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Matthew's Tetramorium Journal (Overkill?)


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#1 Offline mking3907 - Posted June 23 2018 - 9:01 PM

mking3907

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About a week ago I caught a very large amount of tetramorium queens.  I had a few die the first day but a lot lived and produced eggs.  I labeled the colonies A-W. (I say colonies bc some of them have multiple queens bc i ran out of test tubes)  Consider this a Day 7 Update because they were caught a week ago.

 

 

 

 

 

Colony A:

shed their wings within a day and have a sizable pile of eggs.

 

15lsimP.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony B: Hasn't shed her wings, Tends to lay her eggs in a messier spread.  She is probably fertile, as she cares for her brood.

 

wKGmF28.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony C: Small pile of eggs and she tore her wings off.

 

NBwNUNZ.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony D: Decent pile of brood, decided to keep her wings.

 

dWLc4Vs.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony E: Tore her wings off and likes to keep her eggs up near the cotton.

 

uVr5EFg.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony F: Two Queens in this one, decent amount of eggs

 

bhD7A6z.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Queen G: Nothing of note. A few eggs.

 

sO1wt6c.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony H: Kinda experimental, 3 queens in this one, leading to a very big pile of eggs.

 

G4bEC3g.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony i: Two queens in this one, a lot of eggs, and they have a tendency to dog pile.

 

D2RZpi9.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colony J: Shed her wings and laid eggs on the first day.

 

2cPhYk8.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony K: Nothing special, just scattered egg placement, but she cares for all of them.

 

jkFzEjP.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony L: Keeps her eggs farther from the cotton than any other queen.  

 

eROFZWL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony M: The queen has larvae, and she decided to keep her wings.

 

YO3IrsY.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony N: Keeps her eggs in a taller pile than even the 3 queen colony does.

 

zAi8Wa3.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony O:  Nothing special about her behavior patterns, very consistent with what the other queens do.

 

2CH9tSJ.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony P:  Scatters her brood the most of any queen.  Only kept one wing.  Possibly infertile, but she does care for her eggs.

 

nIQHS0l.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony Q: Keeps her eggs literally on the cotton, like stuck to it hanging off the cotton.

 

jxCFRMc.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony R: Also decided to keep one wing.

 

RJDNYjz.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony S: Doesn't have eggs, as far as I've seen.

 

JedpU9k.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony T: Large brood pile, lots of larvae.

 

CW10vSe.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony U: Also keeps her brood directly on the cotton, I'm not sure why.

 

kiPkL0N.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony V: Has maybe one egg, probably infertile.

 

6jloyBo.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Colony W: Caught a few hours earlier than all the other queens, has a very large brood pile with lots of larvae.

 

UtyA23U.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

I will be selling some of these queens on GAN when they get workers.  I will update on these colonies, probably in separate posts as opposed to on one giant post like this.  This took a long time, especially getting all the photos.  I am housing them inside of a shoebox with a heating pad and thermostat.  I keep them at 30 degrees, although it is usually 28-32 with the air circulation changing.  I keep them in two layers separated by a towel as pictured here (there is another row of test tubes under this, where I have my nylanderia, formica incerta, and Camponotus castaneus queens):

Jr94fQ2.jpg

 

Until Next Time! - Matthew


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#2 Offline AntsAreUs - Posted June 24 2018 - 12:58 PM

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Seems a bit overkill to me unless you're selling all but 1 or 2. I am only keeping 1 queen even though I know I can catch PLENTY. She is doing amazing.






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