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Felix's Formica Pressilabris journal


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#1 Offline FelixTheAnter - Posted August 15 2021 - 12:17 AM

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A massive nuptial flight of at least 6 different species took place around August 5th. While collecting Lasius Niger and Flavus queens, I noticed this very unusual ant running around. She looked like a parasitic queen, but unlike any I'd seen before. I caught her, and after several days finally got an ID of Formica Pressilabris.

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She is my first Formica queen. I found a local F. Fusca nest, and collected about 10 workers and maybe 20 - 30 pupae. I immediately gave the queen 5 - 10 pupae, which she started caring for right off the bat. The rest were all placed in a Tupperware with the workers, and after a few days 3 callows were collected. The callows and the queen accepted each other right away. I did not want to risk introducing her to anything except callows, since this species is very small - 7mm, about the same size as a single Fusca worker.


There are now 6 workers in the tube with the queen, so it appears all is going well!

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Unfortunately the original workers and pupae were collected with some sand, and yesterday in the Tupperware I watched a mite crawl onto the back of a callow and latch on. Thankfully I haven't seen any mites in the queen's tube, but I don't think I will risk giving her any more pupae or callows. She currently has the 6 workers, and they are all tending to about 5 larvae plus 15 - 20 pupae. I'm going to try to get them to move to a new tube to further reduce the risk of mite eggs in the remaining sand. Hopefully this will be a good start for them!
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#2 Offline AntBoi3030 - Posted August 15 2021 - 12:17 PM

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Is the queen actually that small compared to the workers? Or is it just the photos.

My favorite queens/colony’s:
Pheidole Tysoni, Selonopis Molesta, Brachymyrmex Depilis, Tetramorium Immagrians, Prenolepis Imparis, Pheidole Bicirinata 


#3 Offline FelixTheAnter - Posted August 15 2021 - 12:21 PM

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Is the queen actually that small compared to the workers? Or is it just the photos.


Is is roughly the same size as the workers - a bit smaller than the biggest ones. I was surprised as well but apparently that's the average size of these queens. It doesn't seem to be causing any issues though; I'm looking forward to seeing this colony as more workers eclose.
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#4 Offline FelixTheAnter - Posted June 17 2022 - 2:37 AM

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I'm super excited to share that this queen was fertile, and the colony has successfully raised the first parasitic workers! They are just a bit smaller than the Formica Fusca workers, but easy to tell apart because of their partial red coloration. Currently the colony has a few pupae, and no eggs or larvae. Hopefully more will come soon - I'm excited to see this very rare colony grow 😁

You can see the queen in the center of the second photo, standing on top of a worker. She is approximately the same size as her workers.

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