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Hello, I have a question : I have read many journals were the owner actually mates his colonies alates. And produces more queens.
http://antfarm.yuku.com/topic/10400/t/Pheidologeton-Diversus-Story-many-photographs-photos.html
Here is a picture.
http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpg/4c426256276f6ea5e6cea7cc9e1a73dc745c9853_r.jpg
So I wonder, is this possible? Can you start with a single queen colony and then breed hundreds of new queens?
Best regards.
Strafer.
It could be possible if you contaon the queens and males so they dont flie away something like a huge glass box where they can fly and mate..
It is possible. Pheidologeton diversus often mate inside the nest or just on the ground above the nest. It doesn´t seem to be important to fly or not to mate with their brothers/sisters.
The problem is, what everybody who ever had Pheidologeton diversus can confirm, that small colonies are extremly hard to keep.
It is nearly impossible raise colonies from about 500 workers, what in the most other ants is a colony that nearly can´t die of bad keeping.
Pheidologeton diversus queens are so much bigger than the normal workers that they need hundrets just to feed a queen.
I´m not even sure if a queen can found a colony solitary, I think new colonies might only come from spliting of colonies and adoption of new queens.
But as I said the mating isn´t a big trouble, you could say that the queens get raped by the males as seen in this video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCp6HMe-eQU
So the main problem and the cause because nobody breeds Pheidologeton diversus is that the queens need workers, wich you would have to take from your colony. If you do that to much your own colony gets to week and the colony dies.
Besides Pheidologeton diversus is just extremly hard to keep and nobody can really figur out why.
I can only confirm what baumarkthammer wrote in his post.
The true reasons why so many Pheidologeton colonies die in captivity is simply a mystic secret. Many keepers have had colonies thrive in the first few months, only then to have a breakdown after 8-12 months.
From my point of view, if you really want to do breeding projects, you would have to wait until you have a really big mother colony ( 50k plus workers or so ) and then hope to get males and females.
these then would need to be taken out of the colony, together with a stock of brood and workers, to re-found a new colony.
this project takes a lot of space, time and effort ( not to speak about the money / time needed to feed these projects ).
But yes, as baumarkt stated, it is possible for the reasons he mentioned.
Best regards
Major Spud
Hello MajorSpud , i know you started a breeding project on these ants a few months ago, how did you do ? Also you said you were going to try different methods of keeping the ants to see what conditions they prefer and can survive in , did you experement ? :grin:
Regards
Adam
Hi Adam,
yes the experiment goes on, but so far I had to give back most of the new queens to the main colony. a few dies out of unknown reasons, so I preferred like this not to lose all of them.
the next experiment will be me trying to breed them just in plastic tubes, with a 1-2cm thick layer of gypsum for the moisture and see how they will do. Usually it shouldbe sufficient.
I also want to try how important the natural soil availability is to them, since they prefer this to any other from of keeping in my experience.
Best
Majot Spud
Brilliant , i really look forward to hear your experiances. i hopfully will have another go at this species soon :)
Regards
Adam
Hi Adam,
nice to see your colony does well by now!!
I have succeeded my Breeding program and founded a new, stable, small colony with approx 1.000 workers in a small plastic box.
My thought: keep em hot, I kept mine on 32 degrees or more ( up to 33-34 ) which speeds up the minors, and they can tend the brood and everything else much better.
Hello Major , great to hear , my colony is doing very well , loads of population it hard to keep them in , have put a lid on there foraging area now lol :D. Thankyou for the update :grin:
Regards
Adam
told ya in advance mate ;)
also try some cheese, they will love it, gouda or some other really fat one, they run amok.