ANTSTORE World of Ants

[kashmir79]

heya

i was just wondering what determines and egg/larvae to become a major or a worker when they hatch ?

well fed makes them much bigger ?

thanks

[Purifier]

Dont really know, but i could imagine that the queen handle this and control it when she lay the eggs....

[kashmir79]

Ihope my queen decides to lay some majors in spring, she has 11 workers with her lol

[Sphecomyrmex]

Hello Kashmir,
I found an article on magazine "Le Scienze" (number 467, july 2007), italian edition of "Scientific American", who brings an research effected from William O. H. Hughes, of the Leeds University, Greath Britain, on a Acromyrmex echinatior colony. It's difficult to traslate the research from italian to English: finally the research shows that formation of major and minor workers depends from nutrition of larvae, and not from genetic factors.
Queens decides (using pheromones) only the formation of worker or other queens, and not of minor or major workers, during the eggs-laying

Regards

[kashmir79]

ooo thanks alot, makes sense now

[JimmyVe]

in deed, it depends on what they are fed in the larva stadium.

[Purifier]

Do you mean the kind of the feed or the volume of the feed? Because i thinking all the time the workers give the larva's only proteins and nothing else....

[JimmyVe]

That i'm not sure about ( ) i read it somewhere myself, it depends on what they feed the larva but they did not say how much ore which kind.

[Sphecomyrmex]

I think the formation of major or minor worker depend from feed quantity, not from kind of feed; because the research was on Acromyrmex specie: Acromyrmex, like other fungus-growing ant, exclusively feeds mushrooms.

[Purifier]

Jeah...and others feed only proteins ^^
So i think that its depending on the quantity, too

[tail__]

Major castes are produced only when the colony reaches reasonable size. It depends of species, I don't know which one your are talking about, but I doubt any ants would produce soldiers in beginner colony of 12 workers. I think you need to wait until colony reaches size of 100 or more...

[JimmyVe]

The colony needs in deed a reasonable size. My Pheidole pallidula had there first soldiers(majors) when they had about 50 workers.
That is the first thing a colony needs, enough workers but the second was really the question, what determines a major and a minor.