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Thanks for the link about picture standards.

Here is one laying an egg.



And for the large picture, click the link.

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/2994/img4884y.jpg

Here are some pictures of the egg laying in progress.

Last update until something interesting happens.

Well, it has been too long since I posted an update. The larva began to appear about two and a half weeks ago, and they have rapidly turned into pupae. While a month seems like a long time, it is amazing to observe how quick the life cycle has been so far.

I have not lost another pennsylvanicus, queen, but a novaeboracensis queen died(I believe Chuck was right in pointing out that my queen was not chromaiodes), and I let a non-productive one go. An ant hunt in early June resulted in another novaeboracensis queen with two nantics and a small brood, and since I kept captured her, she now has seven nantics. I cannot get good pictures because she likes to hang out in the plastic tubing connecting to the out world. I also found an alate of an unknown species stuck upside down in a raindrop on my car. She has already laid some eggs, but has not  shed her wings.

Here are the uncropped pictures in no particular order:







I'll get an id check on this queen later when I take better pictures:

All 13 of my Camponotus queens are doing well. They all have nantics, and all keep laying eggs. I have yet to move 12 of them into a formicarium, which is what I will be creating tomorrow. Anyhow, here is a picture of a queen, her workers, and her brood in the current formicarium I have.




As you can see, she has a nice pile of new eggs. I found this colony about a month and a half ago when there were 2 nantics and about a dozen pupae. She has 15 workers currently. She had 18, but one had drown in a drop of honey, another wondered to a far away chamber and died, and a third died. I believe the queen and possibly her workers had overwintered, as I found them in early June. I think they may have died due to age, or more likely humidity levels. The hygrometer reads 80, while outside the formicarium is 40. Nearly all the workers have enlarged gasters, though the queen does not. She seems to be doing fine tho as evidenced by the eggs. I am waiting for them to go into the tunnels, they seem to be content hanging around on the surface of the nest.

Well, they ate some larvae between last night and today. Two larvae began to pupate but did not spin a cocoon. Today, they are gone. Slightly discouraging, but after reading other journals, this seems to be a common occurrence.

Since last post, I have made 5 temporary formicariums, I had to let 7 colonies go for lack of space, and I have minors. My ants are doing pretty good. I have copied MarkM's formicarium design, but I used hydrostone. I am making some design changes on my formicarium, and when it is complete, I will post it.










And here is Species E:




I could not get a clear photo of the queen, but she still has her wings.