14 replies to this topic

[Mdrogun]

I caught a total of 9 queens on 7/18/16 and 7/19/16. 8 of the queens are grouped together and are grooming each other while the other one are looking for a way out. some of the queens kept their wings and others didn't. I may end up releasing the queen that is trying to get out. I will post a video in a few days.

Edited by Mdrogun, July 20 2016 - 9:15 AM.

[benjiwuf]

I'm so jealous! I always wanted a colony of Solenopsis molesta!

[Mdrogun]

So the original 9 queens are doing very well. They have a batch of about 40 eggs and seem to keep laying eggs. Some of the queen still have their wings but more than half have removed theirs. They seem really happy at 82 degrees.

 

 

I've caught 42 Solenopsis molesta queens but I won't mention the other 33 queens in this journal.

[Loops117]

Looking good nolan. Excited to see what comes of these girls! Yer gonna have a HUGE colony. =D

[sgheaton]

So this is a species where I can have multiple queens together?

[ctantkeeper]

So this is a species where I can have multiple queens together?

Yes, Solenopsis molesta is polygyne.

[sgheaton]

Thanks! Good to know...except the three queens I got were not moving this morning. Were curled up so I'm thinking that they died somehow. Which was weird because 6 inches above them in a different container were different ants. If I find anymore I'll group the queens together in one containment tube. 

[Mdrogun]

So it looks like the queen's got their first larvae. I am not sure if they are still laying eggs or not. Either way, here's a vid:

[Tpro4]

i have caught 3 queens, but they were infertile and died.

[Mdrogun]

i have caught 3 queens, but they were infertile and died.

That sucks, even though quite a few of the queens I catch keep their wings I still think a majority are fertile. I have 1 test tubes one with 8 queens. In the test tube with 8 queens 6 queens have settled down and have even laid a few eggs but the other 2 queens continue to walk around. I am assuming the queens who are walking around are infertile since it seems like they don't want to start a colony.

[Mdrogun]

So a lot has happened since the last video. One of my test tubes flooded so I added those queens to this colony and I caught 4 more queens with my black lights. Now I have a total of 17 queens in this colony. 4 of the queens were added only a couple minutes ago so they haven't had time to settle down. There are too many queens and the brood is too small so I'm not going to even try to make an estimate on eggs and larvae so make what you will of the footage.

Edited by Mdrogun, August 3 2016 - 7:46 PM.

[Mdrogun]

8/16/2016: It looks like I am about to get pupae soon. I added 2 queens to this colony since the last update and I am thinking about adding 9 more. As you can see in the video one of the queens died or was killed. They are using her body to feed the brood. I have no idea how much brood the colony has, they are keeping their brood on a piece of cotton and the two are indistinguishable. I tried to get some good footage but the test tube is getting really dirty. As always, Here is a video:

 

 

8/17/2016: I decided to add the other 9 queens. The colony has a total of 28 queens now! It is difficult to see much but I see a lot of eggs and some pieces of larger brood. I imagine that the queens are keeping most brood near the cotton where they are congregating. One thing I noticed about these queens is that they are acting like a colony. The queens are grooming each other and engaging in trophallaxis, hopefully this means they won't kill each other .

Edited by Mdrogun, August 17 2016 - 3:14 PM.

[Chandlerk]

Update?

[Mdrogun]

Update?

Their test tube flooded and they lost all of their brood. They weren't laying any eggs so I fed them some honey and put them in hibernation.

[CallMeCraven]

Bummer about the flooding and lost brood. Good luck next spring!