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StormRider's Lasius Niger journal


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#1 Offline StormRider2407 - Posted August 19 2018 - 10:36 AM

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Hi. So I started ant keeping in early July 2018. I went out and was able to catch a Lasius Niger queen on my first go out! Unfortunately I put her in a new, small plastic container and I think the fumes from the plastic killed her. By the end of the day she was curled up and wasn't moving. So I decided to give her back to nature for some other creatures.

 

After that I bought a Lasius Niger queen online from a seller here in the UK. She arrived on the 17th July. I've been throwing around the name Jo for her. From the Japanese 女王 (Joou) meaning Queen (I'm learning Japanese and going on holiday there in March, so it seemed appropriate).

 

ZfeIGiT.jpg?1
 
 
I noticed she didn't have much water in her tube, so I researched ways to get her more water. I ended up preparing an other test tube with water, taping the two together and covering the new one with a small cardboard tube. It took a while (about a week and a half) but she eventually moved!
I noticed that no eggs had hatched at all, and saw online that if she's cold it can slow down development. Since I live in a fairly cool country (Scotland) I bought a low powered heating mat to try and keep her warm. After a few days I checked on her and saw that her eggs had finally hatched in to larva!!
 
tyVslMX.jpg?1
 
In anticipation of her workers coming I bought them a small formicarium similar to this one from the same company, but the nest in flat and extends outward from the outworld (it's no longer sold, so I can't get a picture of it from them).
 
A few days ago I checked up on her again and saw what I thought may be small cocoons, but I wasn't sure. I decided to get to work getting the formicarium ready. So I set it up with some soil and connected her test tube up with some rubber tubing in to the test tube with a modified test tube stopper. After a few hours, she started exploring the tubing! She poked her head out in to the outworld and started collecting soil!
She eventually partly blocked off the exit of the tubing in to the outworld and brought some in to the test tube.
 
And that bring us to today Sunday 19th August. Just over a month since I got her, I removed the tube covering the test tube and saw this!
 
9Q1TlTu.jpg?1
 
Her first nanitic! I hadn't checked on her in a few days so I don't know for sure when she arrived, my guess is around Saturday. I think I checked on Friday night and didn't notice anything. The wee thing was carrying larva from one spot to another (only millimetres away from where she picked it up from) but once she saw the light she started scurrying around the test tube! I put a little bit of honey on a small piece of paper in the outworld, I hadn't seen the worker go that far, but just in case. I came back later to check on them and spotted possible trophallaxis as well! I tried to get a picture but this is the best I could get.
 
FWYkLMu.jpg?1
 
You can kind of see the workers head near the the Queen's. I tried to move in to a better spot for a photo but they stopped seconds after this picture was taken.
 
Having a look at the other brood, it looks like there may be another 2 cocoons ready to hatch in the next few days! I will post an update as soon as I notice any new members of the colony. If the images are too big, let me know and I'll either scale down the future ones even further or just post the links to each instead of the actual images.

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#2 Offline StormRider2407 - Posted August 21 2018 - 11:00 AM

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Update 21/08/2018

 

Another worker has hatched! I've adjusted where the whole formicarium is on the heat mat and exposed the test tube to the light (just the normal light in the room) to try and start to maybe encourage them to explore the outworld and find the new nest. I'll leave them like that for a few days and see if there is any changes.


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#3 Offline StormRider2407 - Posted August 24 2018 - 11:33 AM

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Update 24/08/2018

 

A third worker has hatched! It seems a lot lighter in colour than the other two. I know they darker just after emerging from the cocoon, but it's been over 4 hours since it arrived and it's still lighter in colour.

 

DHLM0Su.jpg?1

 

You can see compared to the other, she's quite a bit lighter in colour. Almost looks transparent!

 

Mh7KDZ4.jpg?1

 

And a little image of the new one alone.


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#4 Offline sirjordanncurtis - Posted August 24 2018 - 7:29 PM

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I noticed how some of you pupae actually don’t have cocoons. In fact, your first brood pic has pupae in it already. Was that before she put substrate into the tube?

#5 Offline StormRider2407 - Posted August 25 2018 - 4:27 AM

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They don't? Sorry I'm still very new and have difficulty distinguishing between the different states of the brood. Is this a problem for them at all?

The first 2 images are while the test tube was still sealed and not connected to the formicarium. It was quite a while between the second picture and the third image, with the first worker and queen.

#6 Offline sirjordanncurtis - Posted August 25 2018 - 6:56 AM

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Yes, it looks like 3 to 5 of your brood actually pupated without you cocoons.  I think that maybe they might not have survived without the cocoons, but if you look at the first picture with all of the larvae, some of the larger white colored brood are sort of shaped different, and they have a dot on them that's their eyes.



#7 Offline sirjordanncurtis - Posted August 25 2018 - 10:25 AM

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They don't? Sorry I'm still very new and have difficulty distinguishing between the different states of the brood. Is this a problem for them at all?

The first 2 images are while the test tube was still sealed and not connected to the formicarium. It was quite a while between the second picture and the third image, with the first worker and queen.

 

It's probably a good thing you connected the outworld with the soil, that way the larvae have no problem forming cocoons.



#8 Offline StormRider2407 - Posted September 1 2018 - 12:39 PM

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Update 01/09/2018

 

Still just three workers, although the newest one has finally darkened, took a few days. My wife also pointed out that the queen is now missing her front most right leg! I have no idea when it happened! You can see it's there in my first picture, but the angle of the other pictures makes it near impossible to see if it's still there, but having a look at her today, it's definitely gone!



#9 Offline StormRider2407 - Posted September 4 2018 - 8:45 AM

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Update 04/09/2018

 

Yesterday 2 more workers emerged! Bringing the total to 5, plus the queen. I've been giving them little bits of honey every so often in their outworld, but I'm going to try and start to introduce some protein sources since I noticed the amount of eggs the queen is laying seems to have slowed. Still quite a few larvae and pupae, hopefully looking at another few in the coming week or so.


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#10 Offline StormRider2407 - Posted November 18 2018 - 12:07 PM

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Update 18/11/2018

 

So thing were going well over the last few months. The colony grew to about 13 workers and they had started exploring the outworld. But unfortunately I went to check on them earlier this week and noticed the queen had died. I have no idea how, the workers were fine, they had plenty of water and I gave them food as needed. I'll let the colony come to it's natural end and once it's fully died, I'll clean it all out.

 

I'll probably look in to getting another L.Niger queen and try again next spring/summer. But for now, that's all.






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