105 replies to this topic

[Nathant2131]

I checked them on 6/17. Were there nanitics? Maybe. Maybe not. Update coming soon!

[RhodyAnts]

I'm betting yes!

[Nathant2131]

6/24/17

 

I'm betting yes!

Nope! 

 

6/17/17 Checkup

 

I checked them on 6/17/17, at 9:43 AM and put them back 6:47 PM. No queens have nanitics yet, but there are lots of pupae, some of which are... yellowing!

 

Queen 1

This queen is doing well but she doesn't have many pupae, looking at the pics at least.. See the dark eye on that pupa in the first pic?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Queen 2

This queen's doing well. She has a good number of pupae.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really like this picture ^

 

Queen 3

She's doing good!

 

 

 

 

 

Queen 4 

 

Queen 5

She's all good.

 

 

 

Queen 6

I don't think it's a coincedence that this queen's tets tube water is all yellow, AND she is the only not-doing-good queen.

 

 

Queen 7

She's also thriving! 

 

 

 

 

I don't know where the heck I got the idea of using a glue stick for a background, but it worked. 

 

 

...I think I was a little tired that day

 

Queen 8

She has many pupae, and some are very yellow!

 

 

 

 

----------

Temperature is still hot. I'll move them to a basement soon. 

 

Anyways, Can't wait to check on them later today, as there will most likely be workers! I have my outworlds set up too.

Edited by Nathant2131, June 30 2017 - 3:07 PM.

[Bracchymyrmex]

Our 15 queens finally have their first workers (each queen has 1-4)! Very exciting time!

[Nathant2131]

Checking on them now! *drumroll*..............................................

[Aquaexploder]

[Nathant2131]

6/25/17

 

NANITICS! They're so cute and tiny!

 

6/24/17 Checkup

 

I checked on the queens (or what can now be called colonies) on 6/24/17,  11:23 AM, and put them back under my bed at 1:26 PM. Each queen (besides #6, but that goes without sayin, y'know) had 2-6 nanitics.

 

For each colony, I put a small cotton ball soaked with Sunburst Ant Nectar towards the middle of the tube. For the next 45 minutes or so, I tracked how each colony reacted to them, and it was very, very interesting. I'll give the full info in each colonys description section, with a timeline and stuff.

 

So far, this is my favorite ant species I have ever kept.

 

Colony 1

Worker count: 1

11:23 AM: Uncovered from underneath bed and acoustic panel, therefore in light. 

 

 

1:04 PM: Small cotton ball soaked in Sunburst Ant Nectar placed in tube.

 

 

1:26 PM: Placed acoustic panel back, and put back under bed.

 

The colony never ended up drinking from the cotton ball. I'm not even sure if the queen or worker bothered to explored anything.

 

Colony 2

 

Worker count: 4

11:23 AM: Uncovered from underneath bed and acoustic panel, therefore in light.

12:55 PM: Small cotton ball soaked in Sunburst Ant Nectar placed in tube.

 

 

1:26 PM: Placed acoustic panel back, and put back under bed.

 

Like colony one, I'm not sure if this colony even discovered the cotton ball.

 

Colony 3

Worker count: 2

11:23 AM: Uncovered from underneath bed and acoustic panel, therefore in light.

 

 

 

12:46 PM: Small cotton ball soaked in Sunburst Ant Nectar placed in tube.

(Can't find picture of the sunburst)

12:46 PM: The queen started drinking from the cotton.

1:19 PM: The queen finally stops drinking the cotton. It seems the workers were getting angry that their mommy was 2 mm too far away from them while she was drinking 

Either 1:20 PM, 1:21 PM or 1:23 PM: The queen starts drinking again.

1:26 PM: Placed acoustic panel back, and put back under bed.

 

Queen 4

 

Colony 5

Worker count: 5

11:23 AM: Uncovered from underneath bed and acoustic panel, therefore in light.\

 

 

12:38 PM: Small cotton ball soaked in Sunburst Ant Nectar placed in tube.

