16 replies to this topic

[ponerinecat]

Dug up a very small 22 worker colony of these from under a foot or so of soil. Sadly I was unable to locate any obvious gyne or reproductives, so for now this colony will likely be doomed. However considering I've never been able to see a gyne of this species despite multiple very thorough excavations, I decided to keep these guys and see if they can somehow lay eggs. As of now they have a clump of eggs and 4 larvae. They are also covered in some beautiful phoretic mites, which is a nice compensation for the lack of a reproductive.

 

Edited by ponerinecat, November 7 2020 - 4:40 PM.

[M_Ants]

Nice. More Hypos! Can you explain Hypoponera reproduction or give me a link to an article explaining it? It appears to be more complex than your average ant with nuptial flights. 

[ponerinecat]

Nice. More Hypos! Can you explain Hypoponera reproduction or give me a link to an article explaining it? It appears to be more complex than your average ant with nuptial flights. 

It depends on species, but the most complex examples, like the one found in opacior, have normal winged and ergatoid versions of both sexes. Normal males disperse and mate outside(they may also mate inside), winged females either disperse and mate outside or mate inside then disperse, ergatoid males either fight to the death and mate with as many pupoidal females as possible or establish territories and guard the queen pupae they mate with in their territories, and ergatoid queens mate with ergatoid males or maybe the winged males as well. It's pretty complex and depends heavily upon what species in question, some may lack one or more of the sex variants.

[KitsAntVa]

Honestly I have no idea what you just said

^ ^
/ \ / \
-0- -0-

<____>

I made a cow

Edited by KitsAntVa, November 8 2020 - 8:24 AM.

[ponerinecat]

Also trying out the automatic feeder on these guys. Just a deli cup filled with carboard with a small hole on the bottom, suspended over the nest with a pair of chopsticks. The feeder is stocked with mostly Sinella curviseta, and the culture is fed a mix of nutritional yeast and various fish foods.

 

 

 

They started catching food about 30 minutes later, heres one with a springtail the size of her body.

 

 

 

One with the usual Sinella curviseta.

 

 

 

I doubt they actually eat very many springtails in the wild. They're not very efficient hunters of the small things and often completely ignore them, sometimes letting them directly into the nest. They probably eat more of worm like prey such as symphylans and diplurans or just dead corpses. I found the remains of a japygid dipluran in their larval chamber as well, so it does seem that way.

[M_Ants]

 

Nice. More Hypos! Can you explain Hypoponera reproduction or give me a link to an article explaining it? It appears to be more complex than your average ant with nuptial flights. 

It depends on species, but the most complex examples, like the one found in opacior, have normal winged and ergatoid versions of both sexes. Normal males disperse and mate outside(they may also mate inside), winged females either disperse and mate outside or mate inside then disperse, ergatoid males either fight to the death and mate with as many pupoidal females as possible or establish territories and guard the queen pupae they mate with in their territories, and ergatoid queens mate with ergatoid males or maybe the winged males as well. It's pretty complex and depends heavily upon what species in question, some may lack one or more of the sex variants.

 

Interesting. So my follow up question is do mine do any of this?

[ponerinecat]

 

 

Nice. More Hypos! Can you explain Hypoponera reproduction or give me a link to an article explaining it? It appears to be more complex than your average ant with nuptial flights. 

It depends on species, but the most complex examples, like the one found in opacior, have normal winged and ergatoid versions of both sexes. Normal males disperse and mate outside(they may also mate inside), winged females either disperse and mate outside or mate inside then disperse, ergatoid males either fight to the death and mate with as many pupoidal females as possible or establish territories and guard the queen pupae they mate with in their territories, and ergatoid queens mate with ergatoid males or maybe the winged males as well. It's pretty complex and depends heavily upon what species in question, some may lack one or more of the sex variants.

 

Interesting. So my follow up question is do mine do any of this?

 

I believe they have all 4 reprodutives, but I'm not sure on how the ergatoid males act.

[M_Ants]

Cool. I can't wait to have ergatoid queens.

[Swirlysnowflake]

Very cool! one day ill catch a queen/colony of Hypoponera but until then i shall just read all the journals

[Ants_Dakota]

awesome feeding system! also cool species. so, the colony does have a queen despite the lack of a larger individual?

[ponerinecat]

awesome feeding system! also cool species. so, the colony does have a queen despite the lack of a larger individual?

No idea. Most likely not, but we'll see what happens.

[Swirlysnowflake]

Do you know how many workers an average adult hypoponera colony has?

[ponerinecat]

Do you know how many workers an average adult hypoponera colony has?

Depending on the species and number of gynes, I've seen colonies get a few hundred or so.

[Ants_Dakota]

 

awesome feeding system! also cool species. so, the colony does have a queen despite the lack of a larger individual?

No idea. Most likely not, but we'll see what happens.

 

would the larvae be males then?

[ponerinecat]

 

 

awesome feeding system! also cool species. so, the colony does have a queen despite the lack of a larger individual?

No idea. Most likely not, but we'll see what happens.

 

would the larvae be males then?

 

Who knows. I might've missed the actual gyne or this nest could've been a satellite nest, in which case they're likely worker larvae. It's also possible although extremely unlikely that I do have a reproductive in here, somewhere. If the colony was dying and I just collected the remnants, then they're likely males.

[antsandmore]

 

 

 

awesome feeding system! also cool species. so, the colony does have a queen despite the lack of a larger individual?

No idea. Most likely not, but we'll see what happens.

 

would the larvae be males then?

 

Who knows. I might've missed the actual gyne or this nest could've been a satellite nest, in which case they're likely worker larvae. It's also possible although extremely unlikely that I do have a reproductive in here, somewhere. If the colony was dying and I just collected the remnants, then they're likely males.

 

update...?