44 replies to this topic

[Aaron567]

wow. it is interesting that none of the queens shed their wings. i will take that note for camponotus now if i catch any with wings.

 

Interestingly castaneus is the only Camponotus species I've known of to consistently keep their wings when I catch them at a light. It's very rare for the ones that are blacklighted; I've never had one shed. The queens of every other species of Camponotus I've had, even blacklighted ones, will usually shed their wings right before laying eggs. 

[Aaron567]

January 4, 2021

 

I said I would remove these queens from diapause in mid to late February, but I decided to go ahead and take them out a few days ago. Evidently I put them in diapause earlier than when my local wild colonies start (which seems to be December?), so I feel that they've had enough time. They were in the wine cooler for about 8 weeks total. The 2019 queen's colony failed; her workers are all dead, likely of old age.

 

Now they are being exposed to temperatures in the low 80s (F) and I have begun to feed them sugar water and small roach nymphs. Now to wait until the queens start laying and the small batches of sleeping larvae to start growing.

 

[ANTdrew]

Good luck! I really hope someone can crack the code with these odd ants someday.

[Aaron567]

February 11, 2021

 

Two of these colonies are doing fantastic and one isn't doing very well. The largest colony has 17-18 workers and the other two colonies have fewer than 10. The two "good" colonies have nice piles of pupae and several larvae and eggs. Multiple new workers have already hatched out in the largest colony and the second largest colony just got their first worker of the season. I've been feeding roaches and sugar water. The bad colony keeps eating larvae that attempt to pupate, so right now they only have a couple of eggs and a couple of larvae. Probably a dud colony.

 

As you can see, I had to give the large colony a little outworld because it was too difficult to feed them. The workers are fairly aggressive when I open their test tubes.

 

[Chickalo]

Update...?  Very interesting, hopefully this helps me if/when I find any castaneus queens