 

 

Either 12:45 PM, 12:46 PM, 12:47 PM, or 12:48 PM: Worker drinks Sunburst

12:49 PM: Worker stops drinking Sunburst and returns to colony.

12:57 PM: Worker starts drinking Sunburst again.

12:59 PM:Worker stops drinking Sunburst and returns to colony.

1:01 PM: Worker starts drinking Sunburst again.

1:03 PM: Worker stops drinking Sunburst and returns to colony.

1:06 PM: Worker starts drinking Sunburst again.

1:09 PM: Worker stops drinking Sunburst and returns to colony.

1:11 PM: Worker starts drinking Sunburst again.

By then it was getting difficult to keep track. To make it short, the worker(s) kept drinking sunburst, return to colony to transfer food mouth to mouth, repeat. And in the background while the worker drinks the sunburst, the queen and other workers keep transfering the sunburst. eventually their gasters blew up a bit. As they became more interested and aware of the Sunburst, it almost became constant that a worker was drinking.

 

 

1:26 PM: Placed acoustic panel back, and put back under bed.

 

This is one of my most active clolonies. I loved the effort of the worker(s) (I'm not sure if it was only one worker who was doing the job of drinking) and how excited they looked when they discovered food!

 

Queen 6

11:23 AM: Uncovered from underneath bed and acoustic panel, therefore in light.

1:26 PM: Placed acoustic panel back, and put back under bed.

 

This queen is still the same.

 

Colony 7

Worker count: 2

11:23 AM: Uncovered from underneath bed and acoustic panel, therefore in light.

 

 

12:32 PM: Small cotton ball soaked in Sunburst Ant Nectar placed in tube.

 

 

1:14 PM: Queen climbs right on top of the cotton and starts drinking.

1:26 PM: Placed acoustic panel back, and put back under bed. The queen was still drinking while I was doing this.

 

Colony 8

Worker count: 6

11:23 AM: Uncovered from underneath bed and acoustic panel, therefore in light.

 

 

12:25 PM: Small cotton ball soaked in Sunburst Ant Nectar placed in tube.

 

 

Either 1:01 PM or 1:02 PM: Worker starts drinking Sunburst.

Either 1:04 PM or 1:05 PM: Worker stops drinking Sunburst and returns to colony.

1:09 PM: Worker starts drinking Sunburst again.

Either 1:10 or 1:11: Worker stops drinking Sunburst and returns to colony.

1:14 PM: Worker starts drinking Sunburst.

1:16 PM: Worker stops drinking Sunburst andd returns to colony.

1:17 PM: Worker starts drinking Sunburst

 

After that, like Colony 5, there was almost constantly a worker drinking, with all the trophollaxis going on in the background, and their gasters getting bigger. This was pretty much a mirror image of the behaviours of Colony 5. They are very efficient and quick.

 

----------

Ditto on the temperature.

 

Some observations I have made:

 

The callows are very, very pale.

 

Every colony that had at least 5 workers: the workers drank the sunburst themselves.

 

Every colony that had less than 5 workers: Either the queens drank from the cotton, or the colony didn't find the cotton and/or didn't bother drinking it.

 

Every colony's workers still had very pale workers; Their exoskeletons seem to harden a lot slower than other species. Of course, I can't prove this becuase what if every worker eclosed an hour before I checked on them? It's not impossible.

Edited by Nathant2131, June 30 2017 - 3:09 PM.

[Volant]

congratulations!  .They are super cute.

[Nathant2131]

congratulations!  .They are super cute.

Thanks    I had no idea how pale and tiny they'd be.

[Aquaexploder]

My P. imparis queens still only have eggs and larvae. Should I be worried? The only reasons why I think this might be is that they are infertile or they are to cold (I put them in my basement because I know they like cooler temperatures).

[noebl1]

My P. imparis queens still only have eggs and larvae. Should I be worried? The only reasons why I think this might be is that they are infertile or they are to cold (I put them in my basement because I know they like cooler temperatures).

