Nanitic

Nanitics are the very first workers of a new colony. While the queen is founding alone, she has to raise her first larvae with what she has: her own body reserves, or the little food she manages to find. With so little to go around, the first generation comes out smaller and weaker than the workers the colony will produce later.

Being tiny doesn't make them any less important! Nanitics take over the jobs the queen did alone: they care for the brood, feed the queen and, most of all, start foraging. From that moment, the colony can finally bring in outside food, and the queen can focus only on laying eggs.

As the colony grows and the food supply gets better, each new generation of workers is a little bigger, until they reach the normal size for the species. In polymorphic species like Messor barbarus or Pheidole pallidula, the first big majors only show up once the colony is well established.

In practice

• The arrival of the first nanitics is the moment to start offering food regularly, with a little sugar and small pieces of protein.
• Keep portions tiny. A handful of small workers can't deal with a whole cricket, and leftovers grow mold.
• Keep the colony in its test tube for now: a few nanitics are much safer in a small space than in a big nest.
• Be patient. Growth is very slow at the start, but it speeds up a lot once there are more workers.