6 replies to this topic

[jdsaunders1390]

Solenopsis invicta are all over in my area! I have so many of them and, once they succeed in becoming full colonies, I only plan to keep one or two long term. I still keep collecting them as I see them because I am new to ant keeping and it is still very interesting for me to observe the dealates in their founding stage. 

 

Today, I had another decent haul of S. invicta dealates and I decided to try something different. I placed 3 dealates in one test tube setup, 3 in another, and 2 in another. I made the living spaces of each of these setups larger than normal. (I only filled the tubes halfway with water.) So far, the dealates have clumped together in each tube and appear to be "sniffing" one another. I have not noticed any biting or stinging, but they are always around and on top of each other, even though there is plenty of space for them to move around in these test tube setups. 

 

Does anyone else have experience with polygyne S. invicta colonies? I am doing this more out of curiosity than anything. I may try again if these colonies do not work out. If I do, I may put grass or other objects in there to act as hiding spaces.

 

This is one of the only pictures I got where not all of the queens in a tube were on top of each other.

 

 

[123LordOfAnts123]

Due to their pest status and economic importance, Solenopsis invicta is easily one of the best studied ants and many aspects of their ecology and behavior are well known.

Straight from wikipedia:

Spoiler

There are two forms of society in the red imported fire ant: polygynous colonies and monogynous colonies. Polygynous colonies differ substantially from monogynous colonies in social insects. The former experience reductions in queen fecundity, dispersal, longevity, and nestmate relatedness. Polygynous queens are also less physogastric than monogynous queens and workers are smaller. Understanding the mechanisms behind queen recruitment is integral to understanding how these differences in fitness are formed. It is unusual that the number of older queens in a colony does not influence new queen recruitment. Levels of queen pheromone, which appears to be related to queen number, play important roles in the regulation of reproduction. It would follow that workers would reject new queens when exposed to large quantities of this queen pheromone. Moreover, evidence supports the claim that queens in both populations enter nests at random, without any regard for the number of older queens present. There is no correlation between the number of older queens and the number of newly recruited queens. Three hypotheses have been posited to explain the acceptance of multiple queens into established colonies: mutualism, kin selection, and parasitism. The mutualism hypothesis states that cooperation leads to an increase in the personal fitness of older queens. However, this hypothesis is not consistent with the fact that increasing queen number decreases both queen production and queen longevity. Kin selection also seems unlikely given that queens have been observed to cooperate under circumstances where they are statistically unrelated. Therefore, queens experience no gain in personal fitness by allowing new queens into the colony. Parasitism of preexisting nests appears to be the best explanation of polygyny. One theory is that so many queens attempt to enter the colony that the workers get confused and inadvertently allow several queens to join it.

Monogyne workers kill foreign queens and aggressively defend their territory. However, not all behaviours are universal, primarily because worker behaviours depend on the ecological context in which they develop, and the manipulation of worker genotypes can elicit change in behaviours. Therefore, behaviours of native populations can differ from those of introduced populations. In a study to assess the aggressive behaviour of monogyne and polygyne red fire ant workers by studying interaction in neutral arenas, and to develop a reliable ethogram for readily distinguishing between monogyne and polygyne colonies of red imported fire ants in the field, monogyne and polygyne workers discriminated between nestmates and foreigners as indicated by different behaviours ranging from tolerance to aggression. Monogyne ants always attacked foreign ants independently if they were from monogyne or polygyne colonies, whereas polygyne ants recognised, but did not attack, foreign polygyne ants, mainly by exhibiting postures similar to behaviours assumed after attacks by Pseudacteon phorids. Hostile versus warning behaviours were strongly dependent on the social structure of workers. Therefore, the behaviour toward foreign workers was a method of characterising monogyne and polygyne colonies. Most colonies in the southeastern and south-central US tend to be monogynous.

The monogynous red imported fire ant colony territorial area and the mound size are positively correlated, which, in turn, is regulated by the colony size (number and biomass of workers), distance from neighbouring colonies, prey density, and by the colony's collective competitive ability. In contrast, nestmate discrimination among polygynous colonies is more relaxed as workers tolerate conspecific ants alien to the colony, accept other heterozygote queens, and do not aggressively protect their territory from polygyne conspecifics. These colonies might increase their reproductive output as a result of having many queens and the possibility of exploiting greater territories by means of cooperative recruitment and interconnected mounds.

[Gabraime]

For sure they are poly, so don't worry

[123LordOfAnts123]

For sure they are poly, so don't worry

Unless they're of the monogynous form, that is. If so they'll engage in pleometrosis as do many in the myrmicinae family, but only one queen will eventually remain.

[jdsaunders1390]

Update:

 

The first group of three dealates are still clustered with no signs of aggression and no eggs noted.

 

The second group of three are no longer clustered. One has ~5 eggs, another has ~2-3 eggs, and the third has no eggs.

 

The third group with two dealates are no longer clustered. There are a few eggs scattered in the tube but neither of them seem to be tending to them.

 

Will keep you posted!

[Mdrogun]

For sure they are poly, so don't worry

While it's entirely possible they are the polygyne variety, the monogyne variety of Solenopsis invicta is vastly more common. As pointed out by the University of Florida, "Multiple queen colonies have been found in areas of Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Georgia, being more frequent in the western edge of their range." What I'm trying to say is that the polygyne Solenopsis invicta variety are only found in certain populations, and are more common in the western part of the range. You are not in the western range of Solenopsis invicta, and the likelihood of you being in one of the specific ranges where the polygyne variety is found, is quite low. Do you have any pictures of your "polygyne colonies"? We might be able to look at the weight of your queens, and see if there is any possibility they are fertile, as the University of Florida also points out "Multiple queen colonies differ from single queen colonies in several ways...the queens weigh less."

 

If you would like to read the paper from the University of Florida I pulled my citations from here ya go:

http://entnemdept.uf...ed_fire_ant.htm

[Antdoggy]

I found the same ants yesterday,  I have 2 test tubes with 5-6 of them in each