The Myrmica sp. colony is going strong. They have been eating an entire pinhead cricket every other day and there is now a large cluster of at least 20 eggs in the tube.
The Camponotus vicinus colony seems to be doing fine. There is one large larva that appears to be well on its way to pupation, as well as a few small larvae and a little over a dozen eggs.
I took a few photos of the pair of unidentified Lasius queens today too.
The third Lasius neoniger queen laid her first eggs last week. Neither of the other two queens have any larvae yet, although both are tending to large clusters of eggs. The test tubes have begun to grow a fair amount of mold. I’m hoping this won’t have any negative effects on the ants. They didn’t take kindly to the sudden change in light, so I haven’t managed to get any photos.
Sounds like I need to give my Lasius a pep talk, as none of them have eggs. Maybe I need to start heating them.
That may be it. The first of my Lasius queens to lay eggs were also the closest to the heating cable. If you do heat them, just make sure not to place the heat source in direct contact with the test tubes.
I’m thinking that your Lasius queens may be L. flavus? They’re rather light colored and small-eyed.
You could be right. I am just thinking they are a little too small to be L. flavus. Each one is only 6 mm in length at most. Dr. J. Trager (Dr. Ant) suggested that they could be L. crypticus, but he needs to see workers for an accurate ID.