Hi, I am new to ants keeping and I have ordered my first ant colony Pheidole pallidula from Antstore sometimes around mid April 2007. The colony consists of 1 Queen, 1 soldier and about 5 workers (two of them look like major ones). There was no brood or larvae.
I placed the test tube in a formicarium with sand/loam mixture as the nesting ground. All the ants came out in six hours and started to build nest from a small depression I had earlier made.
Since then I feed them flies, spiders and even 'dirty long leg' (all dead). I have noticed that the ants tend to carry the insect corpes back to their nest, whenever possible. They leave the left overs outside the nest. They also eat sunflower seed.
However, ever since the migration from the test tube to the nest, I have never seen the queen, neither any new ants/broods/larvae. The nest tunnel they have made does not progress since the first few days of moving into the formicarium.
My questions are:
(1) Is this normal?
(2) I wonder how long does it take for the queen to lay eggs and how long does it take for an egg to turn to an adult ant?
(3) What other food does Pheidole palidula take? I notice they can be quite choosy (they don't take orange or berries for instance).
I am a bit worry there is not much of an activity. Only one or two ants will occasionally come out for a while and then go back to nest. Any advice will be mostly appreciated.
Thanks.