Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
Powered by phpBB Social Network © phpBB SN Group
Deutsche Übersetzung durch phpBB.de
Time : 0.028s | 44 Queries | GZIP : On
Hello Guys well I am a a happy chappy. I finally received my termite colony. The colony consists of one king and queen, a small clump of about 15 eggs, roughtly 16 workers , 13-14 nymphs and 2 soldiers. This is not the house eating termites and is from the family Macrotermitinae they act very much like fungus growing ants as they grow and cultivate a fungus which they feed upon. They collect leaves twigs dry grass, cardboard etc and dead wood which they chew up and mould into a comb like structer which the fungus then grows over. :D . The colony has settled in well to my plaster nest chamber. When transporting them over I scattered a little of the soil from there chamber into the bottom of the plaster nest. :grin:
Transferring them was relatively easy. They arrived in a small pot of soil. In here they had dug there starter chamber and sealed themselves in. The supplier had kindly marked out on the side of the pot where the chamber was and i could see faint movment through the plastic. I slowly scooped pot soil from the farthest point to the chamber and then with a small paint brush scraped away at the soil untill i reached the walls of the chamber. The termite king and queen had started tapping againts the side of the chamber and making a clicking sound at this point . :shock:
I slowly broke into the chamber to find a rather nice size queen and king,about 14 mm in size :P I was very impressed and full of joy, I have wanted termites since my childhood and as soon as i could understand the world of social insects. I slowly brushed the king and queen onto a small plastic teaspoon and then brushed them off into there plaster chamber. The small starter workers and soldiers are half the size and very much like nantics in a ant colony. They were picked up gently by dipping the tiny piant brush in water and brushing it against kitchen towel so it was just damp. Then the workers ,nymphs and eggs were gently picked up one by one and gently tapped into the new nest.
The termites have settled down well and i have had them about four days. It amazes me how interesting they are, The king and Queen spend alot of time grooming feeding each other, they groom the nymphs and workers who then gromm the Queen and King in return. The eggs are groomed alot also, they are picked up individually and cleaned with great care. It is a great sight to see mobile youngsters, the nymphs are the young stage like the larva stage of ants but in termites the nymphs are minature workers in look and as they grow they take on more the look of what caste they will be. It amuzes me as the nymphs are very adventurous and many times workers and the King and Queen have fecthed nymphs back from wondering off. Well guys there concludes my diary for now, Hope you like the pics below.
Regards
Adam
PICT0051.JPG
Baby Termites called Nymphs
PICT0054.JPG
A worker tends to one of the eggs, and cleans it :D
PICT0056.JPG
A worker Nymph next to a adult worker, one of the reproductives is cleaning a egg.
PICT0065.JPG
Termite brood :P
PICT0071.JPG
PICT0048.JPG
Aww the first picture lookes so cute with the freshly hetched (?) nymphs.
I wish you luck with your termites and would be very happy if you would update here regularly. :wink:
By the way where is their fungus? Don´t they need a small fungus to start their cultivation just like Attini in ants?
Regards
Kaj
Hello Kaj yes in the first pic they are nymphs. there the bright white ones lol. The fungus garden is not yet established, its constructed by the workers and it is not quite known how, there are several ways i have read, either the king or queen carry a piece with them from the origional nest either in a special poutch like the Atta queen does or the fungus is carried in there guts and passed around the colony by excretion. The other explanation is that the workers during there first foraging mission find the fruting mushroom from anouther termite colony and collect the spores from this. It will be interesting to observe them to see what they do :grin: , should they not create there fungus garden i will ask the supplier if he could collect a small piece from a colony already established and ill add that to them.
Dont worry mate i will update regularly as this is my fav social insects of all lol :P
Regards
Adam
Hey Guys , the colony is still doing great, the queen and king have been busily grooming all the eggs and nymphs, and a few workers have begun to wonder around a little bit more. I have also witnessed somthing , yestarday I saw one of the reproductives chewing on somthing on closure inspection it was a worker :shock: , I have read that termite colonies as well as feeding on there fungus are know to do controlled canabilsm. They eat the dead skin after a nymph sheds and also eat there dead. I have took a short video and i have noticed while watching it that two workers are lying on there back underneith the pair so im assuming that these two workers are what the pair were eating. I am not worried due to the fact all the workers seem ok and the nymphs seem very mobile and healthy. If there was problems i would of thought these would be the first to perish.