 

I wouldn't be worried, I'm in the same boat.  I think I delayed a few of my ants due to our AC.  There's an AC vent behind my ant cabinet, and realized (too late), that thru the holes in the back, it was filling with cold air like a mini fridge.  I put cardboard on the back now to block it.   My Lasius eclosed a good week or so behind Nathan's (who lives local to me and caught around the same time), and my P. imparis look to be about the same. 

 

It also depended on when they laid;  I caught mine at work, they sat on my desk for 6 hours, then a 45min car trip, THEN finally got them settled.  May have taken longer to feel comfortable to lay.  One of my P. imparis queens was significantly farther along than the others as well.

[Nathant2131]

6/29/17

 

6/25/17

8:46 PM: Queens/colonies taken out from bed and exposed to light.

8:50 PM: Queens/colonies placed in basement.

8:55 PM: Foam cover placed back on the queens/colonies.

 

----------

 

The temperature in my basement stays at a very constant 63-64 F. I also observed (while the ants were exposed) that all the colonies' queens had very full gasters.

 

Soon, I'm planning on keeping them in the open from now on, or at least be a lot more lenient on checking them. The light in my basement gets shut off and on from us using it obviously, but I'm not afraid of that causing any problems. It appears so far that this species is pretty hardy.

[RhodyAnts]

The "Rule of Five" might explain why I haven't seen my workers feed yet! My biggest colony only has four. Was starting to get worried.

[Nathant2131]

The "Rule of Five" might explain why I haven't seen my workers feed yet! My biggest colony only has four. Was starting to get worried.

Interesting, so that observation is the same for you too so far!

 

Update coming up.

Edited by Nathant2131, June 30 2017 - 2:47 PM.

[RhodyAnts]

I have less than five workers in all my colonies. If your observation is true then they won't be foraging, and I haven't observed any foraging yet. Got a few pupae ready to eclose so hopefully I'll get a chace to test the other half of your theory. One of my queens is an adventurer. She will explore anything and the only ant I see outside of her testube.

[Nathant2131]

7/1/17

 

6/29/17

4:40 PM: I uncovered the top acoustic panel off of all the queens and colonies. Permanently.

 

Some notable things that happened: I fed colony 8 a freshly killed Drosophila hydei fly, straight from my culture. I fed all of my colonies piees of goopy raspberries fresh from my yard (but all the colonies seemed to ignore it)

 

The worker count is as of 6/29/17, roughly 6:00 PM.

 

NOTE: The mechanics of the "checkups" will now be different since the colonies are now out in the open. So every few days like before, I'll do some extensive updating like feeding, worker count, etc., while I'll also note anything notable I managed to spy when I was down in the basement in between these checkups. So expect the worker counts/extensive updates for the colonies to not be real-time. The descriptions for the colonies for this update will also be as of 6/29/17, 4:40 PM to 7:01 PM. What I don't like is that I'm being lazy, and not updating right after my extensive notes, and rather days afterward which causes confusion. (so now I have to take other small notes in between the extensive update and when I actually post it. It's kind of messy and unorganized, and makes things harder to explain.)

 

The "extensive update" was on 6/29, in between 4:40 PM to 7:01 PM, which I already half-stated.

 

So this journal is going to get messy, but it's all in the process of learning. I am still new to this hobby and new strategies will come for my journals. It will even out soon although the damage will likely already be done.

 

I did not get any pictures.

 

Colony 1

Worker count: 2

6/29/17

6:14 PM:  I take away the small piece of cotton in the tube. It was pretty dry and I could just feel the moisture of the Sunburst when I squeezed it.

6:15 PM: I placed a small piece of red raspberry in the middle of their tube. The colony inspected only seconds after, but didn't seem to show any interest at all, all the way until 7:01 PM where I left the basement.

 

Colony 2

Worker count: 6

6/29/17

6:13 PM: I take away the small piece of cotton in the tube. It was pretty dry and I could just feel the moisture of the Sunburst when I squeezed it.

6:19 PM: I placed a small piece of red raspberry in the middle of their tube. The colony inspected only seconds after, but didn't seem to show any interest at all, all the way until 7:01 PM where I left the basement.

 

Colony 3

Worker count: 4

6/29/17

6:12 PM: I take away the small piece of cotton in the tube. It was pretty dry and I could just feel the moisture of the Sunburst when I squeezed it.

