The TC's

Not really very much to let you know about these ants.  The Tetramorium Caespitum (Pavement Ants) have dissappeared.  They are a very small ant species, and have completely buried themselves in.  The crafty little buggers have covered in the hole that I created for them, and I can't see the Queen or the workers.  Every now and again one of the buggers pops up and wonders around on the surface, other than that...nothing.  I have put a pile of grass seeds into the farm area as I don't yet have a basin connected.  I do hope that they will survive, and grow into a good little colony.  There is evidence of their diggings, with new tunnels appearing daily, however, theres not much point to the tunnels from what I can see.

The MB's

The Messor Barbarus (Harvester Ants) are continueing to do well.  They are slightly strange though, they bring all of the eggs from the dark chambers of the plaster nest into the plastic tubing linking to the basin area.  Its possible that the eggs are being moved into different areas for temperature reasons.  The queen is fascinating to watch in this species, she picks up her eggs when disturbed, and walks around the plaster nest in a way thats reminiscent of a tank moving...an armor plated beauty.

The MR's

A great colony of Myrmica Ruginodis this.  Growing nicely and probably 70 strong now (grown from 50).  A very big pile of eggs, larvae and pupae are constantly being tended too.  There are also minute little eggs, so this shows that the queen is laying frequently as well.  Ths feeding basin has sprouted grass.  some of the seeds have obviously germinated.  Looks kind of natural now, and its good for the retension of water.

The LN's

The Lasius Niger queens are still doing well, one better than the other though.  I have had one in a plastic ant farm kept in normal daylight, and one in a plastic tuppaware container kept in the dark.  The one in the tuppaware container has large eggs, and 3 of which are now in the final stage of pupal cocoon.  This is a queen that was captured a full week before the one thats been kept in the ant farm.  Now, the ant farm queens eggs are still in the larvae stage, and much smaller.  The only conclusion I can draw from this is to keep your queens well covered and in complete darkness (much like in nature I guess)

More soon.