Well the fact they ate these workers got me thinking about trying to feed them somthing as the few bits of cardboard , newpaper dry grass etc had gone untouched. I have some tiny newly hatched black crickets, they are just smaller then the termite workers. I placed one in the freezer in a little test tube and froze it. I got it out let it defrost as it took minutes and slowly placed it with a fine brush just a way from the brood and reproductives. It was discovered a few minutes by a worker and soldier who promptly grabed hold of it for a few seconds. Realisng it wasnt moving they let go. They were joined by one of the reproductives who started chewing on the crickets tiny attena before grabing it and chewing on it. The workers started joining in and im a little bit relieved, :grin: I know now i can feed them somthing while they get properly established.
Also one of the larger nymphs are moulting, this is indicated by the nymph arching its thorax and curling up into a little ball, the workers will slowly start to chew of its old skin and hopfully when i check them tonight i should have anouther mature worker. :P
Regards
Adam :mrgreen:
Hui8dNlAM_U
Coptotermes sp. I wanted one of these so bad! Problem was they arrived dead after shipping on BOTH times. I have to hold on my project on comparisons now. Beautiful colony Adam. :)
Hello Vasile , thankyou very much mate, they are proving interesting to observe. I dont think there a coptotermes species from what i have read and researched but i may be wrong with this :oops: lol , if anyone on here can offer any advice on what species they deffiantly are then i would be greatfull. I know there a fungus growing species for sure so am thinking they are alot more likely to be in the Macrotermes family. Also the soldiers and workers are not like coptoterms. Coptoterms workers are all white from what i have researched and one size. The workers in my colony have dark brownish coloured heads and there is a distict various size in workers.
Regards
Adam
Well well hello there :grin: , My termites are doing well which is great news. A few of the eggs have hatched and now there are some tiny nymphs walking about. Also there has been anouther soldier reach adulthood and several workers too :P There seems to be some more eggs laid as there are several tiny ones in the egg pile. It is interesting to know that termite eggs get bigger closer to hatching which is great as several are larger then the rest so hopfully more are due soon. I havent seen which reproductive is laying but it would be great when i catch the queen in the act as i would be able to tell them apart then lol. The colony has been eating dry grass that i have been putting in the end of there chamber. The workers are finding it and bringing back to the queen and king who as well as the workers feed upon it. I have noticed a change in the workers abdomens, they have gotten darker which is a really good sighn that they are eating somthing. :D
Here are a few photos and anouther video i managed to take. Hope you guys like.
Adam :mrgreen:
PICT0002.JPG
PICT0004.JPG
PICT0007.JPG
PICT0009.JPG
aUzMe52I2AA&list=UU60javMmgejklEkoEXfGpZQ&index
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 :shock: . 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. :P
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 :grin:
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 :P
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 :D
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 :grin:
Regards
Adam
PICT0456.JPG
PICT0457.JPG
PICT0460.JPG
One of the three soldiers
PICT0461.JPG
Weird structer, possibly the starting fungus garden ???
PICT0462.JPG
Stored cellulose, dry grass and wood
PICT0465.JPG
Worker Nymph
PICT0471.JPG
Notice the eggs are different sizes, The eggs get larger closer to hatching :D
Hey Guys the colony is doing great.
Current Population
* 1 King
* 1 Queen
* Approx 31 workers
* 3 Soldiers
* Pile of eggs
* Several nymphs a few newly hatched
After several enquiries i managed to find out that they are a Macrotermes species but as yet not %100 sure which one. But one thing is for certain that dark pile of stuff resembling mud is in fact the beggining of there fungus garden. Apparently the King and Queen carry the spores in there gut and pass them over to the workers as sone as they start feeding on cellulose. Its certainly great to hear :P
Special thanks go to Quah for the fantastic information.
Heres anouther video. Sorry the video is a little trembly , hard to hold a light and camera at the same time and get macro shots lol :grin:
OdAQNBep6Iw
Regards
Adam
Hey Guys just a few Macro pictures. :grin:
IMG_0570[3].jpg
IMG_0573[1]resize.jpg
IMG_0574[1] resize.jpg
Regards
Adam