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

Exciting!

Two cool things today!
Firstly, A has a worker or two with her in her test tube! And secondly I picked up B in her jar, and the workers went nuts - I think they felt threatened? Anyway, when they go nuts they move larvae, eggs and pupae from where they normally are to they other side of the cotton ball, really quickly. I noticed they moved a pupae and sort of nibbled and pulled at it's cocoon and after about 20 minutes it was completely free and walking around! How awesome is that?! It would be much clearer with a better camera, but I tried to catch most of the action (missed the first couple of minutes though). Lots of photos :-)