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Pheidologeton diversus
egg to larva= 13-14 days
sat/25/02/06
I recieved my ants this morning and opened the box hoping they are still alive after the journey. There in the test tube was one queen and about 24-25 workers one of which is a small soldier.(all moving so seem fine)The queen is massive compared to her workers. I put them in a clear ferra rosha box with moist sand in the bottom from this comes a clear tube to a small round box where im putting the food.All the colony have been moving about alot due to being warmed up now.(temp 25-30c)Put food in but they arnt interested at the moment.eg(cut maggots flys and sugar water).
sun/26/02/06
The ants are fine and lively they have moved the larva into the tube to the foraging place.So i cut some pieces of tubing about 1 cm long and put 3 in the bottom on the sand the workers have now moved the larva into these.The queen seems happy and now and then moves around with her workers on her back.
mon/27/02/06
The ants seem fine today a lot of nest building has gone on and there has been the death of 3 workers they have deposited them in the foraging area. I hope the larva soon pupate and the queen to start laying because only got about 17 workers some are missing but carnt see them must be hiding.They still havent shown an intereest in food but bought some crickets so i will cut one for them.
tues/28/02/06
Sad news some more workers have died and this leaves about 7-10 i think the stress of transport has shortened the workers life span. Its interesting to note its only the mini workers. The next size up and the small soldier are still cleaning larva and grooming queen and seem fine.They still wont eat but some larva have gone so i think they have eaten them. 
On the plus side ive got about 300 workers coming soon so it might be there salvation. and this colony has some hope yet. 
thurs/02/03/06
So far no more workers have died and the rest of the larva are still nice and shiny so there being cared for.The queen seems fine but still hasnt started egg production.Im getting nervous my reinforcement workers should arrive tomorrow but we have had cold snaps and snow so i hope there all right 
.The workers are still not taking food. I even had some invert sugar from ant store and they didnt touch this.My camponotus herculeanus queen on the other hand soon smelt the drop i had put in and came wizzing out and filled her gaster full. 
sat/04/03/06
My new workers arrived today but
the cold weather and due to the unexpected long delevery out of 350 only 11 survied these incluid 9 small workers and two small soldiers.On adding them they imeditally found the queen and started to climbe on her and clean her i hope they will be alright for awhile. mon/06/03/06
My colony seem fine. I have noticed the queen seems to like sitting with her abdomen tucked under her body and she sits like this for most of the time. I have found out where my workers have been going there is a tiny hole in the tub and the workers have been squeezing through and running off.I am now down to 2 workers and a small soilder who all seem fine. the soilder gorged himself on sugar water and started feeding the other workers who then feed the queen so i hope so far all is well.
mon/13/03/06
Sadly the queen died i dont understand why as evrything started to go fine.mr.k. kindly replaced her with anouther small colony which has arrived today
in it is one very lively queen about 20-30 workers and 2 larva plus a small bunch of eggs.I am keeping them in moist soil this time as i found out the hard way that moist sand isnt that good for them.tues/14/03/06
I think the queen is laying there is a second bunch of eggs which wasnt there before.The workers are fine and have been foraging i saw some behavior which i think fascanating i put a drop of invert sugar in the foraging area one of the workers found it had a quik drink then dashed back to the nest within minutes a line of workers came out they then drank and as if one said "lets go" they all went back in a line . 
There has also been no loss of workers so im very pleased.
wen/15/03/06
All seems fine no workers have died the 2 larva have grown i think tere in the last instar stage and eggs are still there.The queen seems fine and worried me last night. I was whatchin the workers come in and out the nest when one came out with the bunch of eggs. Then the queen came out
followed by all the workers who two were carrying the larva they got to the foraging area then turned around and all went back in. thurs/16/03/06
Its been exciting today my new workers came today
and they have survived the shipping.I put the two test tubes in the foraging area and i whatched them for a while they didnt wont to come out. Then one of my workers came to investigate and went in about a minute later the worker came out but wasnt alone. Following her were nearly all the workers they followed her all the way to the nest and went in.It was amazing to watch they moved like the army ants ive seen on tv so excitting.As for the queen she is now barly visable due to loads of workers now on her. fri/17/03/06
Good news i put a fly in the foraging area and i witnessed a feeding freenzy all the workers climbed on the fly and started biting it. The soldiers were pulling the legs of and carrying them back to the nest and eventually they dragged the whole fly into the nest so im glad there feeding. I can see the fly and theres workers still on it so i think they are still eating it. (update)I witnessed the queen approch one of the flys and she grabed it when i looked after she had a piece in her mandibals and it looked like she was chewing it so i hope this means she is refuelling to lay more eggs. I dont know weather the larva have been eaten as i carnt see them but the bunch of eggs is still visable and the workers like to store them on the queen.
