ANTSTORE World of Ants

[marc.tulley]

is it nearly flight time?! goody, im on holiday for a week, tuesday hope i dont miss them all , want a flavus colony this year

[JimmyVe]

I saw some winged queens flying out yesterday. (Lasius niger)

[ypzilopz]

hello, ehm highered what did u do to get the new queens and males to mate in a container? did u took males and queens from the same colony?(:
- because it's maybe work

[delete-14751]

Do males and females mate within there own colony???

[ratgreen]

would you mate with your sister? no lol, but there are some strange people/ants that do.

[delete-14751]

I was just checking. I was thinking it would not be an advantage to the colony. Also this would make breeding in a farm imposible unless you released more than one colony into a very large space/tank to allow inflight mating.

[marc.tulley]

i had a male and female mate in my my small rubra cork nest...

[delete-14751]

from the same colony? what size? Did you see it? If so was it in the air?

[miszt]

Inscest is suprisingly common in the Animal kingdom, infact scientists believe that is serves to strengthen the gene pool by weeding out weak genes and allowing dominant ones to be paired up.

It's become unclear in recent years where the taboo came from, as it may not be the evolutionary protection against deformation and disease it was once thought to be.

Of course everything we know about life is only theory anyway, in 20 years we may have a completly new explanation for it lol

[delete-14751]

A more varied gene pool is a stronger gene pool, weaker genes are removed through disease and predators allowing the better genes to breed and live on, if incest occurs then the gene pool remains the some (unless mutation occurs) and potentially leaves its self open for complete eradication.

Although incest is potentially a short term means to continue growth, if it goes on for too long the species will die off.

[ratgreen]

yer Antmanant is correct.

[miszt]

A more varied gene pool is a stronger gene pool, weaker genes are removed through disease and predators allowing the better genes to breed and live on, if incest occurs then the gene pool remains the some (unless mutation occurs) and potentially leaves its self open for complete eradication.

Although incest is potentially a short term means to continue growth, if it goes on for too long the species will die off.

Actually this is no longer thought to be the case, infact it is now believed that incest tends to lead towards short term problems, but in the long term creates a much stronger gene pool

I'll find the two papers on it sometime this weekend, there has been allot of research on it recently

[delete-14751]

Is this in ants?? It can't be true for all animals! I know it can't be.

Buy the way do you have to ventalate a farm? If so how?

[miszt]

Its true for many animals, and many ant species are known for their intra-colony reproduction

You dont usually have to ventalate a farm, as long as you clear up any waste the ants bring to the surface so it doesnt go moldy, if you have problems with condensation then you should find somewhere else to keep the farm that will keep it at a stable tempreture

[highered]

Yes they were from the same nest. I am trying the same thing with my Laisus flavus in a basin type box. Unfortunatley its not working with them. In the wild once the winged ants fly off the queens send off a scent which the males respond to. It doesn't matter to any of them if the queen and male happen to be from the same nest, though the probability of this happening is low as there will be lots of nests going on their nupital flights.