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

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!

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.

It's moving day :-)

Seeing as though B has at least 10 very active workers I decided to let them out into a new home this morning. They were a little unsure at first, but within the hour had ventured into their new home. The most amazing thing was that once they were sure, they were very quick to move the eggs, larvae and pupae over to their new home! It was amazing to watch. The queen decided to move about 3/4 of the way through the move, so awesome :-)I hope the ant farm will be okay for them, it's filled with sand and dirt (washed and dried a few weeks ago) from our garden. I took heaps of photos with our little old camera - some are a bit rough because they moved so quickly!

This photo is of the first brave worker to venture near the opening of the ant farm!

This worker is carrying a bunch of eggs and larvae to their new home.

The same worker on the inside of the farm.

Another worker carrying a pupae.

The queen on the move!



The last of the larvae, about to be moved.

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 :-)

And then there were five.

2 new workers for B today (up to 5 now). They have all moved back out from under the cotton wool ball and I think they are no longer freaked out by the blowfly, perhaps even eating it.
A is still carrying her larvae around, but there don't appear to be any pupae or workers for her yet - I suppose B fed her larvae on the bugs I put in her container and they grew quicker? Seeing as though they both had eggs/larvae on the same day, this seems to be the logical explanation..
The new queen has been carrying around about 6 eggs today. She is still quite jumpy/timid and doesn't like me moving her at all.

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!