33 replies to this topic

[Ferox_Formicae]

Yesterday, I cracked open a hollow twig, and I saw a weird looking Camponotus snellingi worker run out of it. They had a very different coloration than the ones I normally see. I brought the colony home to collect them. When I finally collected the queen, she looked far different than the queens I have. She was mostly yellow with very little black on her abdomen. The colony has 31 workers and lots of brood. So far, they haven't lost a single worker, thank goodness.

[TennesseeAnts]

Pics? This sounds like the variant most common here...

[Ferox_Formicae]

Pics? This sounds like the variant most common here...

I'll try and get some when I get home.

[Ferox_Formicae]

I moved the colony into an open concept nest, the one my Pseudomyrmex pallidus colony used to inhabit. I cleaned it up a bit and got rid of the moat. In its place, I put baby powder along the top of the cup to keep them in. After I put them in the nest, it only took them a few minutes to find the hollow twig. After around thirty minutes, they were all moved in. The queen had a bit of trouble squeezing herself through a little bit of a tight place in the twig, but with a little help from the workers, who diligently cleared out some of the thin, papery layer from within the twig, she was finally able to fit through. It's nice having a sheet of plastic over the hollow twig so I can observe everything that goes on within the colony.

[Ferox_Formicae]

These ants love their jellybeans! I gave them half of a green jellybean, and in the morning when I turned their light on, all of the ants had green gasters! It confused me for a second until I remembered that they had a jellybean. I have actually never seen them foraging. I have seen wild individuals foraging, however. I guess this colony only forages at night. They may start to forage during the day as the colony gets larger and more confident. They may not even forage at night for a while now though, as most of the ants are completely full. The queen has also started laying a new batch of eggs. The colony's got lots of brood, around 20 larva and 4 or 5 pupa. These little guys are doing pretty good for the time being. 

[Ferox_Formicae]

The brood is looking very healthy, and a lot of eggs are hatching. There are around 6 eggs, 20 larva, and 7 pupa. The queen also seems to be gaining some weight, so new eggs could possibly be on the way! 

[TennesseeAnts]

My colony's queen queen already laid more eggs!

[Ferox_Formicae]

My colony's queen queen already laid more eggs!

Yeah! It's crazy!

[Ferox_Formicae]

Caught one of the larva pupating yesterday! It was pretty cool to watch it spinning the silk. The brood it all very healthy, and the pupa count is now at eight. There seem to be a lot of eggs hatching too, and some new ones too.

[Ferox_Formicae]

A new worker has eclosed!

[Ferox_Formicae]

Two new workers have eclosed today alone, leaving only two pupa to hatch. One should be eclosing within the next few days, and the other within a few weeks as it only pupated last week.

[Acutus]

I guess I should keep my eyes open for this species, never knew my dad got a Camponotus named after him.

 

I was reading some papers last week, (Can't think right now which ones) and I kept seeing the name Snelling come up. I was like that name looks familiar and I actually came back to this forum to see if your intials were the same. So it was probably your Father?

[NickAnter]

He was, he has talked about it before.

Edited by NickAnter, May 26 2019 - 6:32 AM.

[Acutus]

Cool! I must've missed it or maybe before I joined the forum.