As Ive been a bit busy lately I haven't had time to post about a couple of new additions, a small weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina colony arrived just over a week ago and 3 small paper wasp colonies Polistes dominulus the day after that.
The weavers are from an online store called My ant shop http://www.myantshop.com/ who I have used a few times and can't rate highly enough and you will doubtless be hearing lots more about in the future, while the Polistes came from a friend who was collecting for a project in Spain and gave me 3 small colonies.
The weavers are great, very active and collecting food within minutes of being released, the wasps are dead...
They lasted a week and seemed to be doing well, taking food from tweezers, no obvious aggression and tending 2 out of the 3 nests which were altogether in a large plastic container. But then after five day's I found 2 (out of around 10 animals) dead, the next day all but one were dead on the floor. It 's unlikely to be dramatic temperature fluctuations as the weavers and a Stegodyphus sp. colony in the same area are all fine.
And although I have not seen any aggression I cant help feeling it may have played a part but if that is so, why so sudden? Perhaps putting the 3 nests together did create tensions, and even though they are probably related colonies the close proximity was just too much?
And although I have not seen any aggression I cant help feeling it may have played a part but if that is so, why so sudden? Perhaps putting the 3 nests together did create tensions, and even though they are probably related colonies the close proximity was just too much?
The person who gave me them has others which are doing well with just an occasional death here and there and has offered me another colony, perhaps I’ll try and work out what I did wrong before I take them though, and then I'll keep them separately....
I have also added another nest chamber to my leaf cutter ant colony Acromyrmex octospinosus, I had been told that they normally stick in one chamber but will move around quite readily, I have added the second partly to help increase the colony size but also to see if they will just get up and move.
And here are some cute pictures of newts to cheer me up.
Tylototriton verrucosus
With thanks to Jane Hallam for taking the verrucosus pictures.
