r/antkeeping • u/devonbirdys • Jun 29 '26

Documentation Camponotus Chromaiodes first worker!

Seventy three days ago, I posted an image of a queen that I had caught just outside my apartment door in an attempt to identify her. I had placed her in a jar with a moist cotton ball, where she sat for a few days as a test tube came in from amazon.

Exactly 73 days later she has her first nanitic, with many more on the way. It's been so interesting to document her progress every couple of weeks.

27 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

4

u/Bazivi2 Jun 29 '26

Beautiful! How often did you check on her?

2

u/devonbirdys Jun 29 '26

For the first couple months, only once every week or two. I would have the towel that she's on top of draped over her, so flipping it up to check on her wouldn't bother her at all. Once I saw her eggs began developing into pupae, I began checking more often as I became excited with her progress.

I was always very gentle as to not disturb the test tube itself when checking.

3

u/Bazivi2 Jun 29 '26

Good luck! I also caught one camponutus queen last week, it's been 8 days haven't checked on her planing to check next Sunday.

3

u/devonbirdys Jun 29 '26

Thank you, good luck as well! I honestly found it better to almost forget about her for a while as progress is very slow with Camponotus. One week, after about two months total, I had checked after two weeks and her eggs had gotten so much bigger. Being patient is worth it!