ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Kiam]

I put my colony off Lasius niger which I got from antstore but the queen was dead and she is in there and I think shes been moved by the workers and theres 2 cocoons in one day? How is that possible I had no eggs or anything in there just some workers with the dead queen and the queen is not moving maybe the workers are producing male ants?

[Sced]

I dont think the wokers are laying eggs, prehaps they were just hidden.

[JimmyVe]

hmm... i think you just didn't see the workers at first, if the queen is dead there is no way she would produce eggs. If there where eggs they would not turn out in to workers because they would not be feed.

[Kiam]

I put some sugar in there to feed them to see what will happen But I heard that when the queen dies sometimes the workers produce male ants or something

[JimmyVe]

i'm not sure about that, there could be species where workers do that. but i don't know any.

[Kiam]

hmm I saw that someone said they had no queen and the workers sometimes lay eggs or something :S

[JimmyVe]

I'm not saying it is not possible, but i never heard of it. There are like 12.000 different ants species so there could be a chance that there is one species that do this.

[McK]

Look out with 'dead' queens, sometimes they are very weak and look dead, but they are not dead at all

[Kale^^]

Look out with 'dead' queens, sometimes they are very weak and look dead, but they are not dead at all

Yes that might be the answer.

There is no way Lasius niger workers to produce eggs. That's 200% sure. I know only one species that has workers that can produce egss like the queen and get fertilized, but i dont remember what was the name, it was in the english wikipedia.

[Kiam]

You Sure? Its never even moved and I have been watching it alot lol

[earlant]

Hi Kale^^,
It is 201 % sure that orphaned Lasius niger workers lay eggs from which they rear males. It has been suggested that in a few instances even workers may develop from worker-laid eggs.

@ Kiam: If it is true that you did not receive any eggs or larvae with your colony, there is one interesting possibility:

A certain percentage of swarming Lasius niger queens is parasitized by a fly that lays its eggs onto the flying queens. The fly larva (usually one) penetrates the queen and grows on the body reserves of the ant queen. Eventually the fly larva is “born”, creeps out of the surviving queen, and pupates in a so-called puparium.

The ant queen is caring for the foreign pupa until the young fly hatches.
So, I suggest that you watch closely what will happen to the two pupae. Would be interesting if flies would hatch!

One question, however, then would remain: Where are the workers from that you have received together with the queen? – A parasitized L. niger queen never lays eggs or rears own offspring. For answering this question, however, we have to wait for the creatures that will come out of the pupae.

Or could you provide a good picture of the two cocoons? It is possible to differntiate between ant cocoons and fly puparia.

Earlant

[Kiam]

Hello earlant They are defenietely ant cocoons

So if these hatch could it perhaps end up male ant or young queen or cant workers lay queens only male ones?

[Varban]

They won't be princess i am afraid.
Even if by some mysterious mutation process your workers managed to lay an egg from which a princess hatched she wont be fertilised.

[Kiam]

What if a princess and male hatch out off them lol

[sithmaster676]

worker ants can lay unfertilized eggs the queen usually stops this by producing a chemical pheromone which seems to some how make unable to lay, but with the queen gone it is possible but these will only turn out to be males.
Sithmaster676