Regroup [ants]

[rebeccmeister]

Nothing is as depressing as watching ant queens in 70 farms' worth of ants all die, after spending 2 long, solid days measuring their metabolic rates, after spending a solid chunk of time out in the field collecting them in the first place.

We have a couple of solid hypotheses about why they have almost all died, and thankfully we got a second set of 9 queens from one population that looks really good.

But most likely I'll be driving us back out to California next Tuesday to go ant-hunting again.

Probably no camping this time. This isn't an especially rugged crew. That's fine.

We also have a bit of breathing room this weekend. We need it. I need to update my finances and have some quiet time to myself.

Comments

[bluepapercup]

OH, no. That stinks so much. :(

Sounds like there are lessons learned but that doesn't lessen the stress and disappointment now.

[twoeleven]

Damn, that sucks! Sympathies and happy hunting.

[cmcmck]

What do you reckon may have caused it?

[rebeccmeister]

1. Bad year, so they weren't provisioned as well to begin with (lighter initial weights than in previous years).

2. They spent too long in little Eppendorf tubes before the start of the phase in ant farms (respirometry measurements took too long).

3. They got too dehydrated (need to give them better access to water sooner).

[cmcmck]

1. makes a lot of sense- it's been a poor year for insects here as it's been a poor Spring followed by a less than wonderful Summer.

[annikusrex]

oooh, i'm so sorry. i hadn't realized from your twitter post what the denominator was. :(