6:21 PM:  I placed a small piece of red raspberry in the middle of their tube. The colony inspected only seconds after, but didn't seem to show any interest at all, all the way until 7:01 PM where I left the basement.

 

Queen 4

 

Colony 5

Worker count: 8-9

6/29/17

6:11 PM:  I take away the small piece of cotton in the tube. It was pretty dry and I could just feel the moisture of the Sunburst when I squeezed it.

6:23 PM: I placed a small piece of red raspberry in the middle of their tube. The colony inspected only seconds after, but didn't seem to show any interest at all, all the way until 7:01 PM where I left the basement.

 

Queen 6

Worker count: 0

This queen remained the same when I checked her on 6/29/17.

 

Colony 7

Worker count: 2

6/29/17

6:08 PM:  I take away the small piece of cotton in the tube. It was pretty dry and I could just feel the moisture of the Sunburst when I squeezed it.

6:25 PM: I placed a small piece of red raspberry in the middle of their tube. The colony inspected only seconds after, but didn't seem to show any interest at all, all the way until 7:01 PM where I left the basement.

 

Colony 8

Worker count: 8

6/29/17

4:45 PM: Placed a freshly killed D. hydei fly from my culture into the tube. the fly was situated in between the cotton bung and the small piece of cotton soaked with (very much dried by then) Sunburst.

4:48 PM: A worker finds the fly. She sniffed it briefly, and then returned to the colony.

4:50 PM: A worker starts what looks like chewing on the fly.

4:52 PM: Another worker joins in on the presumed chewing. I found it interesting how they didn't drag it into the colony first, then go to town on it.

4:53 PM: Yet another worker joins in and snacks on the fly. With three of them chewing at once, they created a triangle-like formation around the fly.

5:02 PM: One worker stops chewing and walks away from the fly.

5:02 PM: Another worker walks away.

5:03 PM: The one remaining worker starts to drag the fly, until it is situated in between the colony and small piece of cotton. She then continues on with trying to chew up the fly.

5:04 PM: Aother worker joins in on chewing.

5:07 PM: Another worker joins, creating the same triangle-like formation with the way the workers were grouped around the fly.

5:07 PM: One worker walks away from the fly very briefly, then returns.

5:08 PM: A worker leaves.

5:09 PM: A worker joins.

5:20 PM: A worker joins.

5:24 PM: A worker leaves.

5:24 PM: A worker leaves.

After that: Some chaos, as the small piece of cotton rolled into the colony. (my mistake!) no one seemed harmed. I placed the cotton back where it was. The workers eating the fly were just missed by the cotton and seemed unfazed. They continued on.

5:29 PM: A worker joins.

5:30: I started to stop tracking this colony's every activity. The fly seemed to be getting slowly shifted over to the colony, and it was pretty much in the colony's hands.

When I looked over at their tube at 5:41 PM: The colony was snacking on the fly.

5:50 PM: I take away the small piece of cotton in the tube.

6:27 PM: I placed a small piece of red raspberry in the middle of their tube. The colony inspected only seconds after, but didn't seem to show any interest at all, all the way until 7:01 PM where I left the basement.

 

 

[noebl1]

Looks like I may be about 2 weeks behind you with my faster producing one as they are now turning really yellow so thinking getting close to eclosing (and the others that I believe are fertile are a good 1-3 weeks behind her...)  Reading the "rule of 5" in here had me fascinated, and I ended up putting some Sunburst on a cotton ball in the tube with her as I was feeding the Lasius I had in the same grouping container... and she's *huge*.  She's been feeding a lot on the Sunburst over the last couple of days, and her gaster is incredibly inflated.  

[Nathant2131]

Looks like I may be about 2 weeks behind you with my faster producing one as they are now turning really yellow so thinking getting close to eclosing (and the others that I believe are fertile are a good 1-3 weeks behind her...)  Reading the "rule of 5" in here had me fascinated, and I ended up putting some Sunburst on a cotton ball in the tube with her as I was feeding the Lasius I had in the same grouping container... and she's *huge*.  She's been feeding a lot on the Sunburst over the last couple of days, and her gaster is incredibly inflated.  

