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Camponotus tergestinus


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#1 Offline Kristijan - Posted November 5 2023 - 5:33 AM

Kristijan

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Hey everyone, I started this journal a little late but better late than never, especially with a rare species such as this one.

I caught 3 queens of the species, one winged on the 1st of May and 2 wingless on the 20th of May, the winged one turned out not to be fertilised but the two wingless were fertilised.

 

20.5.2023.

The queens immediately got to work on the cotton, at first I was worried that the wingless one wasn't fertilised. I kept them at 25-26C

First eggs were laid in a few days, unfortunately I don't have pictures of that

WhatsApp Slika 2023 11 05 U 12.11.15 5e8a2751
 
25.6.2023.
The winged queen was unfertilised, as I thought, but the other two queens were doing well, one even got her first pupa.
It was visible that one queen was doing much better than the other one
WhatsApp Slika 2023 11 05 U 12.11.16 4c34b035
 
8.7.2023.
The less productive queen had lost most of her larvae, there was very little hope for her. The other one still had larvae and the one pupa.
It was at this time that the room temperature had risen up to 27C
WhatsApp Slika 2023 11 05 U 12.11.16 897eaa3e

 

15.7.2023.

The first worker has arrived! And immediately went to work on the cotton

WhatsApp Videozapis 2023 11 05 U 11.58.05 85538be7
WhatsApp Slika 2023 11 05 U 11.53.13 2439f6d2

 

23.8.2023.

The more productive queen had more pupae (no pictures unfortunately) but the other less productive queen had died, at least I had the chance to get some good pictures

WhatsApp Slika 2023 11 05 U 11.53.16 1804d85e
WhatsApp Slika 2023 11 05 U 11.53.16 1f5f9f17
WhatsApp Slika 2023 11 05 U 11.53.15 2b5427c3

 

23.9.2023.

The colony grows, now with 4 workers and many larvae

WhatsApp Slika 2023 11 05 U 11.55.33 61568baf
WhatsApp Slika 2023 11 05 U 11.55.32 08d036df
 
1.11.
I haven't recorded their progress much after September, the colony remained at 4 workers and the larvae pretty much haven't grown anymore, I put them in diapause first at 15C and later I will lower the temperature down to 8C

 


Edited by Kristijan, November 5 2023 - 5:36 AM.

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