Esme (Camponotus Consobrinus queen) has 6 larvae and a pupa!

Woohoo!

I noticed Esme's biggest larvae was really active (never seen any of them move before at all) on Friday (17/2) so figured something was about to go down! I was right. The next day it had starting spinning a cocoon.

So here are some pics (firstly the super active larvae, then of the cocoon spinning and now the pupa.

17/2/2012

18/2/2012

22/2/2012

Betsy update

Betsy's colony seems to be doing extremely well. I gave them a couple of pieces of meal worm today and they went crazy within 15 minutes. This seems to be there favourite thing put of everything I offer them. I'm estimating she has about 25+ workers at this point.

Aggie's escapees...

I tend to have several escapees from both Aggie and Betsy's colonies at any given time. They always go back though! One of Aggies wasn't so lucky a week ago and perished on the piece of sticky tape that I had put over the holes to prevent (ha!) them escaping.

Anyway here are a couple of dodgy pics of them going back home again (note the dead worker I left there as a warning to the others :-P). The holes are only the size of a sewing needle.

Charlene has 3 workers now :-)

And they are all doing well. I gave them a tiny drop of protein/vitamin powder, maple syrup and water today. They were impressed :-)

I gave them a small drop of milk and honey the other day too (thanks for the suggestion Vasile), they seemed to enjoy it more than all of my other ants.

Some photos from the 17th February.


A worker drinking

Workers

And the lovely Charlene

Charlene is officially a Mummy!!

Finally!! It has been approximately 2 months since Charlene laid her first egg, and I was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to amount to anything.

Today I caught her first worker emerging on the camera which wasn't easy seeing as though she has kept walking up and down her tunnel and getting in my way, and also because I had to put my camera in the outworld to get a reasonable view of the happenings inside. So anyway as I took the lid off I noticed one of Aggie's workers had escaped again and decided to visit Charlene's outworld, so had to catch it first and return it to it's rightful home (and tape up more holes!).

This is Charlene on the 2/2/2012

11/2/2012 10.30am

10.30am

10.30am

10.30am Good view of Charlene's next worker - you can see it's eyes quite clearly in this picture

12.30pm

12.30pm

12.30pm

12.30pm

12.30pm

12.30pm

12.30pm

2.00pm Hooray, hello there little worker!

Darlene update (Camponotus Consobrinus queen)

Darlene has about 15 or 16 larvae of varying sizes. I've been feeding her a drop of honey water every week or so. She is still so much calmer than my other Sugar Ant queen Esme. It has been quite cool here lately so I think that might be why the larvae seem to be growing more slowly this week (or perhaps it's like the watched pot??). Anyway here are some photos.


2/2/2012

7/2/2012

7/2/2012

7/2/2012

Esme update (Camponotus Consobrinus queen)

Some photos of Esme the Australian Banded Sugar Ant (Camponotus Consobrinus) and her 7 larvae (I'm sure she ate some of her eggs initially, there used to be a lot more). They are quite different sizes and seem to have slowed down in growth in the last week or so. We have had some unseasonably cool weather here in Canberra, so perhaps that's it? I have been feeding her a honey water drop about once a week.

2/2/2012

7/2/2012

7/2/2012

Today 11/2/2012

Aggie update

Aggie and her workers love to move house!!

In the last week they have resided in their original red covered test tube, then all moved out to under the mouldy cotton wool ball and now they have dug out a lovely home under the water cotton wool ball, which is quite convenient for me because I can see them there much better :) Unfortunately, it's not so great for photos, but here's a little shot of where they are these days.

It looks like they are going really well - there are at least 15 or 20 workers and a lovely large ball of larvae and eggs!