Post: # 95768Post
JaydenScheepers
Sun Aug 14, 2022 8:32 am
Compared to my other semi-caulostrial queens, my Tetraponera rufonigra queen forages a lot in the out world, even while I have food products that she knows is there. When I insert new food products into her out world (mostly mealworm and honey, but sometimes a fragment of a superworm) she may sit for a while motionless with her head above it. I don't get the angle to see if she is licking up the substance, and I normally hold completely still until she finishes, because if she was consuming it, I wouldn't want to cause any vibrations or change in light, like my shadow moving and causing her to stop and run to a different location. However I do not know if she is actually getting her full, or if she is just smelling the food or just tasting it.
So like I said she spends WAY more time in the out world than what I have witnessed from my other semi-caulostrial queens. There is a massive colony or maybe multiple colonies of these T. rufonigra ants occupying different trees, I always see them foraging at day and not at night, so I've concluded that their not nocturnal. This might explain why I see her in her out world so often, I know the Odontomachus queens I keep are nocturnal, because I never saw then forage at day, only evidence of their activity so I do not know how often they foraged. While I've only seen one of my Pseudoneoponera queens forge once during the day, my other I seen come out a few times, but went out shortly. But she normally enters the out world after a short while of me checking up on her, my guess as to why is maybe she went out to investigate the reason for the change in light and vibration disturbances. So I think their nocturnal for the most part, and to be fair they all also have started their founding stage so their probably more focused on taking care of their brood. I see my Cataulacus granulatus alate explore her out world maybe an average of twice a day, however the T. rufonigra queen explores hers way more, and sometimes she would sit motionless in the out world in random locations before exploring again after a while (maybe she is taking power naps?).
Today I kept my whole room dark to see if she would still come out to forage, and it seems like she did, maybe she has some internal clock that tells her when it's supposed to be day and when it's supposed to be night. I thought maybe if she would stay in the test tube because it is still dark she would remain there for longer and maybe start founding sooner. What I'll do next is to keep feeding and observing her regularly, but only lift the tinfoil rapping around the test tube once a day to make sure she is ok in it, and hopefully she'll start soon. I would love to see miniature versions of herself wondering around, and their ***** pupae developing inside the test tube.
Keeping:
• Cataulacus granulatus x2
• Camponotus parius
• Odontomachus sp x4
• Pheidole prava x1
• Pseudoneoponera sp x1