Update on colonies at teach me store in Raleigh, NC. Formica subsericea: Look to be entering diapause. Last year they fooled me, however, and laid one more batch of eggs and then entered diapause in early January to March. I put out a buffet of mealworms, apples, and a new honeydew honey (from a new guaranteed safe source). Only one worker surfaced and took to the honey for about 5 minutes before I left. The workers have packed in around the queen, she is not noticeable until she moves around then it is like watching a sea of legs part for her. There are at least 400-500 workers. This is roughly a 400% increase in size from last year this time. Camponotus chromaiodes queen: I had one of the one the back episodes with the original queen that was on display a ways back and brought her home to attempt revival. She recovered well and ended up with a large worker force. She is now back in the display case and her and her workers will hopefully move into a one-chamber Talus (selected for ease of viewing) over the weekend. This colony has only first instar larvae, but a lot of them (50-100). Dipause seems imminent for them as well, but with them being at a temperature of 70-75 degrees how long they will remain there is going to be interesting. This is my first year able to keep healthy colonies of this species going this long so I dont have much of a reference of my own experience on how long to expect them to remain inactive. I will get some photos and perhaps a short video of them once the move into the Talus is complete. The Formica subsericea colony is going to be moved into a new formicarium being made specifically for the display. I will share details on the construction of that, but it is intended to feature underneath lighting for people to see the colonies activities better.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:35:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015