30 replies to this topic

[bmb1bee]

So, I have bad news and good news. The bad is probably worse than the good news is good. Anyways, I'm going to start of with the bad news, the "queen" I've been taking care of may not be a queen at all. The reason I suspect this leads to the somewhat good news, I caught another Ponera pennsylvanica queen today at the park. This queen is definitly a queen, it has a much bigger gaster (the gaster is also much longer) and is much larger in general than the star "queen" of this journal. I really don't want to believe that the current queen in the sand test tube is not a queen at all but it seems pretty likely. I also may or may not have stole the queen I caught today from a already established colony.

You should collect the colony, if you're able to catch every single worker and brood within the nest.

[bmb1bee]

 

Sorry to sort of clutter the journal, but do they not dig too deep in it? Or is it just until they get workers? I may try this with other semi-claustral queens.

Also, why don’t you put a Cotten ball and straw in the center? It would have to be small so I guess it wouldn’t do much.(Could she fit through a coffe stir?). This would replicate a nest and outworld so you could put springtails in one area, and she could nest in the other.

 

They dig until they reach the bottom, at least for my queen. The Petri dish was pretty thin anyway, so the layer of dirt I had was thin as well. You can see the chambers well enough from the bottom too. All you need to do to hydrate it is open it and add a few drops of water every several days.

[azzaaazzzz00]

Well i'm back home already so I dout any more workers are at the surface. 

[bmb1bee]

Are you able to come back to collect more of the colony? I'm not sure if this species is polygynous or not, so you should catch the whole colony to ensure their survival.

[azzaaazzzz00]

This colony is highly polygynous so there could be more queens.

[bmb1bee]

Hmm, you could give your queen a head start by brood- and worker-boosting her with that colony, if you're able to.

[azzaaazzzz00]

I didn't see any visible brood when I found the colony I put the two queens toether yesterday, I'm checking now. Hope they settled in together...

 

Edit: I checked and they are laying down next to each other. I'm so glad everything worked out.

Edited by azzaaazzzz00, June 1 2022 - 4:04 AM.

[azzaaazzzz00]

Even though the temperatre is rarely below 65, should I still put a heating cable next to the test tube to provide humidity? This species loves humidity from what I've read.

[azzaaazzzz00]

The two queens are doing well. There is a patch of sand with space in it that was built inside the nest and I can't see anything in the hole so I suspect there could be eggs there. Fingers crossed.

[antgallery]

I would recommend running the heat cable by them for a good temperature/humidity gradient.

[azzaaazzzz00]

So, I decided to check up on the queens and was so happy to see that one of the queens was holding an egg! At first I just dismissed it as a piece of sand, but after a while of sitting there and looking at them, the queens seemed to not want to put it dow (and cleaned it a few times too). I was a little confused when they didn't eat a springtail I gave them considering the demolished a springtail a minute earlier. I also saw that the queens seemed to want to get out of the test tube. They pulled at the cotton a lot and seemed to abandon their nest for a while. They went back eventually which was relieving, guess they figured out there was no escape (now it just sounds like they're my prisoners). I will try to get pictures soon as I havn't posted any in a while.