Camponotus Consobrinus larvae (Sugar ant) pictures

My Camponotus Consobrinus larvae are growing really quickly! Here are some photos of Darlene and her larvae from today.

Cool spider!

^That's something I never thought I'd hear myself say, let alone write it down so that there is a record of the occasion...

Anyway, went outside this morning and look what my little boy found! It was quite tiny, but really quite beautiful.
(and yes, I do realise that it is not an ant...)

Underside

This is the spider's back - hard to get good colour up close, pointing up to the bright sky, but you can see how colourful it was in the first picture.

The back again.

Hope it's back again tomorrow morning :-)

Budding ant photographer!

I forgot I took this picture of my son (3) with my phone a few weeks ago!
Mummy's boy <3

Update on Charlene the Ant Queen

I still don't know what species Charlene is, and these days I am having trouble photographing her too - the tube she likes to live in doesn't make it easy! I'm actually surprised that there aren't already big larvae though - she laid her first eggs around the 16th of December.. They seem to be really slow growing. I'm pretty sure Charlene hasn't eaten anything since I caught her either.

A dodgy photo so I can compare the size next week..

Darlene the Australian Sugar Ant has larvae (Camponotus Consobrinus)

Darlene, my other Sugar Ant queen has a lot more larvae than Esme. She is also much calmer than Esme and has a much bigger gaster (butt) so I'm predicting her colony will do better too. I gave her some fruit juice this morning but she wasn't interested - maybe she's just not a morning person?

Esme the Australian Sugar Ant has larvae (Camponotus Consobrinus)

After a weekend away, it was nice to come home to see that my Camponotus Consobrinus queens both now have larvae! I still think Esme has less eggs/larvae than she did though? She was testing the fruit juice I gave her this morning so took a couple of photos.

Aggie's Ant Family

Aggie (Nylanderia queen?)and her colony are still happily residing under the mouldy cotton wool ball... The colony seems to be increasing in size too - I don't like to bother them though so I cant be too sure of numbers. Today I put a small piece of banana and meal worm in their outworld and within one minute workers came to check it out. Here is the first lucky (hungry) worker.

Betsy's Ant Family

I haven't seen Betsy (Nylanderia queen, we think) since she moved into the ant farm on December 28 last year, but her little colony seems to be going very well! They have made several tunnels and eat lots of things, but mealworms are their favourite. There are lots of eggs and larvae hidden in the corner near where I let them in originally. It was hard to get a photo, but here is the best one I could get today.

Ants update!

I haven't updated for a while because nobody has been doing anything much!

When cleaning/feeding/watering Esme and Darlene (Banded Sugar Ants or Camponotus Consobrinus) I noticed that Esme seems to have less eggs than before? She's the stressy one, so perhaps that's it? Also her gaster (butt) is smaller than Darlene's. They are both refusing any foods except for honey water or fruit juice. Here's a couple of pics for comparing the two of them.

Darlene (big butt)

Esme the stress head (small butt)

And one of Esme and her eggs

Today when cleaning one of Betsy's (Nylanderia) workers escaped. I caught it and put it back in the formicarium (ant farm). Anyway a minute or so later I noticed another worker walking around the outside and caught it and put it back in. The thing is, I'm not entirely sure that it was Betsy's worker after all! It seemed to be really exploring like it had never been there before! oops.

Esme (Camponotus consobrinus queen) lays an egg

This is the second egg I've seen Esme lay. I disturbed her by bumping her jar with my camera, so she uncurled before she was finished. When I saw her the first time a couple of days ago she stayed curled up and it looked like she helped the egg out with her mandibles.

Here you can just see the egg appearing.

Turning around to pick up the egg.

Putting the new egg with the others.

All done! (for now...)