Journal of Pheidole Pallidula

[Rovvov99]

Hello, here I will be discussing the progress of my Pheidole Palidula colony. I have the colony for about a month now and they have around 30-40 workers and 1 major already. They have a lot of brood, so i expect a "population boom" in a few weeks. The ants where a bit less active last week and they wouldn't eat, but now they are a lot more active. Later this week I will give them some small crickets, watch how they'l respond to that.
Tommorow I will post some pictures

[antscanada]

Wow! 40 workers in a month. That is pretty awesome! Looking forward to photos. I have always loved the degree of polymorphism of Pheidole ants. I have never had the opportunity to catch a queen.

Hope you keep posting!

[Gregory2455]

Wow! 40 workers in a month. That is pretty awesome! Looking forward to photos. I have always loved the degree of polymorphism of Pheidole ants. I have never had the opportunity to catch a queen.

Hope you keep posting!

Still not much compared to Liometopum queens here- I have had 50+ workers come out of just the first generation of brood! Great journal by the way.

[antscanada]

Wow! 40 workers in a month. That is pretty awesome! Looking forward to photos. I have always loved the degree of polymorphism of Pheidole ants. I have never had the opportunity to catch a queen.

Hope you keep posting!

Still not much compared to Liometopum queens here- I have had 50+ workers come out of just the first generation of brood! Great journal by the way.

Wow. Is that so??

[Gregory2455]

Wow. Is that so??

Yes, they are highly prolific.

[Rovvov99]

No, they started out with 20-25 workers already

[antscanada]

No, they started out with 20-25 workers already

Oh ok. That makes more sense. You bought the colony. Here is where I scold you but I am just going to give you a stern look instead *stern look* Haha!

[Rovvov99]

And now, as promised the pictures:

I don't have an expensive camera with macrolens, so the pictures aren't of the best of the best quality.

I'm am going to experiment some more with my heatingmat, because they are an South-European specie and they don't stand in a super warm place. Thursday will probably be the next big update, oh and thanks for all the great reactions !

[Rovvov99]

Since yesterday I have the colony heated by my heating mat conected to a thermostat, they stand at about 26-28 degrees celcius (78.8-82.4 Fahrenheit). I notice that this works positivly because they are a lot more activ now !
I gave them the crickets today and it workd great, they had them down in a matter of minutes ! This shows again how good there recruitment is. I also gave them a housefly with curled wings, they had a little more trouble with that one, but after a good half hour they had the fly down aswel. The fly was just a little bit to big to fit through the nest entrance, so it created a "traffic jam".

Now some pictures:

[Rovvov99]

All is well with the colony, they eat a lot and I see them more often drinking from the Sugar water (they didn't do this a lot). I think I also saw a lighter colored worker, what meens that the brood is developing aswell. Their testtube is getting really dirty, so I offered them a clean testtube in the outworld, but I don't think their going to move soon.