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My Camponotus ligniperda colony is about 2 years old now, roughly 10 workers (I lost many last year from a strange illness), Still no majors though. Is colony size a factor? Or is it threat that causes it?
I noticed these ants are actually quite timid for their size, they wouldn't even attack a small beetle, preferring to just post extra guards. Do they become more aggressive when the colony grows and more majors are born?
Yes colony size does mather. the majors will come if the colony is bigger. They also get more aggressive if the colony grows. But as you know it can take a while with these ants. :)
It is partly luck, but mainly a size factor. The colony needs to be large enough to be able to cope with a steady production of major larvae, I found this to be after a few dozen workers but they can appear before then.
I have always had a least one major in my main colony, from 7 workers to 100+ workers.
However my colonies from queens I caught last summer, which now have 5-12+ workers, have not produced even the smallest media workers (so I think my Antstore colony was either boosted or kept small for a while).
edit:I found my colony was really timid too. But now a worker has the confidence to attack and even kill prey larger than itself, although foraging majors prefer to stand well back.
On another note, has anyone experienced massive colony growth in early spring to have them go into a sort of semi-hibernation where there is no growth for months?
Don't have experiences with Camponotus yet, but Erne (Mod in the German part of the forum) faced a similar situation with his Lasius flavus colony. They were in hibernation from beginning of November till midst of January (a little short, though). After the mentioned massive colony growth the queens (5 in total) ceased laying eggs end of May.
As far as I know, Erne is still undecided whether he'll put them in hibernation already or wait for the natural time end of October.
So far couldn't find a reason, why they actually stopped laying eggs... I'm quite curious to learn about the reason for this... ;-)
On another note, has anyone experienced massive colony growth in early spring to have them go into a sort of semi-hibernation where there is no growth for months?
Both my Camponotus ligniperda and Camponotus herculaneus began their hibernation in late summer. Around august time they just stopped coming out of the nest
My C.ligniperda started this semi-hibernation over a month ago. One or two ants come out every other day to get sugar water and thats it. There is a large pile of 1st instar larvae that has been the same size since April. I think It may be bacause I did not hibernate them cold/long enough.
yeah my ligniperda are still active, but the herculaneus stopped all activity about a week ago. I would be worried, but they did the same thing last year. Kind of boring though really.
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6100/antg.jpg
Sorry about the bad pic, but does that look like a major or a large worker on the right?
By the way it's herculaneus
lol it looks like a queen to me :P
A small major by the looks of it.