33 replies to this topic

[Mettcollsuss]

     On April 12, I found a flight of Prenolepis imparis at my school and managed to find nine queens. Of those nine queens, two had wings and were likely infertile. One of the fertile queens had an injury on her gaster that was oozing at the time of capture, but it's mostly healed and she's acting okay now. They are all living in test tubes. I put four queens on their own, put the two winged queens together, and placed three more queens (including the injured one) together. A few days later, one of the winged queens was dead and had mold growing out of her gaster. I placed the remaining alate with the three queen colony. The drawer they are in averages about 75°F.

 

I really like the golden-brown coloration on the queens.

 

Here is their progress as of today:

 

Colony 1

Single queen, about 8 eggs. Queen slightly physogastric.

 

Colony 2

Single queen, 1 egg. Queen slightly physogastric.

 

Colony 3

Single queen, no brood. Queen slightly physogastric.

 

Colony 4

Single queen, about 4 eggs. Queen very physogastric.

 

Colony 5

Four queens. One has an injured gaster, one is winged and likely infertile. Winged queen alternated between relaxing with other queens and pulling at cotton. No brood. All queens slightly physogastric.

 

 

Photos time! _{Note: all photos were taken before an alate died and the other was transferred.}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

Edited by Mettcollsuss, February 9 2019 - 11:40 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

How dare you get Prenolepis before me! Flights here haven't started yet.

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, April 20 2018 - 7:26 PM.

[chi.antlog]

Great pics! I love their coloring as well. I hope they fly again when the weather lets up

[Mettcollsuss]

4-28-18

All colonies now have about 10-15 eggs. Queen #4's abdomen is still pretty large.

[Mettcollsuss]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mettcollsuss]

 

Edited by Mettcollsuss, May 13 2018 - 11:12 AM.

[Mettcollsuss]

5-13-18

Update time!

 

Colony 1

Single queen. About 40 eggs, about 5 1st instar larvae, and about 3 2nd instar larvae. Kept between 74°F an 80°F.

 

Colony 2

Single queen. About 30 eggs, one 1st and one 2nd instar larvae. Kept between 74°F an 80°F.

 

Colony 3

Single queen. About 45 eggs, one of which is orange (?), one or two first instar larvae and one 2nd instar larvae. Kept between 74°F an 80°F.

 

Colony 4

Single queen. About 30 eggs, no larvae. Kept between 74°F an 80°F.

 

Colony 5

Three queens, one alate. About 65 eggs, no larvae. Kept between 74°F an 80°F.

[Mettcollsuss]

Some of the queens have pupae now. Full update coming as soon as I decide to stop being lazy.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, May 30 2018 - 1:49 PM.

[CoolColJ]

fatties

[Mettcollsuss]

6-20-18

I'm about to leave for vacation, so I don't have time for a full update. But anyways, colonies 1, 2, and 3 each have about 3 workers. They've had workers for a couple weeks now, but I've been too lazy to update this journal. I gave them some red-dyed sugar water, which looks really cool in their inflated abdomens. Colony 4 has a pupae vary close to eclosing and colony 5 still only has eggs.

[Mettcollsuss]

7-6-18

Everything that's happened recently: All of the 4 singular queens got workers, but the polygynous queens still only had eggs. They had so many that they couldn't take care of all of them and some started to mold. I moved one of the queens into each of the colonies. Now every colony has 2 queens. Colony 2 got the slightly injured queen and colony 4 got the dealate. I'm going to be gone for 5 weeks, so someone else will be caring for them. I will post an update on them when I get back.

[Mettcollsuss]

8-26-18

 

Colony 1

Down to one queen. About 1 and a half dozen workers and plenty of repletes. Plenty of brood in all stages.

 

Colony 2

Dead. Whole colony and tube was overtaken by a white, fuzzy mold. Oh well.

 

Colony 3

Down to one queen. EVERY. SINGLE. WORKER. IS. A. REPLETE. Doing really well. Plenty of brood in all stages.

 

Colony 4

Still has both queens (yay). Complete protein hounds. Plenty of brood in all stages.

[Mettcollsuss]

Okay so I mixed up the numbers in the last update so here is what actually happened:

 

Colony 1

Still has both queens. Complete protein hounds. Plenty of brood in all stages.

 

Colony 2

Dead. Whole colony and tube was overtaken by a white, fuzzy mold.

 

Colony 3

Down to one queen. All workers are repletes. Plenty of brood in all stages.

 

Colony 4

Down to one queen. All workers are repletes. Plenty of brood in all stages.

 

All colonies have around 20 workers.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, August 28 2018 - 1:26 PM.

[Major]

Pics?

[Rstheant]

 
 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

They are so bloated!!

[Mettcollsuss]

An update for this is long overdue. Not much has happened. They grew a little, but I'm selling them all. I'll try again in a few months and do it in a more organized way.

[Mettcollsuss]

I took the one remaining colony I have out of hibernation. Very active and healthy.

[TennesseeAnts]

My one and only P. imparis queen died...

[Rstheant]

Why does the title say discontinued? #confused

Edited by Rstheant, February 8 2019 - 4:47 PM.

[Mettcollsuss]

Why does the title say discontinued? #confused

Oops, sorry. I fixed it. Thanks for pointing that out.