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Dspdrew's Liometopum occidentale Journal [38] (Discontinued)

Liometopum occidentale Dspdrew journal

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159 replies to this topic

#21 Offline dspdrew - Posted June 2 2014 - 6:04 AM

dspdrew
  • LocationSanta Ana, CA
Update 6-2-2014
 
Yesterday the first worker eclosed, and as of this morning there are already about 15 or so.
 
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#22 Offline dermy - Posted June 2 2014 - 11:11 AM

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wow these colonies grow fast.



#23 Offline 123LordOfAnts123 - Posted July 3 2014 - 12:47 PM

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How's this queen doing?



#24 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 3 2014 - 1:44 PM

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  • LocationSanta Ana, CA

How's this queen doing?

I knew there was a journal I forgot to update haha.



#25 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 3 2014 - 1:46 PM

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  • LocationSanta Ana, CA

Update 7-3-2014
 
Two weeks ago almost all of the workers in this colony suddenly died off for no apparent reason. Now there are only three workers left. The queen has recently laid a few more eggs though.



#26 Offline Mathiacus - Posted July 3 2014 - 6:31 PM

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This species seems to be quite fond of just up and dying. Maybe liometopum deathcultis would be a good name for them? ;-)

#27 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 3 2014 - 9:49 PM

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  • LocationSanta Ana, CA

I had an L. occidentale colony last year with about 50 workers, and one day they just decided to die.



#28 Offline 123LordOfAnts123 - Posted July 4 2014 - 9:36 AM

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You'd think (with a first brood that big) that this species would be incredibly hardy and prolific.



#29 Offline dermy - Posted July 4 2014 - 9:43 AM

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That must have sucked to have a good colony starting to grow and then wake up one day to find them dead for no reason :(.



#30 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 4 2014 - 10:11 AM

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  • LocationSanta Ana, CA

Yeah, it's strange. They have a nice pile of eggs again now, so they should have more workers again soon.



#31 Offline Chromerust - Posted July 8 2014 - 10:46 PM

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That's what happened to mine we caught. They were fine for two weeks, then out of nowhere croaked at the same time except for 4. I still have those 4 along with a bunch of new ones eclosing daily now



#32 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted July 8 2014 - 11:55 PM

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How large is the queen?



#33 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 9 2014 - 12:02 AM

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  • LocationSanta Ana, CA

10mm or so.



#34 Offline dspdrew - Posted July 22 2014 - 11:16 PM

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  • LocationSanta Ana, CA

Update 7-23-2014
 
Well I'm pretty excited. I realized that these are definitely L. occidentale and not L. luctuosum, so I have merged this journal with my original L. occidentale journal that was discontinued after the entire colony died last year for no apparent reason.

 

Here's the only clear picture I got of one of the remaining three workers of this new colony, and you can clearly see how red the thorax is, so this is obviously L. occidentale. You can also see the new brood developing; not as many as the first batch, but a decent amount.

 

IMGP0113


#35 Offline dspdrew - Posted August 14 2014 - 12:18 PM

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  • LocationSanta Ana, CA

Update 8-14-2014
 
Just like the original queen, this one has now died too.



#36 Offline dspdrew - Posted March 27 2015 - 6:24 AM

dspdrew
  • LocationSanta Ana, CA

Update 3-27-2015
 
I found another one of these queens last night on my black light while out in Trabuco Canyon, CA. When I checked her this morning, she no longer had her wings, so it's looking good. I seem to get one try with these each year. Hopefully this one will work out better than the previous two.



#37 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted March 28 2015 - 10:54 AM

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Jealous... :(



#38 Offline antmaniac - Posted March 28 2015 - 7:13 PM

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Good luck with this one.


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#39 Offline dspdrew - Posted April 5 2015 - 8:00 PM

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  • LocationSanta Ana, CA
Update 4-5-2015
 
So far so good. The new queen has a pretty big pile of eggs now.
 
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#40 Offline Ants4fun - Posted April 22 2015 - 2:15 PM

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How is the queen?
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