17 replies to this topic

[MichiganAnts]

This is a simple experiment done to see if a parasite queen can live with and raise a colony with False honeypot ants. This video is raw footage using a webcam. The footage starts about 2 minutes after taken out of a freezer.

Steps of the experiment:

caught the queen in tube A

caught the workers from a thriving colony in tube B

Placed both tubes together in a freezer for 3 minutes

prepared tube C for a founding chamber, complete with water

Took both tubes out of freezer and then put queen, then workers in tube C

Left them alone for an hour. (note i messed up and put a lid on tube C instead of cotton and had to replace during the video. i also rotated the tube a couple times to record more of the queen.)

After roughly an hour, i then attached tube C to a nest. the nest has a drop of pure honey in the nest.

recording is stopped due to me leaving for work

 

Edited by W1Z25, October 30 2016 - 7:50 PM.

[Solenoqueen]

Might not be the best idea, because the winter ants can sustain cold homeostasis better than a lasius parasitic spp. like L. umbratus

[MichiganAnts]

well so far so good, they are fine

[Solenoqueen]

Then I was wrong, but that's a good thing

[MichiganAnts]

check out the vid, like 3 times a worker thought about attacking, but within a second or 2 they stopped

[Solenoqueen]

xD that's actually pretty funny

[MichiganAnts]

yea, i told myself from the start i was not going to abort the experiment. either she tricks them or she dies.

[Solenoqueen]

Good decision. She is, after all, an impostor queen.

[Kevin]

This is technically possibly, however you will most likely not have success with getting new workers as the P. imparis workers could kill the lasius brood as it thinks its not their species. 

[MichiganAnts]

small update. today when i got home from work the queen had a dead worker laying under her. its head cut off. the rest of the workers are still relaxing near the queen. i wonder if its the same worker that kept messing with her last night and she just got tired of it?

[T.C.]

If she feels threatened she will kill them, I had a queen that killed one of the 2 workers that I introduced to her. The second one lived for another year, she never bothered the queen, the queen never bothered her and the workers that came later didn't bother her either. So this may just be a bad ant in  a way. Or just now's that isn't their queen. Like mine did, he may be the only one that tries to attack, however the ants I introduced to my queen were the same species?

Edited by T.C., November 1 2016 - 9:38 AM.

[T.C.]

haha, I watched some of the video... he is thinking about attacking, but he isn't sure.

[Alabama Anter]

haha, I watched some of the video... he is thinking about attacking, but he isn't sure.

She*

[T.C.]

Oh yeah. I already fixed that mistake on the thread above.

[Solenoqueen]

Good

 

Oh yeah. I already fixed that mistake on the thread above.

[MichiganAnts]

another update:  the ants are on a cold basement floor for hibernation.(and have been for 2 days)  another worker is dead near the queen. however an alive and well worker is behind her, and the workers will go somewhat near her but not to close, almost as if they are afraid of her

[MichiganAnts]

HUGE UPDATE!! so last night i found a Lasius colony that had a ton of brood, so i grabbed some of it and decided 1 last thing to unite the queen with the workers. long story short the workers moved some of the pupae to the tube with the queen. but still they didn't seem to be united. until now!! its very hard to take a photo of it since they are so tiny but!! in the pics between the pupae and the queen, she has a pile of eggs!!! this is so amazing!! http://imgur.com/a/hQFsy

[MichiganAnts]

Also I'm fairly sure the workers are lasius umbratus