Upon removing the cover for this Winter ant (Prenolepis imparis) nest, I was greeted with two much larger larvae. This indicates that pupae will appear by the next time I look. If that’s the case, nanitics should be, at most, three weeks away as of this post. I am hoping that these queens manage to start a successful colony, as I haven’t had the best luck with this species.
Last year, during my previous attempt to start colonies of this species, all failed. The two queen nest collapsed right as the first pupa arrived, which may have been facilitated by me having to move them to a new test tube after theirs went dry. The four queen nest never got to larvae, possibly due to infertile queens eating brood. The huge nest of nine queens, however, failed simply due to producing too many eggs, causing mold to take over.
