September 10th, I introduced two Solenopsis xyloni workers to the S. amblychila queen(one at a time) from a founding colony with about 10 workers and some brood. Then, I removed the queen from the S. xyloni colony with forceps, and connected the test tubes allowing the S. amblychila to be led into the nest by the two workers I gave her. She’s since taken on the role as queen.
I would continue to feed the colony every 2-4 days. The colony was left in my ant cabinet that sits at 81 to 85 degrees F with the use of a heating cable. The colony's diet consists of sunburst or hummingbird nectar on cotton with pieces of mealworms, superworms, fruit flies, or small dubia roaches.
Tip: I use a small rectangle of tin foil as a plate to hold the cotton and insect bits. I swap to a new piece of foil each feeding. This keeps things cleaner and easier.
My thoughts on the S. amblychila founding process:
I feel it was better to use a colony from the same season the S. amblychila queen is found to ensure the colony isn’t too big to be taken over. But that’s just a hunch!
I really tried to think like the S. amblychila queen… I’d look for a founding queen with a big enough colony to be foraging. But also a small enough colony that she can still invade safely. I thought maybe she would be looking for a queen that started founding approximately June? That was because I found her September. Keep in mind, these ideas have no scientific backing. All just hypothetical thoughts and ideas. There were not many detailed examples to go off.
Something also tells me that it was important to give her the host colonies original test tube? It didn’t seem like it made sense to me to just brood boost her like normal. Another hunch of course.
