Hey guys!
I'm really puzzled by the behavior of one of my Camponotus cruentatus colonies. It's already been 3 ants that have been cannibalized in their outworld. Is this normal in this species?
I've noticed, back when they were on the test tube, that one ant suddenly vanished without a trace. An impossible escape. Now the mystery seems to be "solved".
A couple of nights ago I went to feed them and I've seen them chewing deep on the gaster of one of their sisters, still alive but barely moving.
Yesterday I saw one ant dealing with another one, lying down but still moving. Today I checked them and that ant had its head missing. The 1st ant I mentioned had the gaster missing, and there was a 3rd one with its head missing too.
This is what I've been able to notice, the death count can be bigger.
This colony is around 30 individuals. I plan to make them a proper bigger colony, now they are inside an ice cream box with sand from their natural place where I've caught the queen. There are 2 test tubes inside that box, one with water and another one almost without water but it's there that the queen and the brood are. There are quite a few pupae almost ready to come out, big fat larva and plenty of eggs. So conditions are good enough for them to keep on growing.
I feed them almost every night with bugs I catch (flies, mosquitos, moths, etc.) and I give them water with brown sugar or honey.
Apart from this cannibalism incidents, they seem to be pretty active and developing nicely.
So any idea why they could be cannibalizing some of them?
Could they be eating their dying elder ones? (food is food after all and a big ant can feed a lot of larva)
At first I thought they could be dying out of some infection or disease but then I thought again no because if they were sick they could jeopardize the whole colony if they were fed with their infected remains.
Or could this be due to stress? They don't seem to be stressed, and much less sensitive to vibrations in the box when I gently take its lid out, at least compared to Messors that freak out at the minimal vibration.
Or could this be some sort of population control because their outworld isn't big? (but it doesn't fell like it's small either, their population density isn't big).
Or is this "just" some normal behavior in that species under certain circumstances? If yes, which ones, and how could I minimize it?
Many many thanks for any hint guys. Cheers.
