Well friends, yesterday, I went to Noahs Ark Zoo in Wraxall, Somerset.  It was a good day out and they have some good animal exhibits including rhinos and giraffes. They also had a colony of Leaf Cutter Ants.  The colony itself consisted of two large orbs (glass round bowls like huge light bulbs) containing two seperate nest areas.  These were sitting above a moving moat of water and linked by a rope to a higher level feeding tray.  I was a little dissapointed by this colony.  It could have looked fantastic but the tank was in a poor state of repair with dirty glass and dirty water.  Their was also no leafs at all for them to 'cut'.  It is a shame that such a large colony was being kept in such a small tank, and it worried me that it is possible that the old colony from Wildwalk @ Bristol was given to Noahs Ark Zoo, only to be kept in this really small inadequate habitat.  The leaf cutters in Wildwalk had a massive area to forage in...I kid you not. Anyway, onto my own colonys.

Tetramorium Caespitum

This little fellows are now showing themselves much more often.  I guess that now the queen is settled, and i havn't seen them since the first day I had her, they seem to be doing well.  I have swapped the ants to meal worm pieces and they love it.  In fact every time I look into the farm area now, there are ants collecting food from the meal worm body.  This is definately a goood growing colony, and my early fears for their success were perhaps unfounded.

Myrmica Ruginodis

The colony is moving from strength to strength.  I did a quick count (rough it has to be said) of their eggs today, and in various stages of development are between 90 to 110.  This is just the eggs that are in the tubing that connects the tank to the farm.  These ants seem to like this area, and do not care in the slightest that its continueally in full daylight.  The queen also shows herself regularly.  There is still only the one queen, and the colony probably stands at around 100 ants and 100 eggs.  I did see a dead ant the day before yesterday, and this was removed.

Messor Barbarus

There are now 18 ants again.  As you may know, some of my messors were escaping, and I probably lost between 5 to 10 of them through escape, I have never seen any that have escaped, so I don't know for sure.  It could be that they are being eaten as protein for the rest, but then I do provide them with protein, and I have never seen half eaten bodies.  A mystery indeed.

Lasius Niger

I let one of my lasius queens go.  She had laid no eggs at all, so even though I caught here with no wings, I'm sure she was infertile.  The other queen is in her ant farm, and there are some eggs just waiting to hatch out.  There is also one single worker with her.  I'm pleased about this.  Her early days were a disaster as one of her first born drowned in a dab of honey that I had put out for them to feed on.

Finally, back to leafcutters, my wife has very kindly told me that I can keep leafcutters if I want.  Yay.  I will have to start planning the tank set up.  Something like a four or five foot tank should be sufficient for this.  I'm going to draw up a plan, then post it up here for you to look at and comment on...until then...take care.