myrmepropagandistShe is such a good mother! Five pupae now!
And still more larvae to go. She was very calm for the photos this time. #antqueen #carpenterant #antkeeping #petant
Queen ant update!
Her brood pile is the same size as her body almost. She has five larvae in silk pupae ready to grow up to be nanitics (in about two weeks)
She’s doing great living in the fountain pen drawer. #antqueen #ants #antkeeping #camponotus #nycants
It is unreasonable that any bug could be this cute! when I open the drawer she always carefully picks up her eggs. She’s holding the most mature larva and it’s silk cocoon in the first photo. I guess she’s ready to run and start over if needed. What an incredible mother.
If you look back through this thread you can see how far she's come!
#ants #antqueen #antkeeping #carpenterAnts #camponotus #camponotusPennsylvanicus
Queen update!
She has two larvae ready to spin their silk cocoons, and one that has already cocooned itself and started to pupate and mature. As a treat, I soaked a grain of bee pollen in a bit of sugar water and fed it to her. She seemed delighted with it, and I hope it made up for the bright lights of the photo session. Here she is eating her treat. (Better photos of the cocoon in the next post. ) #antkeeping #petant #ants #antqueen
Queen in a drawer. A test tube can seem like a small space for such a large, majestic insect, but this mimics what she would have built or found for herself in the wild, a narrow hollow under bark, a repurposed carpenter bee burrow, or a hole excavated with her own mandibles queen ants seal themselves in creating a space with no exit, total darkness and seclusion to maximize moisture and avoid discovery.
Queen update! Her eggs have hatched and are now larvae. She will feed them “trophic eggs” which are special eggs that cannot hatch. This is an ant food storage hack. Young ants need protein but she cannot leave the nest to raise this first generation.
While I was bugging her with a photo today I also gave her a drink of water which she seemed to like. #antqueen
Quick update on my new queen carpenter ant: she seems to be doing well living in her glass test tube inside of my pen drawer. I checked on her today and gave her a drop of water which she accepted and drank. Her eggs are slowly developing.
(How to keep people from taking your fancy pens.) #antqueen
She is such a good mother. I’m still in shock that she was going to try and live under my keyboard.
When I found her she was “hiding” but like most queens she wasn’t aware of how big she is and her gaster was visible giving her away.
She is now in a luxury NYC ant condo. #antqueen
Bonus cute photo of a queen and her minima worker. I love how the caption implies that the scientist could not separate them! 💗🐜 #ants #atta #queenant #leafcutters #antposting #antqueen
My #Formica #subsericea queen is very skittish and if there is a loud noise or vibrations she runs out of her nest and tries to hide in the water feeder. Only she is much too large for this to work. Poor girl.