sun/19/03/06
The colony is getting hungry they have took anouther 3 flys into the nest today also im glad to say the queen is started laying i saw her lay an egg then anouther until she had about 5-9 eggs then a worker picked them up and carryed them to the rest.
wen/22/03/06
The colony still has no larva but the queen must be laying as the bunch of eggs keeps growing and growing
.The queen has moved around alot lately and the workers and soilders have been foraging quit a lot thurs/23/03/06
The colony are acting strange i was watching telly when i notiched something moving down the tube to the foraging area when i looked it was the queen
.I left the test tube the workers came in in the food area and the queen has moved into it.Its got water in then cotton wool then theres some dirt on the cotton wool.Even though the test tube is in the light the colony have moved in 
Ive put some red plastic sheeting over and they seem to like it there the workers have been taking dirt in and out and they have been eating plenty of flys. .The eggs are still in a bunch and it dont look like any have hatched so ill keep an eye on them.I have noticed that a few workers are now holding bunches of what looks like eggs and not putting them with the large pile of eggs so maybe there newly hatched larva. sat/25/03/06
Great news i can see some new larva there so small.I have also witnessed the queen laying so im glad shes still doing so.I hope that the larva are going to grow quick.I put some lasius niger pupae from my colony into the foraging area to see what happened the workers found them and took them back to the nest.Later i saw the workers dumping the empty cases so i looked into the nest.There in a pile are the lasius niger pupae but there not in the cocoons and the workers are cleaning them also there are a few yellow ones and i can see one starting to move so hopfully they might be usefull slaves as they are longer lived have diverse appetites and have a bigger gaster capicity. If not then they will make a good meal for the queen.thurs/30/03/06
The lasius niger pupae were eaten and i saw the queen eating one so either way they came in handy
there is one left but she is alive and seems to be helping with the queen and larva as she hasnt come out the nest. The queen has been laying quite alot lately as the egg pile is growing.The workers have started to die the past 5 days due to i think that they have reached old age i hope the larva pupate soon as i could do with the reinforcments there are about 100-150 workers with at least 2-4 dieing evryday. sat/1/04/06
More workers have died 4 today so far
.The live worers were given a knat as they wont touch the flys or crickets any more i think its due to the now small numbers of workers.The second large bunch of eggs has now hatched as it is a mass of riggling larva i say theres about 90-120 there.They took the knat into the nest and today theres no sign of it so it has been all consumed.The larva are growing and the queen still seems fine so they hanging on i will be so glad when they pupate and hatch. mon/03/04/06
Some more workers have died but none today im glad to say. There are about 40-50 workers and 2 small soilders.The queen seems fine and the larva are growing fast there are two which are now the size of the small workers so they should pupate eney day now hopfully.I have put in some tiny fruit flys as there are to few workers coming out to attept to drag a normal fly into the nest.They grabed the fruit flys and took them into the nest and to the queen. There they cut pieces off and i saw them giving them to the larva and the larva curled round the pieces so i think they are eating them.
The queen has been doing alot of grooming and the workers have been feeding her and each other alot . Its amazing to see such a small worker feeding the queen. 
thurs/06/04/06
The colony have been very quite the last couple of days the workers dropped down to a criticul 15 and all workers stopped foraging they stayed in the queen chamber and tended the larva and eggs and the queen. One of the two large larva is gone i presume it was eaten or it could have pupated and has been hidden.The eggs have all now hatched and there are larva of all diffrent sizes in masses next to the queen.
Some good new my new workers have arrived benjamin kindly sent 200 more and they have survived the journey and have entered the nest and joined the queen.It is amazing to see that as soon as the first few new workers found the queen the colony started coming to live again the new workers have been foraging and have taken 2 knats and 4 fruit flys plus 1 hover fly into the nest and are now eating them so for now the colony is back up and running. sun/23/04/06
The colony have been busy as far as i know they still seem fine the colony moved out of the test tube and into the tank of soil i now cannot see any thing exept a hole where the workers are coming in and out they are taking baby crickets into the nest so i assume all is well.
wen/03/05/06
I havent seen alot happen lately i do know though that evrythink i think is fine the workers are still taking the baby crickets into the hole.So something is eating them.
for unlocking this thread so i can re add my experiance with this very hard to keep species. As you can see from the threads above i didnt do very well the first time i kept them but its a now many years later and i have got abit more knowledgeable so im sure things will be ok. 
