Understanding the phenology of new founding colony of weaver ant: a preliminary screen house observations

Weaver ant, Oecophylla longinoda is eusocial insect used as a bio-agent against more than fifty insect pest species in several crops. Colony rearing in the screen house involves the collection of mated winged females after their nuptial flight, rearing to allow broods development. The time taken for forming different broods is not well known for the new founding colony of O. longinoda. We conducted a screen house experiment to study the phenology of new founding O. longinoda colonies. We found that are eggs hatched 9 days after they are laid; furthermore, it takes 9 days from larvae to develop to pupae. However it requires at least 10 days for pupae to develop into worker ants. It takes 30 days from nuptial flight day to the first emergence of worker ants. The study found that, it can take at least 11 days for workers in a colony freely exposed in seedlings to initiate nests buildings. These are useful pieces of biological information which can be used in colony managements during rearing. This information can also be used in estimating time taken by a colony in the screen house before it is introduced in the field to control insect pests.