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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2012 5:41:03 GMT 1
My two little black house ant queens have been laying eggs for about 3 weeks, and tending to them calmy. However, none of them have developed past the egg state. I don't see any larvae or pupae.
Do you guys think this is normal? Or is there a chance I'm not keeping the eggs at the right temperature and they are dying?
Currently I have them both in small plastic containers wrapped in foil, but that's about all.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2012 20:01:06 GMT 1
Patience in ant-keeping is a virtue my fastest queens' first broods took around six weeks to go from egg to worker, but there was variation even between queens kept in exactly the same way. The last queen to produce workers now has the most (went from no workers to fourteen in a few days), as her brood developed slower but at a similar rate, whereas my other queens had a much wider range of brood type (eggs, larvae, pupae) and only one worker would eclose every day or two. I wouldn't worry just yet it could be that they hatched but you didn't notice - those things are tiny, even as larvae!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2012 20:32:23 GMT 1
What species was it that took only 6 weeks to become workers? And that is interesting that the queen that had the slowest brood development had the most workers. Mine are like this now. Hmmmmmmm *scratches head
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2012 17:10:14 GMT 1
It's true they could have hatched. Occasionally I inspect them through my macro lens setup on the camera to see if they've hatched but I haven't done it in a few weeks. Who knows! Thanks for the advice.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2012 17:15:45 GMT 1
What species was it that took only 6 weeks to become workers? And that is interesting that the queen that had the slowest brood development had the most workers. Mine are like this now. Hmmmmmmm *scratches head The first nanitic was to an L.Niger, 6 weeks and 2 days after she was mated. Another L.Niger queen followed suit very shortly afterwards, while the last L.Niger didn't have any until the following week. As of today, the queen who had the first nanitic has nine workers, and the slowest has fourteen. I reckon that instead of pouring care into a few of her brood, she raised them equally so she ended up with more workers at the same time, just a little later? I also think the other L.Nigers may have been eating some of their brood.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2012 18:50:48 GMT 1
There are probably many different factors to change the amount of nantic workers. May experiment next year.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2012 18:53:34 GMT 1
There are probably many different factors to change the amount of nantic workers. May experiment next year. I feel that some queens have more fat reserves in their wings and thus can support more babies. This is just what i think though. Another thing is how/where the queen is
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