Post by Myrm on Apr 21, 2009 12:56:27 GMT 1
Hi
Although I do keep journals of all my ant colonies on the main website I thought I would keep one of them on here too, but with more regular updates. A sort of bonus to forum members. ;D
The colony I have decided to chronicle on here is my Lasius umbratus which actually consist of an umbratus queen with 30 or so Lasius niger workers which I obtained from Antstore, in Germany, on 8 March 2009.
Lasius umbratus queens are unable to start their own colonies, so once mated they look for a Lasius niger nest and try to trick their way inside. More often than not they are discovered and killed by the niger workers. However, some do make it and establish themselves within the nest away, I believe, from the colony's own queen. Somehow she convinces the niger workers that it is in their best interest to kill their own queen and accept her as their own, and this is what they do. The niger queen is disposed of and the umbratus queen takes over as colony queen. She then starts to lay her own eggs which, obviously, create umbratus workers. Slowly ,over time, the niger workers die out as they naturally do and the nest becomes more and more umbratus until there are no niger workers left.
Lasius umbratus are virtually identical to Lasis flavus.
My colony arrived in the usual glass test tube that Antstore ship their ants in and I placed it into the foraging tank that is attached to a glass slim ant farm via a length of plastic tubing. They quickly moved into the thin ant farm (or the nesting box as I call it) but are even now still nesting on the surface of the sand. In the words of the late Steve Irwin, "They have naughty little bottoms!"
When I first got the ants there was a small bunch of eggs. There is now several little clumps of eggs, a group of larvae and some cocoons. I am looking forward to see if the cocoons are niger of umbratus.
The niger workers were obviously once part of an established colony as the workers are very large.
Although I do keep journals of all my ant colonies on the main website I thought I would keep one of them on here too, but with more regular updates. A sort of bonus to forum members. ;D
The colony I have decided to chronicle on here is my Lasius umbratus which actually consist of an umbratus queen with 30 or so Lasius niger workers which I obtained from Antstore, in Germany, on 8 March 2009.
Lasius umbratus queens are unable to start their own colonies, so once mated they look for a Lasius niger nest and try to trick their way inside. More often than not they are discovered and killed by the niger workers. However, some do make it and establish themselves within the nest away, I believe, from the colony's own queen. Somehow she convinces the niger workers that it is in their best interest to kill their own queen and accept her as their own, and this is what they do. The niger queen is disposed of and the umbratus queen takes over as colony queen. She then starts to lay her own eggs which, obviously, create umbratus workers. Slowly ,over time, the niger workers die out as they naturally do and the nest becomes more and more umbratus until there are no niger workers left.
Lasius umbratus are virtually identical to Lasis flavus.
My colony arrived in the usual glass test tube that Antstore ship their ants in and I placed it into the foraging tank that is attached to a glass slim ant farm via a length of plastic tubing. They quickly moved into the thin ant farm (or the nesting box as I call it) but are even now still nesting on the surface of the sand. In the words of the late Steve Irwin, "They have naughty little bottoms!"
When I first got the ants there was a small bunch of eggs. There is now several little clumps of eggs, a group of larvae and some cocoons. I am looking forward to see if the cocoons are niger of umbratus.
The niger workers were obviously once part of an established colony as the workers are very large.