so the other day i was just wandering in my backyard enjoying the first bit of heat in spring and i saw this huge jumping jack (aka jack jumper ant) / Myrmecia pilosula ant which is one of Australia's largest species of ant that was to fat and just to large in general to be a worker. i followed her around for a while and she was showing signs of queen activity (poking her head in the ground, digging, moving bits a pieces of leaves and rocks) so i decided to pick her up and take a closer look to see if she was a queen. As jumping jacks are semi-claustral and only males grow wings it took me a while to identify her as a queen seeing there were no wing scars which is how i usually identify the majority of my queens. so i put her in a test tube and put her in the dark for a few hours and checked back and she laid eggs, but heres the weird thing myrmecia pilosula don't fly until February and it was September... SO i have two possibilities why she was out but i would like to hear others thoughts on it as well. 1. she got kicked out of her nest once it became warmer as she was inefficient at laying eggs and the workers took over as workers can lay eggs and breed with males. or 2. she's an infertile queen from last year still wandering (highly unlikely). whatever it is i'm very confused about this xD
Edited by xXxWrathxXx, September 6 2020 - 8:39 AM.
