21 replies to this topic

[sirjordanncurtis]

I bought this queen from Nurbs at the same time I got my Camponotus fragilis queen from him. I'm currently also keeping a small colony of Prenolepis imparis, or false honeypot ants, and I want to make comparisons between the repletes later on

From what I've seen on different journals, the honey pot genus is much harder to keep than other ants, as they usually need a perfect environment to survive. This queen is actually doing very good, and already has 8 pupae, as well as 6-10 more larvae. Nurbs put some fine quartz sand in the test tube to help the pupae be able to form their cocoons.

For some reason, I can never seem to get a good view of her head when taking pictures, so they might be a little blurry. I used 3 different cameras for this job. 2 of them were webcams, and I think I'll end up using the one which took the second picture more often. I also used a thermal light camera to take an overhead view of the queen and her brood. 

Let me know what you guys think!

[Major]

Look good! I'm no to familiar with Honeypots but I do know that they need room for their repletes to hang from, correct me if I am wrong. They also need substrate (which you have included). Once she gets workers you may want to move her into a THA Mini Hearth, good ceiling space.


Looking forward to see this colony progress!

[sirjordanncurtis]

Look good! I'm no to familiar with Honeypots but I do know that they need room for their repletes to hang from, correct me if I am wrong. They also need substrate (which you have included). Once she gets workers you may want to move her into a THA Mini Hearth, good ceiling space.


Looking forward to see this colony progress!

 

Yeah, you're right. I already ordered a Type III Mini Hearth so I'll be ready when she's ready

Edited by sirjordanncurtis, August 14 2018 - 6:12 PM.

[sirjordanncurtis]

8/28

The queen only has about 6 pupae left. On the bright side, she just got her first nanitic today! It's extremely light yellow at the moment, and is kind of hard to discern from the sand at times, so the ants are always playing "hide the nanitic" with me. I put a small droplet of sugar water on the side of the test tube when I noticed the nanitic, and the queen rushed to the droplet and started drinking. She completely drained the sugar water, so I refilled the drop two more times. Her gaster had become pretty small over the course of her claustral stage, but now it's about the volume of the head and thorax combined. She was still extremely hungry, but I didn't want to feed her too much in case I caused her stress from becoming to big for the test tube

 

8/29

Took a peek this morning, and saw another worker up and... well doing nothing, but still up  the workers don't do much besides clean each other, which I find really cute lol.

My Mini Hearth arrived around Saturday last week, and I've been hearing mixed ideas about when and how I should move them in. If you guys have any suggestions that would be great!

 

I'll give pictures tonight 

Edited by sirjordanncurtis, August 29 2018 - 6:26 AM.

[Major]

You should move them in once they start getting repletes.

[sirjordanncurtis]

You should move them in once they start getting repletes.

 

Then the repletes won't be able to move in lol. 

 

Most people have said that it's better to forcefully dump them in. I'm also wondering if I should dump them through the top, or from the glass, since I'm afraid they might not pick up all the brood.

[YsTheAnt]

They will definitely find the brood, it might take a day or two though.

[sirjordanncurtis]

Just a short clip of the nanitic with its HUGE eyes. The size differences between the queen and the nanitic is slightly overwhelming for taking pictures. 

https://youtu.be/kX2D7Qc7g5Q\

[sirjordanncurtis]

8/30

Don't mind the text in the background lol, I just grabbed a random piece of white paper to put under the tube. The two nanitics are actually present in this picture, both no more than a centimeter away from their queen. Can you guys see them? (one is on the sand and is much harder to spot)

Queen with her eggs. 

This picture is actually more focused on the queen's head, since usually my pictures never seem to include it. She's holding a batch of eggs, and you might also see that her mandibles are slightly damaged. I was a little worried at first, but at least now she has nanitics to help out

Size comparison between queen and nanitic. I wonder how large the normal workers can get.

Another photo of the queen with some of her brood. Here, you can sort of see how rotund the gaster is.

Edited by sirjordanncurtis, August 30 2018 - 4:37 PM.

[sirjordanncurtis]

8/31

3rd nanitic eclosed this morning

[Leo]

Cute queen!

[sirjordanncurtis]

9/3

Woohoo!

4th nanitic finally eclosed. They blend in to the background so well, it's hard to tell if there're any brood changes. These ants really need to work on their nest cleaning. They remove the cocoon from the brood pile around a week after the worker closes

Edited by sirjordanncurtis, September 4 2018 - 8:27 PM.

[sirjordanncurtis]

9/4

I know I haven't posted very many pictures lately but today I found something which I wanted to quickly capture.

The nanitics have actually moved a lot of the dirt away from the colony's space, so it's somewhat harder for them to blend in now.

Three of the four nanitics were around or on top of the queen, while she just stay there motionless. At first, I was afraid that something had happened to the queen, and that the nanitics were dissecting her or something since that was what my Solenopsis molesta did to a foreign queen dealate 

Then, the queen moved one of her antennae a tad bit, as if to show me she was alive and well, and went back to being completely motionless. Apparently, she was just relaxing and enjoying the workers scrubbing her thorax

Still can't get over that size difference 

[YsTheAnt]

Update?

[B_rad0806]

Update?

[TechAnt]

Update?

[TheAntGuy]

Update?

[antsandmore]

update?

[That_one_ant_guy]

Update?