Aka's Camponotus chromaiodes

[aka ant]

My last post lacked a video so I added one focusing on the brood. As always watch in HD!
http://www.youtube.com/us...mhum#p/a/u/0/qiiMlU-Dykg

[aka ant]

Much growth and prosperity of the colony pleases me to no end. Not long after my last post the queen started laying eggs, roughly around 50-65 and more on the way. Most of the brood are in the pupa stage but very few are destined to be majors. After watching both my Camponotus colonies I come to the conclusion that the less I heat them the better chance I will get more majors but I'm sure other factors play equal or greater roles in caste development or I'm just dead wrong. Anyone care to give me better incite on factors that determine caste development of Camponotus.

[aka ant]

I'm happy to see my first worker of the year born today! Most of this generation of brood are pupae now and the next generation of 120-160 eggs and larvae or growing fast. The next few weeks will be exciting to watch.
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[aka ant]

The colony broke out recently making several small holes in the nest. The nest was my first attempt at building a large nest which didn't come out as I wanted and created a few weak spots. I couldn't find all the holes forcing me to move them into a back up nest intended for my C. americanus colony. I used the heating method to force them to move because they are used to the light. It took them all night to fully move into the new nest. Unfortunately I didn't give them enough water resulting in a few deaths from dehydration. With all the runaways I may have lost 50-75 workers which was a small loss soon to be replaced by 100's of new workers. The good news is that the brood count is very high making this incident insignificant.

These video/pics were made just before I decided to move them.
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pic's taken today.

[aka ant]

The colony is a drinking machine building up a food supply for the winter. I can't keep up the supply without them trashing the foraging area for every scrap of food. Their large numbers and aggressive behavior makes cleaning difficult. I'm surprised that the colony didn't reach maturity this year but definitely will next year.
Vids.
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[aka ant]

I woke up the colony last Friday and they seem to be healthy. They're extremely hungry and fun to watch shorty after hibernation. I have a feeling the colony will mature this year finally.





Video.
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[bugsy]

Fantastic pictures, love your colony it looks very healthy. Keep it up.

[aka ant]

I now have 100's of larvae and pupae and a small batch of eggs (100ish)! I find it odd that the C americanus brood was more developed and fell behind in the larvae stages. I changed the foraging area in to a large fish tank connected by a long clear tube so the ants wont be clustered anymore and the flooring allows them to grip to the ground better. The next few weeks will be exciting to watch all the new workers hatching.
Video now in 1080p.
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pics.

[aka ant]

Most of the pupae are workers now and the remaining pupae are media/majors. The next batch are eggs and early stage larvae. I assume the queen is still laying eggs. The colony exceeds 1000 workers easily. I'm still unsure whether or not colony will officially mature.
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pic's

[mowalk]

Wow awesome pictures keep them coming and a really nice colonie. I hope i can achive something close to that with mine.