Yeah, the queens of all my colonies definitely get pretty inflated too. The workers do as well but was a bit underwhelming vs. what I expected. I suppose the colonies start really getting "repletes" until they are more mature. You can see that I've already jumped the gun with the raspberries, trying to bring out the color in them   Oh man, I can't imagine them eating blueberries or grapes.

Edited by Nathant2131, July 2 2017 - 4:38 PM.

[Nathant2131]

7/2/17

 

Did some stuff with them earlier today. Some fruit fly feeding with a couple of the larger colonies, and replacing the raspberries with Sunburst.

 

I went down to the basement to check on them at 6:58 PM. The worker counts are as of 7/2/17, roughly 7:00 PM. I left the basement at 7:58 PM. (coincedentially exactly one hour after I came down)

 

For each colony, there was no evidence that they drank from the raspberries. I wonder if they rejected it becuase they legitamitely didn't like them, or they had full stomachs.

 

With my Sunburst feeding today: Only colony 5 and 8 bothered drinking anything, at least during the time I was observing them. I left the basement before I could observe the 2 colonies doing anything with the fruit flies.

 

Colony 1

7/2/17

6:58 PM: Came down to basement to check on the queens/colonies.

~7:00 PM: Took worker count: 2

7:14 PM: I remove the raspberry from the tube.

7:22 PM: I place a small piece of cotton soaked in Sunburst in the middle of the tube.

7:58 PM: Left the basement.

 

Colony 2

7/2/17

6:58 PM: Came down to basement to check on the queens/colonies.

~7:00 PM: Took worker count: 8

7:13 PM: I remove the raspberry from the tube.

7:25 PM: I place a small piece of cotton soaked in Sunburst in the middle of the tube.

7:58 PM: Left the basement.

 

Colony 3

7/2/17

6:58 PM: Came down to basement to check on the queens/colonies.

~7:00 PM: Took worker count: 4

7:13 PM: I remove the raspberry from the tube.

7:28 PM: I place a small piece of cotton soaked in Sunburst in the middle of the tube.

7:58 PM: Left the basement.

 

Queen 4

 

Colony 5

7/2/17

6:58 PM: Came down to basement to check on the queens/colonies.

~7:00 PM: Took worker count: 11

7:12 PM: I remove the raspberry from the tube.

7:30 PM or 7:31 PM: I place a small piece of cotton soaked in Sunburst in the middle of the tube. The colony drank after that, but not as heavily as last time.

7:50 PM: Placed a dead or dying Drosophila hydei fly in the tube, next to the small piece of cotton. (the face of the cotton pointing away from the direction of the colony)

7:58 PM: Left the basement.

 

Queen 6

7/2/17

6:58 PM: Came down to basement to check on the queens/colonies.

This queen was still the same.  When is her misery going to end? 

7:58 PM: Left the basement.

 

Colony 7

​7/2/17

6:58 PM: Came down to basement to check on the queens/colonies.

~7:00 PM: Took worker count: 5

7:11 PM: I remove the raspberry from the tube.

7:32 PM: I place a small piece of cotton soaked in Sunburst in the middle of the tube.

7:57 PM: Placed a dead or dying Drosophila hydei fly in the tube, next to the small piece of cotton (the face of the cotton pointing towards the direction of the colony)

7:58 PM: Left the basement.

 

 

 

Colony 8

​7/2/17

6:58 PM: Came down to basement to check on the queens/colonies.

~7:00 PM: Took worker count: 8

7:10 PM: I remove the raspberry from the tube.

7:34 PM or 7:35 PM: I place a small piece of cotton soaked in Sunburst in the middle of the tube. The colony drank a bit, but not with the full force of last time. (or at least that I observed that far until 7:58) I was more like a "meh, why not?" type of reaction.

7:58 PM: Left the basement.

 

----------

 

I believe it is outworld time soon!

 

 

[ultraex2]

Have you just been feeding them fruit flies for protein so far?