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miszt: arg! Nylanderis mating flight has begun! (29. Jun 2007 21:55)

Totally unexpected, espcially as i've only had the colony for a week! The males and queens are leaving the nest n bimbling about my basin, question is, what are the chances of them mating with one another? would be a shame to see all there hard work go2 waste, and also will the Queens be able to produce a good brood if mated with males from their own colony?

:shock:

earlant: (30. Jun 2007 08:48)

Hi miszt

I as a scientist and professional myrmecologist can assure you that as yet nobody has ever witnessed mating in Temnothorax nylanderi!

So all replies you may receive can only be speculations.

During the decades I was rearing and breeding many species of Temnothorax and Leptothorax I was used to remove and kill the young sexuals of those species that did not mate in the laboratory. This is what I recommend you.
Please don't release them into the open, because of the risk of intraspecific homogenization: You don't know where your ants have been collected. It is impossible to get an information from the shops where in Germany these "T. nylanderi" have been collected. In Germany we have two very similar Temnothorax species, so-called sister species, T. nylanderi and T. crassispinus.
It may even happen that you got T. crassispinus, and that this species as yet is not living in your country.

Regards,
Earlant

miszt: (30. Jun 2007 12:30)

Hi earlant, i wuldnt even consider releasing them into the wild!!!

If they do mate, then i will transfer them to test tubes and add them to a new basin if they are succesful :)

2 of the queens have disapper along with most of the males (allot of which i can see are dead around the basin), i'l give them a few weeks before i nose around the basin and see if i can findd the 2 missing queens (they are in the basin, its fully escape proof!)

Edit Uta - please use the editfunction! Thanks!

post from 13:32
is there anyway to tell nylanderi and crassispinus apart?

JimmyVe: (1. Jul 2007 13:36)

If this succeeds it would be very nice miszt, let us know if you find the 2 missing queens and if they lay eggs.

HeldGoP: (1. Jul 2007 15:31)

i had a successful mating flight in my room last year (i got 2 colonies!!!). i found 2 queens walking around on the floor. they both were fertile an produced worker.
one of them didnt survived the winter, the other is still fine and grown to 4 workers.

i also had wingless queens in my single colo one year befor, but they didnt lay eggs.