5 replies to this topic

[jo16]

So this morning I woke up and looked in one of my formicaria, the colony that is being housed in this formicarium has died out except for the queen do to unknow causes.

Anyways I found this huge white insect, maybe a pupa? or maybe it had just shed it's old skin? it's like 10x the size of the queen, and it wouldn't move. But the weirdest part was that when I tried to remove it, the queen dragged it away, almost as if it was protecting it.

Is it possible that it has tricked the queen into thinking it was her own brood? ether way it's definitely not an ant, and it's too big to even fit through any of the entrances.

I would give a picture but my camera is really bad and it probably wouldn't be very helpful. 

Oh and by the way the species is Tetramorium Immigrans, and I cot the queen myself during it's nuptial flight.    

[jo16]

here is a picture, but like I said it's not very good.

 

 

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[ANTdrew]

That is a mealworm pupae.

[jo16]

really? that's strange, thanks for the help.

[ANTdrew]

You must have fed a live mealworm at some point, and it’s just been chilling in the nest all this time. Soon it will turn into a beetle. This is another reason to pre-kill all insects, despite what you see on AntsCanada.

[bmb1bee]

The pupa likely came from a mealworm that somehow managed to avoid being eaten. As for why your colony died, it might be because of pesticides or a lack of certain foods. Maybe you haven't given them enough carbohydrates or something. There's no way the mealworm killed them all.