#c.pennsylvanicus

[adragonsoulants]

BETTY IS ALIVE I GUESS???🎉

I was checking in on Betty's colony to see what they were up to and what the fuck is that that I see?! A queen??? BETTY????

Also her nest is STOCKED on pupa.

I'm at a loss on what the hell is going on. This species doesn't make replacement queens. I SAW THEM DRAGGING AROUND HER LIFELESS BODY???? was that just a major?? Was she just in some ant comma?? I could have sworn I saw them discard her body in pieces in their garbage pile???

You can see the wing scars, that is a queen, I'm not mistaking a major for her.

I guess that explains why her colony has been way more active than the rest... wow

[adragonsoulants]

They're cuddling ❤️

All my ants have been put into the fridge today!

[adragonsoulants]

Whoa, rare Betty the queen sighting!

[adragonsoulants]

Video of some C. pennsylvanicus workers eating an apple slice. Pay no mind to their garbage pile.

[adragonsoulants]

Apple day for the bugs! Fresh from the yard!

I personally don't dare feed them store bought organic. A lot of reasons but primarily because of cross contamination and me just not trusting myself to clean it enough or willing to take a risk for something that's just a treat.

[adragonsoulants]

First drone hatched in one of the queenless colonies!

[adragonsoulants]

So I'm working on an ant comic and was sharing it with the comic goblins and ended up making a mini comic for the ants

They tried to kill it! Lol, I had fed them just a couple hours earlier so they were in food mode.

Betty's colony is so fucking hungry too, like I give them food and with in an hour they've dragged all of the smaller pieces into the nest. Next day they're already foraging for more lol

Took a peek in the nest and hoLYSHIT

THERES SO MUCH MASSIVE LARVA AND COCOONS?!?

Colony 1 (also in a Tarheel nest) also has cocoons and no other colony does, or brood piles this large!

[adragonsoulants]

So I stuck the P. Imparis colony under my snakes LED light and that did the trick, they moved so fast. Good lighting for photos too ;)

Attempting the same with the C. Subarbatus but they're more stubborn and not in a test tube...

Checked in on my C. Pennsylvanicus colonies too, probably going to fridge the lot of them next week!

Colony 4 has alot of dead inside their nest, they still look fine and queen is well but I don't know why they are dumping their dead in the nest, it's not that over sized for them... Not much I can do though.

Colony 1:

All I can say; "the floor is larva"

These guys are going to need a new nest soon as I take them out of hibernation and all those lil fuckers turn into pupa. They're going to have an EXPLOSION in population!