Putting this here in general rather than my journal, as mutations seems of general ant/biology interest .
A new one has shown up in my colony, which came with one.
The first mutant showed up with no antenna(no scaring where they would have been, never had them) and was a good deal larger than her sisters or any i have seen sense in the colony.
The new one is a very weird one that seems like maybe it was going to be a male alate but then did something different instead part way along. They also seem to want to climb very badly like they want to fly off.
They have a partial black head and side of body, which is the right color for males.
But are mostly red like all the females.
they also have one longer antenna like a male's on the same side as the black areas
And was going to have wings but didn't really fully form them? Or were these possibly torn up by other ants during eclosing?
In this top down when it's holding still you can really see the striking line of red meets black along one side of it's body.
It's not in any shadow, all the black is the color on it including some of its legs on the one side.
vestigial wings, a little male in coloring, one male antenna, and maybe a slightly longer gaster like a male. And they seem to behave as one as well(wants to climb or clean itself, not seen it do any work or grooming of others). But they don't really have a fully formed male black body and more yellowish orange gaster with full wings. A new mutAnt in the colony again. Though I imagine it is going to be treated as male and killed off so might not last long.
New!
