On Tuesday, I saw The Pavement Princess’s nanitic unfold! The pupa took slightly under 20 minutes to complete the unfolding process. This nanitic is now very lively. It was the first ant to discover a drop of raw honey that I put into the test tube. After a very brief taste, she started waving her antennae like crazy! She quickly ran back to the nest pile, and as soon as she returned, she informed the queen about the honey with her antennae. They must have been really hungry because they fed from this honey drop for quite a while. These ants are easy to care for at the moment, and there is a lot of brood. This is a good sign of a healthy colony. I am very excited for them.
This week, I also moved them into a new test tube nest. Over a few days, I noticed that their old test tube was slightly moldy. Also, I felt like there was not enough water to make it through the winter. My solution was to move them into a fresh test tube nest. The move was a bit of a hassle, as they were stubborn. One weird day, I had just finished a school assignment, and I looked at their old nest, and they were gone! I peeked into their new nest, and what do you know, they were in there. I removed their old nest and plugged the opening of the new nest with cotton to keep them inside. The queen settled into the new home nicely, and so did her nanitic.
