I bought a colony of these which arrived about the 18th Oct 2011. I had previously constructed a y-tong nest prior to the ant arriving and siliconed it in place inside the 40x25x25cm arena. The substrate in fine white reptile sand and i poured some into the nest. The y-tong was still slightly damp after washing and the sand stuck to the condensation on the glass obstructing the view, but it is slowly dissapearing. I am using a perspex vented lid with a daylight bulb and the arena is heated by a heatmat on the bottom with a stat for safety. The temp on the surface is about 40c and 25c at the top.
About 50 ish ants arrived but no eggs larvae or pupae which was a bit worrying and were held in a small plastic tub with toilet paper inside. Opening the lid the ants were soon exploring their new home. When i went back to see later i saw a large worker carrying the queen. I thought she was dead and went to touch it and she riggled slightly and the worker put her down only for another worker to pick her up just like a female cat with a kitten and took her into the nest.
Worker carrying queen.
Queen waiting to be picked up by another worker
I have offered them sugar and honey water but ive only seen one or two ants feeding from both so no real preferance yet. Also fed mealworms and crickets which i have directly dropped into the nest. The ant act extremely violently and overcome the prey quickly. There are two mealworm beetles living in the arena but these have been untouched.
When the cover is removed from the nest the ants panic and run everywhere. I have noticed some carrying small white lumps as they are running and assumed it was sand but i managed to catch a snap on my camera and i was very pleased to see that they were carrying larvae.
4th Nov 2011
Not great pics but you can see the small larvae.
Eggs and larvae
.
9th Nov 2011
6 days ago i took pics of the new eggs and tiny larvae and today i’m taking pictures of large larvae and pupae. I know cataglyphis develop fast but not this fast. Although after the move from the package to the new nest i could see no sign of any brood and suddenly we are here.
The ants themselves have mostly stayed inside the nest and i sometimes see one ore two out drinking from the sugar/honey water so a little dissapointing visually but maybe perhaps because i’m not giving them heat from the top. I was hoping with the presence of larvae, may have made them more active . I still can’t see into the top tier of the nest very well but most of the ants stay at the bottom where it is warmer.
I missed filming the large larvae here but you can just see some eggs and plenty of pupae..
Couldnt resist showing you just one more pic of the eggs larvae and pupae.
The queen.
19th Nov 11
Well here she is, the first adult to emerge from the cocoon after only 10 days, and only 15 days after i first saw the tiny larvae. She is a beautiful bright orange and looks like shes been designated to looking after the kids.
The rest of the colony are still staying in the nest for most of the time but i am seeing more activity outside gradually. One annoying point is that they are using one of the nest chambers as their dump which may eventually attract mites. I can also see the empty cocoon on the tip from which the baby hatched.
21st Nov 11
Larvae and newly hatched ants. The large white lumps are pieces of chicken which they seem to enjoy and feed the larvae on. There seems to be mainly two ants that go out to forage together, i can tell because they both have damaged antennae.
Trophallaxis
4 Dec 11
I remember reading somewhere that this species builds a stick nest. I’m not at all sure what this means but i have put some very thin twigs about the arena and sure enough the ants have today tried to put them inside the nest. Most of the twigs however are placed over the entrance holes, maybe to obscure light entering the nest or more likely they just couldnt manouvre them into the nest through the holes.
New ants continue to hatch daily and their numbers are growing really fast. The ants are now very active day and night hunting for insects to feed to the larvae, which is given to them after they have cut pieces off rather than give them whole corpses. There seems to be three nurseries for the larvae, the eggs and newly hatched are held in the nurses mouths and suspended mostly from the ceiling out of harms way. The older larvae have their own section and the oldest have another section. The pupae are also distibuted in different areas perhaps to regulate incubation ? but i still havent seen one actually hatching..
11 Dec 11
Food carcasses in the nest are beginning to take up room and today
at least one ant has decided to do some house work at last. She is picking up
tiny pieces and dropping them just outside the nest entrance, and returning back
about every 20 seconds with some more bits. Hopefully the trend will catch
on and she will get some help.
I have made a discussion thread here. https://eusozial.de/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1578
Thanks for reading
