Hello Guys
Well the termite colony has been doing great. Not alot has happened
The nymphs have been growing well and now the population has grew a little.
CURRENT POPULATION
* 1 king
* 1 Queen
* 25 workers
* 3 soldiers
* roughtly 15 eggs
* 9 nymphs
The workers have been working away sealing any gaps with soil.
I have moved them into a larger sized chamber. The reason behind the move is to do with the fact at some point the queen will swell up, Termite queens have been know to reach 4 inches long
. Of course this depends on species to species, but judging by pictures and roughtly calculating the size of my queen now i estimate she could easily reach 6 cm long and the chamber was only about 5 cm long
, I would rather move them now then risk damaging her when she swells up, also it alot easier now while the colony is small and i dont have 100s of workers or biting soldiers to deal with lol.
The workers have been feeding and i am beginning to notice somthing interesting. They have constructed a weird looking branch thing in the chamber, this was made in the last chamber and i gently moved it over with them. Its not made out of dirt as is alot darker then the surounding dirt lined chamber and it seems to be the exact dark shade that appears in there abdomens. Its also interesting to note that the workers climb over this and seem to arch themselves and press the tip of there abdomens and bend there heads down and seems to be working on it. Im assuming this may be the start of there fungus garden
It is also worth noting that the workers are collecting the bits of dry grass and wood splinters i put in and are then chewing them to managable pices and storing them in piles very much like i have seen pictures and read of fungus grwoing
termites doing. The workers then visit this pile of cut up celulose and help themselves to some chewing it up. The queen and king are still doing very well. I have yet to tell them apart as have not seen which one is laying lol. but one of them is as the egg pile has gotten larger , now containing roughly 14-15 eggs. The nymphs are growing well and only two days ago anouther mature worker was added to the colony so now brings the total workers to 25
Will keep you updated guys on any more future developments, im am very happy to have kept them this long and there still doing ok
Heres a few piccys ones of the wierd structer there making , what do you think it looks like ????? id be interested to hear your views
Regards
Adam
One of the three soldiers
Weird structer, possibly the starting fungus garden ???
Stored cellulose, dry grass and wood
Worker Nymph
Notice the eggs are different sizes, The eggs get larger closer to hatching