ANTSTORE World of Ants

[4mykids]

Hello everyone.

I found the following pretty interesting and was curious to know if the ants planned on eating the Queen for food or making her an egg laying slave.

I was out in my back yard and noticed a few ants gathering around a large Queen ant. They appeared to be the same species. I have seen hundrends of these Queens in and around my pool all summer so this was no big deal. However, they were carrying her away and so I figured the Queen was dead. I reached down and picked up the Queen and she was very much alive but she appeared frozen when the ants were carrying her.

My question is: if the ants planned on eating the Queen for food or making her an egg laying slave.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Skippy]

Hehe

it is very interesting. I´ve going to nature for ants maybe.... for 10 years ,but I never seen situation like that ,when during swarming queen carrying second queen ,I aslo dont know why? she doing it. Queen after swarm very quickly must place to start the colony ,but she find second queen and carrying her..... very interesting ,sorry ,I have experience but this is much for me ,I cannot help you.... but I will thinking about that

Skippy

[Dr.House]

Maybe their home was flooded or something and they brought her to another home. Okay, it's uncommon that they do it before night ... in the bright daylight ... well ^^
I didn't hear about something like capturing Queens, only of capturing eggs and such.

Maybe they really wanted to eat her ... but they would kill her before carrying her around. I think the Queen was fear-frozen and the ants didn't notice she was still alive, carrying away the lunch bag

[nepenthes_ak]

Some queens are parasitic, and will act subordinate to get into the colony7 and eventually kill the queen. They would treat her as a worker, and she would gain trust and eventually kill the queen.

[JimmyVe]

All of this depends on which species the queen and the workers are. If the Queen and the workers are from the same species it will not be a parasitic queen (they take 99% of the time a smaller species to take over)

I rather think they would be moving but it is not out of the question they captured her to eat.

[miszt]

Its quiet a common practice for UK Fromicas like Ruba, for the workers to go out and collect up the fertilized Queens and bring them back to the nest, pherhaps this is what was happening

[nepenthes_ak]

Aphenogaster species look almost all the same, So can Lasius. I know for a fact that both of those genuses, have parasitic species. In the US, some species you cant even tell apart, unless you have them under a micro scope OR DNA testing.

[JimmyVe]

That is true (also for European ants) but parasitic queens ore smaller than non parasitic queens because they have no body fat, they don't need to raise there first workers with the fat they have, they take over a colony and the workers of that colony will take care of here.