awesome. i was wondering if that was the case. is it the same for fully claustral queen too or is she going to do something weird to feed them. maybe they are born with internal yolk or something? idk.

Edited by P0rcelain, November 2 2019 - 4:50 PM.

awesome. i was wondering if that was the case. is it the same for fully claustral queen too or is she going to do something weird to feed them. maybe they are born with internal yolk or something? idk.

yea, sort of.

Fully Claustral queens feed their first batch of workers off fat stores as well as metabolized wing muscles. Which is pretty cool.

Interestingly, a notoncus queen that i caught last year just laid her first egg. I thought she was infertile! 

wow! that is pretty nuts.

i guess that must mean they hibernate. forgive me if it seems like i have done almost no research on notoncus whatsoever. it seems like information on the genus is hard to come by.

Edited by P0rcelain, November 2 2019 - 5:34 PM.

wow! that is pretty nuts.

 

i guess that must mean they hibernate. forgive me if it seems like i have done almost no research on notoncus whatsoever. it seems like information on the genus is hard to come by.

Southern ants don't really hibernate, at least not like northern ants. Lots of the species do stop producing eggs during the winter. 3 queens (of which the Notoncus is one) that i caught late in the season (as late a April) have just laid their first eggs, seems like it happens.

I never really found much about notoncus online, but i didn't really look. I can understand though, they seem pretty uncommon.

i have been checking on the ants just a little too frequently, so i have waited 5 days this time instead of 3, and will probably keep this trend.

i have checked on them just now and there is nothing to report.

i will remove the dead insect from the outworld for the time being. no use it being there if she is not needing it.

the honey can stay for now, though. mostly because i do not want to disturb her to clean it up but also because if she starts foraging it may be easier to notice.

checked on them again today. eggs still have not hatched. i am starting to become worried since it has been 3 weeks already.

Edited by P0rcelain, November 11 2019 - 9:24 PM.

both. temperature is just whatever temperature is in my wardrobe.

fluctuates throughout the day and week from 7 degrees to 26 atm. that is the forecast though. it would naturally be a bit less severe.

if i had to guess, maybe 10-26? it can get a little stuffy but nothing horrible just yet. the worst is yet to come, in summer (spring currently)

Edited by P0rcelain, November 12 2019 - 3:16 AM.

7 degrees to 26

You should probably keep them at at least (more is preferable) the high end of this range. The low end is WAY too cold for any brood development.

Edited by AntsDakota, November 12 2019 - 5:36 PM.

huh, odd, seeing as these are ants local to my area.

if i just wait until summer do you think the eggs will hatch just fine then? it will likely get quite a bit hotter (20-40, lowest is 20 during the night and 30-40 during the day)

Edited by P0rcelain, November 13 2019 - 1:01 PM.

huh, odd, seeing as these are ants local to my area.

if i just wait until summer do you think the eggs will hatch just fine then? it will likely get quite a bit hotter (20-40, lowest is 20 during the night and 30-40 during the day)

Should.

i haven't had many eggs hatching yet either. Most have been in my Iridomyrmex Bicknelli.

We've been having some very strange weather recently. Cold snaps. Which I'm sure don't help.

ok. thanks for the intel. i will proceed as i was.

nothing to report

i have checked on the queens again. the fully claustral queen has two piles in her tube now. one with little white dots and one with white tubes.

i am thinking that maybe her eggs have hatched already and she actually already has little grubs in there. and maybe the white dots are the egg shells? i would think it would make far more sense for the grubs to eat the egg shells. maybe they cannot.

or maybe the white dots are feces. though i would think she would put her crap on the other side of the test tube, not so close to her off spring. (they are literally right next to each other.)

also i was under the assumption ant feces are black.

Edited by P0rcelain, November 24 2019 - 8:38 PM.

o i should also mention. her wings are still on but they are all scuffed up now. she might be having trouble removing them.

if that is the case i am not too worried. i am sure her workers will remove them once they arrive.

i have checked on the queens again. the fully claustral queen has two piles in her tube now. one with little white dots and one with white tubes.

i am thinking that maybe her eggs have hatched already and she actually already has little grubs in there. and maybe the white dots are the egg shells? i would think it would make far more sense for the grubs to eat the egg shells. maybe they cannot.

or maybe the white dots are feces. though i would think she would put her crap on the other side of the test tube, not so close to her off spring. (they are literally right next to each other.)

also i was under the assumption ant feces are black.

I don't think there are egg shells for ants, at least i've never heard of them.

Sure the white dots couldn't be more eggs?

could we get a photo?

couldn't they be eggs and larvae, the tubes being the larvae and the dots being eggs. possibly a new batch?

ant feces are black, or brown, i've never seen white.

i think that is the most likely

i will arrange to take some photos tomorrow, when i was planning to check on her again.

i am suddenly very confused because when i checked there was nothing there but the eggs

maybe in my hurry to not disturb her i got confused?

or maybe it was a dream

idk

i have not seen the queen foraging yet

but her eggs are hatching

a few days ago i checked and saw that one or two of the eggs were splintered and had little bb grubs sticking out

i have quickly checked again today and the vast majority of them are mostly out of the eggs

but they each still have a bit of the egg attached to their butts

i would rather know when i should feed them

but i know that it can take a while to hear back from you lot

so i will have to put some food just outside the tube for now

if she does not use it i will have to just remove it

actually i have just seen that some of the baby powder has fallen off around the sides

it could just be the coating eroding, but it could also be from her slipping off the edges from attempting to leave the clearly barren wasteland i have made for her

either way i think i was right to be safe and give her some food

Edited by P0rcelain, December 8 2019 - 1:41 AM.