Novomessor sp. Journal

[StormDancer]

I captured 5 Novomessor sp. queens in the first part of July of this year. Tried a couple out in test tubes, and put the rest into small deli cups with a moistened cotton ball. These seem to be fully claustral from my observations. They will accept food but it seems unnecessary. They do not perform well in test tubes for me. I believe these ants are too large for test tubes normally used. I have since moved all queens into deli cups. 3 of the queens now have their first worker and are accepting food. I am feeding them sugar water and insects. I plan on waiting to offer seeds until they have 5 to 10 workers since this is a harvester ant species. I'm probably missing info here I forgot to put in. Please feel free to ask questions. I will post pictures soon.

[SolenopsisKeeper]

I captured 5 Novomessor sp. queens in the first part of July of this year. Tried a couple out in test tubes, and put the rest into small deli cups with a moistened cotton ball. These seem to be fully claustral from my observations. They will accept food but it seems unnecessary. They do not perform well in test tubes for me. I believe these ants are too large for test tubes normally used. I have since moved all queens into deli cups. 3 of the queens now have their first worker and are accepting food. I am feeding them sugar water and insects. I plan on waiting to offer seeds until they have 5 to 10 workers since this is a harvester ant species. I'm probably missing info here I forgot to put in. Please feel free to ask questions. I will post pictures soon.

I would wait for more workers to feed them. At least wait for 2 exoskeleton to harden. Update?