ANTSTORE World of Ants

[AntsNational]

This wingless male had slightly deformed wings when he eclosed in the parent colony. Upon his introduction into the breeding enclosure, a female has gently chewed off his wings. The reason is unknown, but it doesn't stop him from finding himself a girlfriend.

[AntsNational]

Here is a video link of the colony:


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[AntsNational]

I've separated the queens now into groups of 2 and 3. One queen still retains her wings so I would presume that she isn't mated. New males will appear sometime soon again so I can give her another shot. The rest of the queens are doing well and are exhibiting nesting/colony founding behavior (the winged queen continues to pace around in the foraging area). Time will tell if this project succeeded & if the captive breeding of my Myrmecia was a success.

[AntsNational]

The young queens have displayed some very interesting behavior changes. Now that there's eggs present, they're more frequently foraging out in the basin. The old queen's colony has been sadly reduced now to only two workers who are caring for two growing male larvae. I think that after this, it's over for the old queen's colony. Hopefully out of these young new queens (there's 5 of them) some have mated successfully. This project will be a success even if only one queen provides viable workers.

[AntsNational]

Here is the reference:

"Stigmatomma oregonensis queen in mate-calling posture, in a laboratory nest. She extrudes her sting to release pheromones."

http://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Natur ... c&lb=1&s=A

Photo by Alexander Wild.

[AntsNational]

The eggs look like they're about to hatch very soon. I noticed that keeping pairs of queens together may not be 100% beneficial. One queen will lay eggs and the other will (while the other queen is out) dump the old eggs into the outworld. Then she will proceed to lay her own eggs, doing all of this when she's alone. When I place the eggs back into the nest, the queens accept them and clean them. Weird.

They should hatch soon... here's some recent photos;

[AntsNational]

Both groups of queens have one larva each now. These photos are from Group 1 (the group with 2 founding queens). This larva grows each day, and each day sooner towards the possible answer to this project!

[luciduci]

I find this so fasinating! Keep it upated.

[AntsNational]

Well to update, there has been quite a lot to update :

The larva continues to grow

The larva continues to grow

The larva continues to grow

Sadly, one of the queens died. My suspicion is that it was the most dominant queen who killed off a potential rival before the larvae cocooned.

The day after she killed a rival queen, it's back to business as usual for the foundress queen. A hungry baby needs to be fed.

The larva doesn't seem to be interested in food anymore. This is a sign that it is ready to spin a cocoon.

Surely enough, the larva begins to spin itself a cocoon! The queen helped the larva by partially burying it in substrate.

A day after, the cocoon is completed.

A size comparison, I think it is a little too small to look like a male pupa. I am hopeful that this worker is the product of mine (and the ants') many months of hard work!

Alas, the queen also has laid a new clutch of eggs.

& Just an hour ago,

The winged queen has just died but she wasn't killed by the foundress queen. She has wandered around for a few days alone and eventually just kicked the bucket. I believe that her body clock timed out, she did not find a mate in time. This leaves three remaining Myrmecia queens. I sense that the three remaining queens have been the most dominant of the entire project and this may have to do with them being fertile. As of now they will be separated and each allowed to found their own offspring.

[AntsNational]

Sadly, the pupa was cast out into the foraging area where I did check on it and noticed that the queen had cut into it. Inside was a male reproductive, therefore concluding that the project has not proven successful as of yet. There are still three remaining queens, with two others which may prove to be fertile. I will continue working on this project!

[AntsNational]

Well it's been quite some time since I last updated this journal after a long time. There was no activity due to lower temperatures to induce a semi-hibernation state but now the remaining queens have begun to lay again after temperatures and humidity raised up a little at 24-25C & humidity 50%. This time hopefully a better result will come of it as I give it another go. Gotta love revivals!

[AntsNational]

Well it's been since March... Two queens still remain. One has eggs, but this one has a larva now. I'm hoping that this larva will in fact turn into a worker. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

[patyczak1000]

Any update ?

[AntsNational]

Hi ! Yes ! There are two queens remaining, one of which has been producing males, the other has produced a worker but it didn't mature properly within the cocoon and was discarded. I got my answer but I need to restart this project again!

[AntsNational]

Sadly, the project is put on hold. The experiment was promising, but unfortunately there has been no production of viable workers. The closest it came to was pupating, but the larva never properly formed. I would believe it to be male larva. I will continue to try as I find the breeding habits of these ants very interesting!