10 replies to this topic

[VenomousBeast]

Hello everyone!!
So, getting right to it. I collected a "colony" of Trachymyrmex from my Trachy spot, and I say "colony" because what it is is a colony made up of only workers from several different colonies. You see, the plan was to just have them grow fungus to sell, so I didn't have to disrupt any colonies and so I only collected fungus from 1 chamber of one of the colonies. Which had basically 3-4 specks of fungus, and I mean tiny tiny specks. This was during winter, so I knew that the garden was small, but also that this colony had a couple more chambers full, so disturbing one wasn't going to cause any harm (I'm trying to protect them since they are super super hard to find as I'm sure anyone in VA can agree).Also,I made sure to cover it in a way that the rest of the colony could still reach the surface. I didn't want to kill this colony since it has good potential for Alates this month!! (It's doing well)
Anyway, back to the topic. So I've got this colony with no queen, and I'm checking the fungus garden, making sure it's healthy, it's now about the size of a golf ball if you were to ball it up, and I'm looking closer and I'm seeing eggs!! I'm assuming they are tropic eggs since it's the best guess here, but I thought it was super interesting to share with you all. Of course if anything new happens, like they hatch and pupate, then I'll update it here as well, but that's very much not likely!
I want to hear your thoughts on this and if any of you knew this was a thing! I mean, I've researched journals and papers about trachies and this is the first time I've seen or heard of it!

[mmcguffi]

Very neat observation. Are you sure you don't actually have a queen or queens in there? I know that "higher" attines, like Atta and Acromyrmex, workers will not tend fungus gardens unless there are larvae or pupae, though I am not sure about "lower" attines, like Trachy. If you truly do not have a queen, you might have drone eggs (though trophic eggs like you suggested also seems plausible). In some attines, like Acromyrmex, workers will lay unfertilized eggs that develop into drones after the queen dies. Researchers guess that it's the colony's last attempt to keep its genetics going, so to speak

[OiledOlives]

It should be normal for Trachymyrmex workers to lay eggs in absence of a queen or queens. Approximately where is your Trachymyrmex spot? I've found the only locality in northern Virginia, so it would be nice to know the general location of another one. (https://www.inatural...taxon_id=232771)

[VenomousBeast]

It should be normal for Trachymyrmex workers to lay eggs in absence of a queen or queens. Approximately where is your Trachymyrmex spot? I've found the only locality in northern Virginia, so it would be nice to know the general location of another one. (https://www.inatural...taxon_id=232771)

It's somewhat near National Airport. It's almost literally on the Bay

[Dumpling]

Very neat observation. Are you sure you don't actually have a queen or queens in there? I know that "higher" attines, like Atta and Acromyrmex, workers will not tend fungus gardens unless there are larvae or pupae, though I am not sure about "lower" attines, like Trachy. If you truly do not have a queen, you might have drone eggs (though trophic eggs like you suggested also seems plausible). In some attines, like Acromyrmex, workers will lay unfertilized eggs that develop into drones after the queen dies. Researchers guess that it's the colony's last attempt to keep its genetics going, so to speak

Don't trophic eggs hatch to be drones? When you say "you might have drone eggs (though trophic eggs like you suggested also seems plausible)" suggests that they are two different things. They are the same right?

[VenomousBeast]

Very neat observation. Are you sure you don't actually have a queen or queens in there? I know that "higher" attines, like Atta and Acromyrmex, workers will not tend fungus gardens unless there are larvae or pupae, though I am not sure about "lower" attines, like Trachy. If you truly do not have a queen, you might have drone eggs (though trophic eggs like you suggested also seems plausible). In some attines, like Acromyrmex, workers will lay unfertilized eggs that develop into drones after the queen dies. Researchers guess that it's the colony's last attempt to keep its genetics going, so to speak

Yes, I've very positive that I have no queen. I collected the workers on the surface with the exception of that one chamber, and I made sure to look for a queen. They are rather easy to spot since they are decently bigger than the workers, and the workers aren't really polymorphic (Which is the only thing that seperate Trachymyrmex from "higher" Attinines since they very much so cut leaves and plant material, it's the only thing I've been feeding them!)

Very neat observation. Are you sure you don't actually have a queen or queens in there? I know that "higher" attines, like Atta and Acromyrmex, workers will not tend fungus gardens unless there are larvae or pupae, though I am not sure about "lower" attines, like Trachy. If you truly do not have a queen, you might have drone eggs (though trophic eggs like you suggested also seems plausible). In some attines, like Acromyrmex, workers will lay unfertilized eggs that develop into drones after the queen dies. Researchers guess that it's the colony's last attempt to keep its genetics going, so to speak

Don't trophic eggs hatch to be drones? When you say "you might have drone eggs (though trophic eggs like you suggested also seems plausible)" suggests that they are two different things. They are the same right?

Yes, they are the same! 😁

[mmcguffi]

 

Very neat observation. Are you sure you don't actually have a queen or queens in there? I know that "higher" attines, like Atta and Acromyrmex, workers will not tend fungus gardens unless there are larvae or pupae, though I am not sure about "lower" attines, like Trachy. If you truly do not have a queen, you might have drone eggs (though trophic eggs like you suggested also seems plausible). In some attines, like Acromyrmex, workers will lay unfertilized eggs that develop into drones after the queen dies. Researchers guess that it's the colony's last attempt to keep its genetics going, so to speak

Don't trophic eggs hatch to be drones? When you say "you might have drone eggs (though trophic eggs like you suggested also seems plausible)" suggests that they are two different things. They are the same right?

 

They are actually different -- trophic eggs by definition do not develop: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3548737

[Dumpling]

I see, thanks for clearing that up.

[VenomousBeast]

Well, I said I would update here if I ever found that the eggs had developed and luck would have it that they have!! We've got larvae now boys!


I've circled them in green to make them easy to spot, but there are maybe 50-60 of them throughout the fungus garden!! (which has got ton so big at this point that it's 2-3x bigger than the last time I updated!) I hope they will hatch out soon into males! But if I see and worker pupae, I will post here because that would mean that workers can reproduce. 🤷‍♂️ If that ends up being the case, I wonder if it'd be parthogenosis or actual reproduction that causes it. But that's just me getting ahead of myself since they will definitely 100% be males🤣

[aznphenom]

Maybe you have a queen among the workers and don't realize it? 

[VenomousBeast]

Maybe you have a queen among the workers and don't realize it?

I'm very very very sure there is no queen. Queens are just too easy to recognize in this species and I checked them when they had almost no fungus for a queen (also considering I only opened one chamber and never found a queen there either and the rest were collected on the surface). They are all the same size as well and in this species, the queens are about 1.5x bigger, so it's noticeable.