My Tetramorium immigrans (pavement ant) queen has made excellent progress. Her larvae are now pupae. (you can tell because they are now ant-shaped with legs) immigrans does not spin silk cocoons as my carpenter ants do. The queen keeps them clean and safe as they develop— she is their cocoon.(look at the second photo to see the progress she has made in just one week)

#antqueen #antkeeping #tetramorium #tetramoriumimmigrans #nature #petant #ants

Let's use antcounter.crazyants.de to count the eggs larvae and pupae in the images.

egg>> larvae >> pupae >> ant

A week ago she had:
29 eggs
17 larvae
0 pupae

Today she has:
0 eggs
7 larvae
16 pupae

It seems like nearly all of the larvae from last week have progressed to the next stage and will soon be ants. The eggs must have been used for food to make this happen. Ants can lay "trophic eggs" that are not able to develop and they use this to store and transfer food.

A pupae cannot eat. It's like a caterpillar in a cocoon, but without the cocoon. All of their energy is going to transforming their body into an ant shape.

When everything is right the exoskeleton will harden and they will darken and become little ants ready to assist their mother in her plans for world (well sidewalk) domination.

When I see the young ants walking around I will connect her test tube to a little "outworld" where they can forage. Then the queen will lay a second batch of eggs.