Moving on up

The Camponotus ligniperdus have got a new home (The one which used to house the Camponotus festinatus). They have settled in, but they have also discarded their eggs. I believe this is because they were in hybernation and the eggs were dead, but I cannot be sure.

Dormant

My Camponotus ligniperdus are still hybernating. They won't eat anything and there is hardly any movement at all. I guess they will be like this for another month.

Fish Flakes

I put some fish flakes (which are really high in protein). The ants seem to love it. One of the workers inspected it and started bringing loads inside the nest.

They were nibbling on it a lot, but since there are only two workers they cannot eat fast enough and it went kind of moldy after three days. I had to remove it. I will offer only one or two at a time for now.

Cotton wool

I added some little balls of cotton wool to the forage pot just to see if the ants would interact with them. At night when one of the workers left the test tube, it was interested and started dragging one back.

It did not, however, go back for more. Apparently, one was enough for protection.

Moth larva

I added a live moth larva to the test tube mouth. It started crawling deeper, very slowly. Then the worker "on guard duty" noticed it and approached very carefully. At that point I was expecting it to go bonkers and run back to the queen, but it viciously attacked the larva instead.

That was kind of a surprise, I thought the queen would kill the larva as when the workers are scouting outside the test tube they are wimpy and run off at the slightest disturbance, but inside the test tube it seems they are lions. :)

All that was left by morning was the head of the larva, and an hour later when I went to check it, even that had vanished. I fed them two more larva a day later and they ate that too.

Daughter feeds mom

The workers have been showing a bit more activity yesterday. One is always guarding the queen and eggs, and the other one is frequently going out and looking around. Yesterday I caught one going into the other pot, nosing about.

It found a string of sylicon and started pulling it for a few minutes, then gave up (pictures are quite dark, but you can see it pulling the stringy rubbery sylicon):

It gave up after a few minutes, got some honey, and went back to the test tube to feed mommy :)

First step out

A few days ago I moved the test tube with the queen and two workers into the forage pot. I think they won't move into the plaster nest for now, there are still only two workers anyway.

This morning, one of the workers decided it was time to do a bit of scouting. I was able to take pictures:

The worker walked around the pot twice, carefully checking everything, but did not go into the hose. It then went back into the test tube and stayed there.

And the queen arrives

Hi there. I bought a queen from a friend here in Brazil, and it arrived yesterday evening (much earlier than I had anticipated). A very beautiful queen with some eggs and two workers. The species is Camponotus ligniperdus. Here she is:

The nest itself is 99% finished. I made a small hole on the side of the main pot, put a plastic transparent hose in it, got another short but wide pot (which I plan to use to put food in) and also made a hole in that, Then glued them with hot sylicon rubber. The results are not pretty but seem to be functional:

The "forage/food pot" has a small hole in the lid so I can lift just that if I want to put things in. The hole is small, though, I don't know how well it will work.

This is what the ant nest setup looks like:

So I went ahead and removed the cotton lump covering the mouth of the test tube the queen had arrived in and set the test tube in the big pot.

One of the workers quickly made its way to the mouth of the test tube, but didn't leave it and went back in. The other worker also made its way there a few moments after the first, and took a bit longer exploring the entrance to the test tube until one of its antennae touched the plaster floor. Then it seems to have gotten scared and ran back to the queen and other worker. I kind of scared them too for a few moments, but then everything went back to normal and they all just stayed there. This happened yesterday evening, as soon as I set the tube in after having opened it.

This morning I went to look again and they were still in the test tube. I put some very small flies (about 4 or 5), as well as a honey/water mixture of about 50% in the forage pot. I left them on my book cupboard in the living room and went to work.