So I'm involved with the Raise a Tetramorium Colony Contest. Here is a picture of my current prized queen. Common Pavement Ants are an invasive species in the US and they tend to do well in captivity. Actually they're multiple species but 2 or 3 are so abundant the world over that it was an ideal genus for such a contest.
This picture was taken just hours after the one above. (they were also moved onto a red index card) Note how the pupa in the first picture is already a walking enclosed worker.
And hours after that there are now 4 workers with more on the way. This queen was caught only 4 weeks prior to her first workers. I've seen queens produce colonies of 50 workers without any added food. That's impressive! Because I'm in it to win it though I'll be feeding my colony here excessively. My secrete weapon (hopefully,) will be Trillium Seed Elaiosome.
