This journal will not be started on day one. It is started exactly 86 days after me buying the queen from a GAN Farmer, because it is just now that their population will be exploding. On April 9th, I bought the queen with just one worker and a small egg pile. Later on, the worker sadly died of natural causes. A month afterwards, she had a worker and shortly after that another worker. A couple weeks after that she had two more workers, and a couple weeks after that two more workers! That puts them at six workers now. She has three to four pupae left from her first egg pile, and a bit of larvae as well. Plenty of eggs I'm sure, since I caught her egg laying today.
Behavior: They're extremely sophisticated ants. Three workers are always with the queen, tending to her and the eggs/larvae/pupae. Two to three are usually halfway in the tube, guarding for a predator that will most likely never arrive. Sometimes, one of the guards goes out to forage, usually when it's dark. The maximum I've ever seen foraging at once is two, which I saw just today. So far, they've denied dubia legs, and a fire ant alate pupa. I will be trying spiders and fruit flies shortly.
Here is their setup:
Close up #1:
Close up #2:
Close up of their brood:
Day 87 - Nothing new, other than them accepting this spider as an official member of their colony.
Edited by Ants_Texas, July 14 2017 - 9:00 PM.
