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[Kristijan]

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

 

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

 

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

 

15.7.2023.

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

 

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

 

23.9.2023.

The colony grows, now with 4 workers and many larvae

 

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.