Comments on: Ant Farm Update #5: Life and death in Blue Gel City

By: Morshed

Morshed — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:37:04 +0000

How dangerous the ant are?

By: sam

sam — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:27:40 +0000

imo the ant farm adventure posts are the best this blog has had so far, i’m enjoying them.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:52:28 +0000

Now why is it that I want only to obliterate the little suckers in my backyard, but I am rooting for them to thrive in this context?

By: Andy Lewis

Andy Lewis — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:52:55 +0000

Oh, bless her. We are all behind you, queenie!

By: coracle

coracle — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:58:44 +0000

Updated after a little googling, try this pdf. The relevant text is as follows: After mating the male dies, and the newly fertilised queen will begin to search for a suitable nesting site where she will create a cell for her new colony. Occasionally a newly fertilized queen may return to her existing colony where she is accepted as an extra queen. She will normally lay her first eggs in late spring, and it normally takes about 3-4 weeks for the white legless larvae to hatch out. The larvae are then fed with a salivary substance from the queens mouth, this period will normally last about three weeks, following which the larvae pupate. This first generation of worker ants will emerge from their cocoons within two weeks So, it sounds like she's capable of looking after them herself. Looking forward to the next update.

By: coracle

coracle — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:49:23 +0000

I suppose the fact that the workers were actually tunnelling is a positive indication that the habitable environment for them.

With regards to the larvae, what happens in the wild, I though a queen set up a new nest on her own? If that is the case then she must be able raise new workers independently.