10 replies to this topic

[Lazarus]

After a fairly lacklustre summer with mostly my usual C. Novae. common in my area I struck success with 3 separate queens 2 days ago. As my ant identification skills are terrible I would like opinions on all three, but I will keep the ID posts separate in order to avoid confusion. I realize that this late in the season (up here anyway) it is possible that these are ejected queens that may turn out to be infertile, but we have been having some exceptionally warm weather so here's hoping.

ID 1 of 3

1. Location of collection: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2. Date of collection : 21 August 2020
3. Habitat of collection: Urban neighbourhood sidewalk
4. Length: 7.5 mm
5. Coloration, hue, pattern and texture: Mostly Orange
6. Distinguishing characteristics: Stubby Legs, stubby antennae
7. Anything else distinctive: N/A

 

 

Edited by Lazarus, August 23 2020 - 4:23 PM.

[AntsBC]

Lasius latipes, a social parasite.

 

https://www.formicul...cial-parasites/

[Lazarus]

Lasius latipes, a social parasite.

 

https://www.formicul...cial-parasites/

As it so happens, I still have a few Lasius Neonigers in a test tube from which the queen died more than a year ago! There were 75-80 when she died and now it's down to 15-20.

 

Read the article, but I'm not sure which method to have her introduced is best in my case. No brood to speak of of course.

Edited by Lazarus, August 23 2020 - 6:01 PM.

[Manitobant]

Lasius latipes, a social parasite.
 
https://www.formicul...cial-parasites/

As it so happens, I still have a few Lasius Neonigers in a test tube from which the queen died more than a year ago! There were 75-80 when she died and now it's down to 15-20.
 
Read the article, but I'm not sure which method to have her introduced is best in my case. No brood to speak of of course.

id introduce the workers from the year old lasius colony. Their scent has completely faded by now

[Lazarus]

I managed to get one of the Neonigers (and a few dead ones) into a separate test tube and have now connect that to the tube with the Latipes queen.

 

So if I understand correctly there is a good chance that the queen will kill that worker to acquire her colony scent. But there is a chance that she does not kill it and the cooperate, Is there any chance that she starts laying with even this one worker or should I rush to get in more Neonigers within the next few days?

[Lazarus]

Sadly my first parasitic adoption attempt has come to an abrupt end.

 

I found the queen died sometime yesterday shortly after the attachment of the second tube with the single worker.  I doubt there was any interaction between the two as they were both at the ends of their respective tubes.

 

I am curious as to why she died. Could it have been those 2-3 days without finding a worker to subvert that stressed her out. Is there a short period in which this must take place? Was it wrong to place her in a tube which is restrictive? Or was it just plain old bad luck?

[ANTdrew]

The parasitic queens just have a high mortality rate, I think. I’d chalk it up to bad luck.

[NickAnter]

If you didn't feed her she could have died of that as well. She could have been severely underfed in her home nest.

[Lazarus]

If you didn't feed her she could have died of that as well. She could have been severely underfed in her home nest.

I did not feed her and just put her in a test tube until I could figure out what she was. Is being underfed something normal for parasitic queens? Just trying to learn everything I can so as to be better prepared next time.

[NickAnter]

Yeah, its normal for parasitic species, those colonies generally go for quantity over quality.

[Lazarus]

Here we are one year and one week later and I found two Lasius Latipes again!

 

This time I have a mature Lasius Neoniger colony to use to see if I can get these queens to adopt a few workers.

I threw one queen in a test tube with 2 workers and the other in a tube with 3 workers.

Crossing fingers that they will bond this time.