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Hello Guys , i recently got anouther colony of Pheidologeton diversus , its only small roughly 100- 200 workers with one queen and a little brood , since i have settled them in to there setup the queen has produced masses and masses of brood , the clumps are getting much bigger and there must be thousands of eggs :shock:. The colony is doing ok , i havent lost any workers as of yet and there is one major soldier which is acting as food storage like honey pot ants do. They are taking small flies and i hope they grow soon.
There are a few pictures below but one thing i am surprised at the queen is huge the biggest i have seen and she is nearly 3 cm long. :P
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Will update again soon
Regards
Adam :grin:
Hello Guys , morning all , well just a little update. The colony is still doing great , i am rather excitied by this , a few workers have been seen in the trash area but this is minimal and there is still over 100 workers so the colony is still viable, also the queen still appears to lay as the egg pile grows larger still. There are alot of bunches of larva now almost the size of the minor workers so im hoping in the next few days these will pupate. Also some of the large masses of eggs are now masses of tiny newly hatched larvae , i feel if this colony can get through anouther 2 weeks i should be seeing alot of newly emerging workers soon.
They are not taking alot of live food now but i put in a tiny piece of walnut last night and they went mad at it , the workers have spent the entire night collecting bits of it and many have extended gastors which is great. The queen looks healthy and is still doing well. :P
I hope they continue to succedd.
Regards
Adam
Hi Adam,
good to hear it does great!
drosophila r great stuff to feed young colonies.
Also, besides walnut try larvae of other insects, such as flies. You get them very cheap in the fishing shops.
Best
Major SPud
Hello MajorSpud , cheers mate , i have collected some L asius niger larvae i found under a slab, a few were eaten but the ants have took a few and they seem to be looking after them aswell , hopfully not lol
Regards
Adam
Hey guys , a quick update , will upload a few pics again soon.
The colonys future now balances on the edge of a very sharp sword. The queen is healthy , she has laid masses of eggs every day , there is at least several thousand and amongst them hundreds of newly hatched larva now can be seen. A few hundred larva are now almost the size of the workers so i am hoping they will pupate soon , but here comes the delicate balance, from the 150-200 workers so far i have counted just over a hundred. The past two weeks the colony has been with me some of the workers have reached the end of there life :( But it hasnt been a constant death of workers, some days none die so i know conditions are correct.
I have to hope the last remaining 100ish workers will hold on untill reinforcments arrive but i do hope these few hundred larva pupate soon then i can look forward to the population explosion. If these few hundred larvae pupate and eclose in time before the last workers die off then before they themsleves reach the end of there life the few thousand eggs and larvae that are newly hatched will be pupated and eclosing , the colony will go from a few hundred workers to well over several thousand in little over a month :P , I hope this happens.
The colony are still taking food and last night took 9 fruit flys , most workers gasters are now extended and a few of the minor soldiers gasters are too. The Major soldier that was there from the beginning is still ok and her gastor is greatly extended too. :D
Also one thing i have noticed. The queen lays alot of eggs , i have watched her on several accasions and its amazing to see that when doing so she does not lay one egg but a small mass of them at once come out before the workers quickly find them and carry them off to the egg pile 8)
Regards
Adam :mrgreen:
You must have the Pheidologeton bug to keep trying, I like it. Sounds great, lets see all those eggs and larvae. More pics please :lol: A video would be great also.
Hello Bugsy , cheers mate , yes i have the Pheidologeton bug lol , they truly are amazing ants. I have a new tripod and light comming for my macro camera in the next few days , should make taking pictures much easier :P . As soon as i get it set up i shall upload a few new pics :grin:
Regards
Adam
Hey guys a update on my colony. Well the queen is still laying :P , the workers are still taking food and the larva are growing, also i have great news , i have spotted the colonys first Pupae since i have had them so new workers eclosing soon :P the rest of the larvae should start pupating over the next few days.
Heres a video of my colony and i will add a few pics , hope you guys like :grin:
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There you go guys 8)
Will update again soon
Regards
Adam :mrgreen:
Very quick update , checked on ants today , there are now three worker pupae as of last night =D> proberly more this morning, the population is still dropping so the sooner these pupae eclose the better :P
Regards
Adam
Are you keeping them in the same set up as the last attempt and how are you maintaining high humidity and keeping fungus away. I'm thinking about giving them ago.