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Polygyny in Formica pallidefulva


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#1 Offline 123LordOfAnts123 - Posted April 9 2018 - 5:50 PM

123LordOfAnts123

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I'm curious as to how common polygyny in this species is; so far I'm unable to locate any literature stating they're even remotely polygynous. All of the colonies (6, to be exact) I've excavated in a particular small patch of woodland located within housing development have had more then one queen, with numbers ranging from 3 to as high as 12. While a few were incipient and appeared to be in their first year, the largest colonies (9 and 12 queens) were both in the middle of raising a large amount of reproductives, making pleometrosis not the only explanation. The queens of which nests certainly seem to coexist within captivity well together.

 

I recently dug up a colony producing a small amount of alates from a more natural sandhill pine forest, with a total of around 400 workers and a single queen, which prompted the question.

 

 

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#2 Offline Ants4fun - Posted April 10 2018 - 10:23 AM

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Myrmecologist Mary Talbotae observed the polygynous nature of the then species complex Formica pallidefulva in her paper, 'A Comparison of the Two Ants in the Genus Formica'. The then subspecies Formica pallidefulva nitidiventris is synonymous with Formica biophilica, and the latter former subspecies referred to as Formica pallidefulva schaufussi incerta is most likely synonymous with Formica incerta or a variation of Formica pallidefulva. She found that the Latter species was highly polygynous, with most colonies having multiple queens.

Here is an excerpt from her paper, referring to the Formica c.f. incerta species: "The theory is advanced that after flight the female may return to a colony of her own species and that later the colony may "bud" when workers from it excavate a new nest, guide a female to it, and stock it with larvae and pupae from the old colony. Thus a cluster of colonies may develop in one small area"

Hope that helped. Click here for the article.


Edited by Ants4fun, April 10 2018 - 10:25 AM.

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