Welcome to the Camponotus Crew!

[Kherafox]

so, I was insanely curious and had to peek - it's been a week and a half. I peeked at my Crematogaster Laeviscula queen for about 15 seconds with light and closed the drawer once she moved a little to be sure she was alive. I -think- she has three larvae (probably the same few eggs I saved from the transfer)! any reason why she wouldn't lay more eggs in a week and a half? or is she just laying trophic eggs for now until the larvae are workers? I hope I didn't disturb her enough but I'm not looking again until probably a week from now. How long do larvae take to get to pupa stage (and maybe eclose)? and she's not looking as plump as before, should I try and feed her? maybe that's why she's not laying growing eggs, to keep reserves to feed the larvae..?

[ArizonanAnts]

She would probably not lay a new batch of eggs until all of her nanitics eclose. And for every species, it may be different for a larva to go to a pupa. Try giving a week to two weeks for you to see workers. I would say don't feed her until she has a worker. But if you can't wait try connecting the test tube to a test tube portal and feed her through there. Make sure you keep an eye out for her water level. And if you don't have a portal and you want to feed her directly in the test tube, make sure that if its a drop of honey or something like that it should be small enough for the eggs and larva to not drown. Hopefully, this was very helpful. Let me know.

P.S. sorry if I haven't been too active I've been trying to post stuff on the Forelius Clan. It's kind of like this Crew and my own little Journal.

[Kherafox]

Hopefully, this was very helpful. Let me know.

It was, actually, thank you! I'm figuring the few eggs I saved she is keeping as "hand picked by the keeper" and raising the larvae currently, so that kinda makes sense in all of what you say.

A second small peek today (the flashlight didn't work long enough to look at my solenopsis, who I think is infertile by now) shows my first peek was incorrect in her gaster-size, she still is plump as she should be. I'll give her another week or two before I check again!

[LasiusSapien]

yeah defo not a protein thing as she not actually eating the pupa just chewing them up and dumping them into the waste pile, we are now down to 2 pupa and 1 larva that's about to pupate, hope these go full term

so we still have those 2 pupa they look like they will be done any day now, the larva had pupated and has just started to go off white like the others and then out of the blue yesterday we have a small clutch of eggs

[ArizonanAnts]

yeah defo not a protein thing as she not actually eating the pupa just chewing them up and dumping them into the waste pile, we are now down to 2 pupa and 1 larva that's about to pupate, hope these go full term

so we still have those 2 pupa they look like they will be done any day now, the larva had pupated and has just started to go off white like the others and then out of the blue yesterday we have a small clutch of eggs

That's so amazing. Congrats

[Kherafox]

so we still have those 2 pupa they look like they will be done any day now, the larva had pupated and has just started to go off white like the others and then out of the blue yesterday we have a small clutch of eggs

that's what I'm thinking my queen has started to do - focus on the three or four larvae for now and wait on laying eggs til they are almost eclosed.

[sartwell90]

hmm been noticing a bit of a theme with people, does no one use red in there set-up's ? all my ants are right in front of me on my desk so long as the red is covering the nest everyone is super calm

I have read that red films don’t work on some species especially Camponotus. https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?t=2382
I would be interested to know everyone’s personal experience with Camponotus Pennsylvanicus specifically.

With my C. novaeboracensis colony I viewed and even filmed early colony founding using red light/red films and they did rather well. It is worth noting that light-sensitivity appears to be more fairly individual in my experience, even among the same species - so your mileage may vary.

[CabboAntsGuy]

Nice to see you back Sartwell90 . Sure have been a lot of new people since you last posted. I still think It's amazing how big this thread is.

[LasiusSapien]

yeah defo not a protein thing as she not actually eating the pupa just chewing them up and dumping them into the waste pile, we are now down to 2 pupa and 1 larva that's about to pupate, hope these go full term

so we still have those 2 pupa they look like they will be done any day now, the larva had pupated and has just started to go off white like the others and then out of the blue yesterday we have a small clutch of eggs

so good and bad news, next day eggs where gone and one new worker who was unresponsive and 2 workers half out of the pupa both unresponsive, fast forward to today the new worker is up and around and the other 2 are slowly getting out of there pupa

[Hawkeye]

yeah defo not a protein thing as she not actually eating the pupa just chewing them up and dumping them into the waste pile, we are now down to 2 pupa and 1 larva that's about to pupate, hope these go full term

so we still have those 2 pupa they look like they will be done any day now, the larva had pupated and has just started to go off white like the others and then out of the blue yesterday we have a small clutch of eggs

so good and bad news, next day eggs where gone and one new worker who was unresponsive and 2 workers half out of the pupa both unresponsive, fast forward to today the new worker is up and around and the other 2 are slowly getting out of there pupa

Maybe they just wanted to sleep in?