My crematogaster queen has eggs!

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timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 66912Post timeshell
Tue Jan 28, 2020 9:36 am

Hard to tell, but there appears to be less eggs, BUT, lots of larva now. I'm having a hard time counting the way they are jumbled up. One of the larva is particularly big compared to the others, I'm assuming the oldest of the eggs. Maybe the queen is giving more attention to the one so it can help her take care of the others. As I recall, the first day I noticed eggs I think there were 3 of them so the oldest should otherwise have similar development I would think.

It looks like my queen doesn't like my frozen fruit flies, probably because they were frozen too long and dried out. I haven't given her anymore for probably at least a couple weeks. I'll have to get some fresh bananas to get some more live fruitflies at some point. I fed her her first drop of maple syrup a few days ago. Either she ate it all or it just spread out, but I don't see it there anymore.

She definitely appears to have become more sensitive to my presence and I try to leave her alone for longer periods of time now.

I was reading another post about time from egg to nanitic and from another keeper's experience, it seems to take roughly 54 days. I was under the understanding that this was how long it took for camponatus ants, a much larger species so I didn't expect it to also take so long for a relatively smaller one like crematogaster.

Since this is my first real attempt at an ant colony, the anticipation is killing me! :)

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 67332Post timeshell
Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:21 pm

I've fed my queen 3 more fruitflies a few days ago. They were all in the freezer before I put them in with her. One fully revived, another partially revived and I think the third died. She didn't touch them the first day or so, but then they started disappearing one day at a time. I think the next feeding will be some maple syrup.

It appears she has removed the casing of one of the pupae and it has been sitting there for the last few days, a little white curled up white ant. And the waiting game continues.

AusAnts
Posts: 121
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 5:09 am
Location: Darwin,Australia

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 67355Post AusAnts
Wed Feb 05, 2020 11:57 pm

if the worker is eclosing you should have a nanitic running around in a few days
2 x iridomyrmex sp Queen:15+ workers
2 x iridomyrmex pallidus: 40+ workers
1 x pheidole megacephala:2 queen 300 workers.
1 x opisthopsis Queen: 14 workers

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 67410Post timeshell
Sun Feb 09, 2020 2:43 pm

A few days ago I noticed the first pupa's eyes started darkening. A second pupa has appeared a couple days ago. The Queen gets agitated very quickly now when disturbed so I keep my peeks short and no more than once in 24 hours. There are a number of larvae and there are new tiny eggs now. I would say the total number is still likely isnt more than around 20ish.

Can anyone tell me what kind of camera Mikey is using when taking video of the ants in the tubes? I'd like to get one.

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 67425Post timeshell
Mon Feb 10, 2020 8:59 pm

3 pupae without their wrapping today. The Queen appears to be bunching them separately from the others now. I have attached one of my custom 4-way H splitters to her test tube now and connected the water tube which I had previously taped to her tube to it instead. I have also attached a small feeder module in preparation for her nanatics. I know it's probably early, but it makes it easier to add more fruit flies and Maple syrup for her it she wants it without as much movement disturbing her main tube.

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 67475Post timeshell
Fri Feb 14, 2020 7:23 am

4 ***** pupae now. 1 is a light maple syrup color. I suspect it may eclose at any time.

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 67511Post timeshell
Sun Feb 16, 2020 12:24 pm

I am happy to announce the arrivial of my first bouncing baby nanitic! 57 days from egg to nanitic! It occurred sometime within the last 3 hours.

It's still very wobbly at the moment. 2 more pupae have darkened eyes now. The queen sometimes isolates them from the egg pile and sometimes groups them all together. Not sure if there is any rhyme or reason to this.

Here is a pic of my present setup. The Queen and brood are in the top test tube. The bottom one is fit hydration. They are both connected to my 4H splitter along with a feeding station I designed. The morning I put some live fruit flies in the hydration tube as the Queen send to like eating them. There is some crystallised Maple syrup in the feeding cup.

Image
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8DHvCeGgKnDEYc8dA

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 67689Post timeshell
Mon Feb 24, 2020 3:40 pm

Second nanitic born on Saturday morning! A couple more should be ready within the next week. And a couple more after that!

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 67709Post timeshell
Tue Feb 25, 2020 10:25 pm

So an interesting thing. The second nanitic seemed to be stuck in the dry cotton for a couple days in the main tube. It's free now, but the last couple days seems to have dry cotton stuck to its abdomen. It also appears to have a slightly gimpy hind leg. I'm suspecting that somehow it got stuck in the threads for a bit and that the threads stuck or got embedded into its body while it was still soft and is not stuck permanently in it's body.

Anyone seen this before or know if it will have any impact on it's life? Now that it's free it seems to be going about relatively normal nest maintenance behavior, although as I said, it hobbles a little with that gimpy leg.

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 68275Post timeshell
Sun Mar 08, 2020 5:03 pm

There are 4 nanitics now. There were a few more pupae that should have been ready this week, but it looks like they got eaten. There is a dead one that has been there for a few days now that looks somewhat mangles and oddly the live nanitics are still regularly taking care of it as though it were still in the pupa stage. I had some live fruit flies in the setup for the queen to catch as she has caught some I put in there in the past. But they have been in there for a couple weeks now and now I'm wondering if they were stressing her out. Also, I wonder if they were hungry as I hadn't fed them much in the past couple weeks, anticipating them catching the fruit flies. I removed the live ones and put some half dead ones in with them and the nanitics have gotten to work on them pretty quickly. I also attached a test tube with peach sugar water from a jar of canned peaches for them. There are still some eggs and larvae in various growth stages, but I don't anticipate any new nanitics for at least another month now judging by their current development state. The test tube they are in has been completely dried up now for quite some time but they show no interest as yet to move to the new test tube I put for them quite some time ago. I removed it and put a different clean one in case there was something they didn't like about the other one.

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