ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Varban]

I should probably keep this in my old topic but because of the nifty picture i took I figured a new one is more appropriate. As you may have read I have troubles making my queen eat other things rather than her own brood. Well just when things were settling, I have 3 puppaes one pretty brown and two still white ones and happy waiting the birth of a worker I decided to take a look, I have a nifty red diod that i can flash at the test tube without her noticing me.

That's when i cought he red handed in the mose gruesome activity ever. Yup she was devouring a puppae. At first i thought she was cleaning it, i could only see here from the back but then the puppae was on the floor of the test tube sort of half sized so i uncovored and took a pic. What you see is just the left over abdomen. Mommy was nice enough to start with the head to end the puppae's misery quicly

The brown puppae is the one i am expecting will hatch before being turned into a mars bar and hopefully soon enough before the other ones gets eaten too so it can help mommy appease her hunger.

EDIT: Feel free to click on the picture to see it in higher resolution and enlarged you can see much better that way!

[MilitANT]

What a bad mother! My Queen lost three of her workers in two days but no due to cannibalization.

[JimmyVe]

I'm still not sure why she is doing this Varban, but it seems some of the naked pupa are going to become workers soon, maybe she will stop eating her brood when the workers feed her.

[Varban]

Yup whats what i am counting on Jimmy It still hasnt hatched today but hopefully tomorrow.

[Bob]

Did you try feeding her dude? You should know ants need protien and some of them actually crave it. I dipped a cotton swab in egg yolk/white yesterday and let my fire ant queens gorge on it. The key here is to prevent them from eating their eggs. The added plus is the protien they recieve they can then pass onto their larvae and pupae. another thing you can try is seperating the pupae from her periodically. Thirdly keep maintaing a journal of this behavior. It seems this queen is headed for the evaloutionary ladder back to singledom (since colony behavior in ants evolved from solitary behavior...which is what lead to polymorphism in a single ant colony). Your queen on the other hand appears to want to take it status quo back to solitary ant existence.

[sithmaster676]

like bob said queen ants only eat there young because they are hungry the best thing to do is to feed her some form of protein whether it be a fly or spider see may also be able to give some to her offspring, i know a person who fed his queen and still does with a hypodermic needle
Sithmaster676

[Varban]

Duh! Of course i am feeding her. I will give the egg think a try. So just drench cotton in in a bow of eggs and hopefully not to make a total mess in the antfarm afterwards? I guess I will need to put a small cotton in the test tube given she doesnt really leave her butchery like santcuary

Yeah guess my queen is headed to become a case study I read somewhere (maybe here) messors barbarus are know to have a taste for their own but not to the extreme where the queen inhibits colony development.

Didn't know puppaes need food actually, it seems a bit odd they would. They would have stored enough proteins in their larvae stage for the metamorphosis ahead.

[Varban]

Ok did as bob said and here is a picture to prove it. The cotton is soaked in the white/yolk of the egg and is on a nice platter in front of the test tube all she has to do is come out and eat when i turn off the lights and go to bed and hopefully leave yellow marks all around so i know she ate

[JimmyVe]

Keep us informed. This is a rather difficult queen Varban.

[Varban]

She hasn't touched the egg soaked cotton
I hope she will won't get hungry before my new worker hatches or at the very least she eats the other puppae

I don't know what to do anymore


Edit: 100 posts oh yeah!

[JimmyVe]

I'm sorry to hear that Varban, hope the workers hatch soon. I must say I'm rather lucky, i never had such a difficult queen like yours.

good posting Varban.

[ashhad1]

I hope your queen dont eat again, fingers crossed she wont

[K Kris]

Hi there,

This kind of behaviour doesn't necessarily have to do with being hungry. I'v had a Camponotus ligniperda queen once which regularly devoured her pupae, sometimes in close cooperation with the workers. The colony had a few workers already and they regularly foraged, with enough nutrients of all kinds provided, so hunger was not the reason.

Because some of the hatched workers died after only a few days I suspect that the reason for the brood-consumption had to be something else, either humidity conditions or something else. But unfortunately I never found out.

All the best of luck with your colony!

[Bob]

K kris what an interesting point you raised. yes HUMIDITY might be a reason. The test tube might be too try. I have a test tube like that in which I placed little water (for fear of flooding) and it started to dry out so too make up for it I always take a moist cotton swab and rub it on the inside of the testtube (without disturbing the queen and brood) almost daily. But yes if the test tube is too dry and I can totally imagine a queen eating her brood in order to sustain the moisture in her body. always remember folks....ants are made to thrive and rear their broods in moist conditions.

[Varban]

Hmm i just checked the water in the testtube is gone :S That explains a lot!

Now of course fiding a way to refill it will be a problem :S

EDIT1:I guess i will have to do the 2 tubes thing again

Edit2: Nope the water is half full. False alarm i did press the cotton with a small pointy stick toi squeze some water out and see if the cotton is dry but it's soaked.

Anyway hopefully the worker with hatch soon