35 replies to this topic

[yfaykya]

Any idea how many eggs this is?

 

[AntsDakota]

Looks like anywhere between 200-500. My guess would be 300, but anywhere in that range would be plausible. 

[yfaykya]

Looks like anywhere between 200-500. My guess would be 300, but anywhere in that range would be plausible. 

 

Wow if so. I think I started with 15 queens. Only one dead but suprised they are pumping out eggs as all my other lassius (niger and flavus) have stopped - looks like they are just going to let current batch become workers before hibernation. This lot could be fun. 

I have another 2Q colony with about 500 workers that I rescued last year. This one could surpass them in season 1!

[NickAnter]

There are a couple small larvae too it looks like.

[AntsDakota]

There are a couple small larvae too it looks like.

I second this.

[MinigunL5]

Many thanks everyone. I think I'll keep them separate. My friend has put 3 of her flavus together, so it'll be interesting to see what happens there. I'm all for low drama ant keeping though, and would rather avoid any Highlander scenarios. 

They grow faster with more queens. And tbh they will almost certainly not kill each other. It is more likely that one will die of natural causes rather than it being killed by one of the other queens. I really suggest you combine them, you won't regret it.

[TechAnt]

You both should make a journal. yfaykya and steelplant.

Edited by TechAnt, September 14 2020 - 10:44 AM.

[yfaykya]

You both should make a journal. yfaykya and steelplant.

 

I have over 30 colonies (3 Flavus - 3Q, 2Q and this 14Q) and no time (three kids who are not quite ready to help with ants yet!). I will post some info here now and again though.

[steelplant]

You both should make a journal. yfaykya and steelplant.

 

Cheers TechAnt. I'll give it a go. I've two tubes with single flavus with nanitics now, two more very close. My friend has two pairs of founding flavus who are getting along well. I've had remarkable luck (so far, touch wood) with a couple of umbratus queens I found this year as well, which I'd like to share. 

[yfaykya]

I have this test tube under my USB camera so I alt tab to the view every now and again and sometimes take a pic. For anyone interested I have an uncurated album at https://photos.app.g...uoFRJQS611i51n6

[Barristan]

You can find a lot of queens in a single nest of Lasius flavus in the wild and there are also ant keepers that keep colonies with multiple queens. Last year I let a colony found with 3 queens. When first workers appeared they still did not kill any queens. However after several weeks 2 queens eventually died. I don't know if they were killed or just died because they were think or whatever (I mean queens can sometimes just die during founding or shortly after it).

This is a picture from ameiseninfos.de which shows a colony with 3 queens living peacefully together:

[Devi]

Just thought I'd share this:  I was up in the mountains a couple months ago and while turning over rocks I found two lasius flavus queens founding together.  Only caught one in time, the other one scurried away, but they are definitely polygonous/pleometric in the wild.

Edited by Devi, September 17 2020 - 9:20 AM.

[AnthonyP163]

Just thought I'd share this:  I was up in the mountains a couple months ago and while turning over rocks I found two lasius flavus queens founding together.  Only caught one in time, the other one scurried away, but they are definitely polygonous/pleometric in the wild.

We don't have Lasius flavus in North America. The species you saw was likely Lasius brevicornis.

[yfaykya]

By the by something that has always bothered me about Flavus is that they are described as monomorphic . Of all my colones I have ever had with exception of C. Diversa I think the size difference between workers (nanitics excepted) is huge. Some are easily 2x others. Perhaps polymorphic means shape only instead of size? Although most definitions I find all say size and a lot of my camponotus are same shape just diff sizes. 

 

Also I have a rescued Flavus colony with a few hundred workers and two queens and whenever I clean their outworld (ie disturb them) I often get the smell of fomic acid. I was not aware they could use formic acid? Any other explanation or possible misidentification?

[Barristan]

By the by something that has always bothered me about Flavus is that they are described as monomorphic . Of all my colones I have ever had with exception of C. Diversa I think the size difference between workers (nanitics excepted) is huge. Some are easily 2x others. Perhaps polymorphic means shape only instead of size? Although most definitions I find all say size and a lot of my camponotus are same shape just diff sizes. 

 

It means different forms or morphs. If you look closely at Camponotus minors and majors you see a difference especially in the head. Majors have an a lot more bulkier head than minor workers. So they are not just upscaled minor workers. And that is why Lasius flavus is monomorphic because the larger works are just upscaled smaller ones.

[yfaykya]

Thanks. yes - That was always my impression. I goolged the defintion for ants and all I found was mentioning size and not shape. To me morph is the shape or structure. The term is being conflated with size unfortunately.