Hello Friends!

So here my blog about my Cataglyphis bombycinus. I get them last year in may. It was a good colony with ca. 150 workers and one queen.
It is realy not easy to hold them, this are realy desert ants, so i had make some mistakes. First problem is the nest, it must be drily. and i mean realy drily!
The problem is that these Cataglyphis bring not the garbage outside the nest (all Cataglyphis make some areas in the nest where they bring the garbage). But some Cataglyphis ( i hold C. velox, C. aenescens) bring sometimes all out. This Cataglyphis do it not. I have now one chamber in the nest where are they bring the garbage. So when you have a not drily nest, this garbage begin to mouldy and that is a big problem. So my mistakes cost many workers the live, so that i had in November only 32 workers :( . In end of November i let them go in an cold area of my apartment, they need a stop. All Cataglyphis make one or two stops in the year where they have no brood. The queen need this break to lay good eggs, they need the cold temperature and the break. So i had give them a break from 5-6 weeks.
After this time i have bring the colony to a new drily nest ant a new formicarium. The queen lay new eggs and no worker die since this time.
I have now many brood, eggs larvae and pupas. Yesterday the first new worker was born.

So here pictures from the arena:

And now the pictures from inside the nest (one week old):

The larvae will be save :)

And now pictures from yesterday:

Here the new worker:

These are older pictures:

And here the queen in the "winter" nest:

Ok, i hope this will be funny too!

Poka
Mathias