formation, and some twigs. I am using a tubs & tubes set-up where the test tube is placed inside of the outworld. The ants were scared for a minute or two, but after that there was never a time there was not at least one worker out exploring. I coated the walls in Vaseline, but the ants are able to climb slightly farther on the corners of the clear box, despite the Vaseline barrier. This seems to have less to do with the coating itself and more with me just not applying it correctly to these areas. Luckily no ant was able to reach an area within an inch of the lid, so I'll call it a success. After providing Radiance and her daughters some honey, I left the ants in the dark to eat in peace.

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Edited by The_Gaming-gate, June 24 2024 - 2:08 PM.

[Stubyvast]

 Aw, poor Solara. Thought she was gonna do so good! great job Radiance, you did it! Good luck on this colony!

[The_Gaming-gate]

Thank you! They’re doing great right now and the larvae are growing quick!

[The_Gaming-gate]

I don’t have any updates to make, but I need to keep this journal relevant. I fed these ants a boiled spider I had found lying around some of my storage boxes. They ate that thing fast! The colony is doing well and has 15 smallish larvae as of today. (2nd instar I believe.)

[michiganantsinmyyard]

Kind of strange how much mold you get in your tubes. Did any dirt get in, or some sort of cross contamination from forceps, or other things? Only time I ever get mold is if the water has been standing for very long, it is sugar water/honey water, or dirt gets in the container.

[The_Gaming-gate]

I know that Radiance's tube is full of sand from ants bringing substrate from the outworld into the nest, but I scrape most of this out every time I check on them, and they don't seem too mad about it. I suspect part of the issue is from me setting up test-tubes about a month or two in advance resulting in lots of standing water. I won't be doing that again.

[The_Gaming-gate]

7/8/2024 - ``The Brood Expanse``
I have some good news today! The first ant from the second generation has eclose. It must have happened an hour or two ago, since she is still white and not really walking. I find it a bit strange, considering almost all of the second generation are larvae, but they could just be storing pupae in the hidden chambers they have in the cotton ball, since I have seen them moving brood into these chambers.

Queen Radiance's brood chamber has exploded, there are somewhere between ~25 and 30 larvae around the queen, and 3 more visible in one of the hidden chambers, although I can't look all the way in there. Once all of the second generation hatches, I might move them into a small formicarium to make it easier to get pictures.

I fed them a drop of honey today to help with the newly eclosed ants, since they've been getting a lot more protein than sugar lately. (mealworms and a spider.). I'll check back in a few days to view their progress.


Picture time.

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Edited by The_Gaming-gate, July 8 2024 - 6:13 AM.

[The_Gaming-gate]

Right now I’m facing computer issues meaning I have to type updates with my phone. It might be like this for a while- so these updates won’t be the best quality, but I’ll try my best.

The second generation has eclosed, I’d say there are at least a dozen workers now. Radiance seems content with her life so far as well.

Water was running dangerously low in their test-tube, so I gave the ants a choice between a new test tube home or a single-chambered formicarium. The ants ultimately chose the test-tube. The queen moved with no problem but the rest of the ants were freaking out as they attempted to move the queen and her offspring back into the old nest. I did eventually get them to leave, though.

Edited by The_Gaming-gate, July 18 2024 - 5:48 AM.