Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photo(graph)s) --...
It's been a while since I kept ants, but we've had some hot weather after a week of heavy rain, and finding queens is too easy!This queen was found on June 28th, 2013 near Seattle. She was crawling...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs) --...
mordam wrote:This is great documentation. Thanks for sharing! I looked over the thread and could not find it, but about what temperature and humidity do you have them at? I have no heat source,...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs) --...
engwinner wrote:At 33 days after the first egg was laid, I count 3 pupae and 10 larvae. That means the full complement of eggs has survived so far. ...The larvae appear to be of very different...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs) --...
This evening, the queen seemed really excited about something. I saw she was trying to pull a light-colored pupa to the top of the pile. Indeed, it was a new pupa (#7) and I could see the larva(?)...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs) --...
I've tried a few times, but I've never had a foundress queen produce workers. So this is my first nanitic EVER. In my whole life. I'm pretty chuffed. But I was not so excited that I could drop...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs) --...
Oh, and for those of you who were keeping score, I believe that was 53 days from egg to worker, no added heat.
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs) --...
Wow, enginwinner. I thought you kept ants before.
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs) --...
antdude wrote:Wow, enginwinner. I thought you kept ants before.Yeah, but my neorufibarbis nest was rescued from a landscaping project -- I took a colony fragment with multiple queens to start out. My...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs) --...
engwinner wrote:The nanitics did not seem very callow when they eclosed -- when I looked at them under my stereomicroscope they looked pale around the mandibles and extremities, but their bodies...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs) --...
At first, a nanitic piled wood chips in the exit to the outworld, presumably based on the fact that the outworld is scary. This morning I noticed the pile had been dismantled, and this afternoon I see...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs)
During the first week of September, one of the seven nanitics died. At first her sisters put her in a remote section of the outworld and covered her with bark chips. Then three or four days later they...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs)
The colony seemed to be a bit cramped in just one glass vial (they are using the second one with the cotton in it as a midden). So I created a new set of four vials connected by vinyl tubing in an 'H'...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs)
engwinner wrote:... Then three or four days later they ate her gaster and left her head and thorax in the indoor midden chamber.That's cannibalism for the ants.
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs)
Two of the nanitics are staggering around in an uncoordinated manner. I've spawned the incident off as a new thread, here. Includes video.
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs)
Well, there are no nanitics left with the queen. They all died like the first two. They went down in succession, one or two every couple of days. On the positive side (and it is hard to be very...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs)
It's good that she's unaffected, hope she recovers smoothly next year!
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs)
So why do you think your nanitics died?
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs)
Really sorry to hear this, Engwinner. Hope the colony recovers for next year. They're such beautiful ants. Just curious, and perhaps I missed this: why didn't you place them in a test tube setup and...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs)
I kinda drifted off yuku, but I still kept up my anting journal in my little notebook, so I can pick up the story. Here is what I wrote:Nov 8th: Put ants in styrofoam cooler and moved them outside....
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs)
antscanada wrote:Really sorry to hear this, Engwinner. Hope the colony recovers for next year. They're such beautiful ants. Just curious, and perhaps I missed this: why didn't you place them in a test...
View ArticleRe: Engwinner's 2013 Camponotus novaeboracensis journal (big photographs)
Jester wrote:So why do you think your nanitics died?Well, they started to have trouble right after I expanded their living quarters. I think it's a good reminder to be very careful not to stress a...
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