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!

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.

Where did Aggie go?

29/12/2011
I had a look with a torch to see if I could see inside Aggie's (aka The ant formerly known as A) red test tube and found that she and her family had moved out! As I couldn't see them anywhere I had a small poke around and found them hiding out under the damp cotton ball in the outworld I'd made for them. The photos aren't much good, but it will give you an idea of where they are now. It looks like there are at least 5 or 6 workers with her now too :-)
I put a little bit of chopped up mealworm in there for them to eat. They didn't seem interested though, but I might have just missed seeing them eat..

The outworld.

The hidey hole.

Another worker for B

17/12/11
Title says it all really, we have another worker today :-)
Can't see much in A's test tube, but I'm pretty sure there are only still larvae in there.
The new queen has layed a couple of tiny eggs, but she seems quite timid and would prefer to hide under her cotton wool ball.

A congratulations is in order!!!!!

14/12/11
B has 2 workers today! I checked last night and she had 2 dark, ant-shaped pupae? I hoped today would be the day :-) One of the workers is lighter than the other, so am assuming that the lighter one is newer than the darker one. There is also another darker pupae today so hopefully over the next day or so there will be another worker. I had a look (easier said than done) at A in her test tube, but it looks like her larvae are all still larvae.

Now for lots of photos of the new editions! (Unfortunately I managed to put the date on the photos somehow?) It's cool how you can see larvae (and eggs too I think?) of different sizes and stages!