7 replies to this topic

[Goldsystem]

Well I when to check up on my ants today and saw a very strange looking worker. It was slightly larger than the others out foraging and had a light brown colored center, at first I thought it was a major worker until I looked at its side and noticed that it had the Plato looking thorax which is commen in queens due to the wing muscles located there. So I pulled her and another worker out for comparison. Her thorax looked almost like it had been blown up like a balloon and I honestly thought it was a tick but then I saw that her back was molded around the bubble making her look thorax look very similar to a queen. I looked for wing scars and did not see any, I am only using a small magnifying glass so I may have missed them. She also seems to have a odd growth coming out of her gaster making it longer than the other workers in the colony. Her head looks slightly narrower than the other worker and her mandables don't look as robust. If you know what's wrong with her please let me know!
If you need anymore info please ask.

Edited by Goldsystem, November 10 2016 - 7:36 AM.

[Batspiderfish]

Neato! Looks like an intercaste, where phenotypical expression is somewhere between that of a worker and new queen. It is a mistake that could either have been genetic or environmental (my guess is a mistake made by the colony).

Edited by Batspiderfish, November 10 2016 - 3:41 AM.

[Goldsystem]

Oh wow that's cool!

[Leo]

can it lay eggs?

[Goldsystem]

I read up on them and it says usually no, but some can lay eggs and can be fertilized

[Batspiderfish]

So you know, I've been looking at these photographs a little more -- I think those are actually male genitalia at the end of the gaster, which would make this ant a gynandromorph (part male, part female). I thought at first that gynandromorphs were always split laterally into the two different anatomies, but apparently this quality can be expressed in other ways.

 

http://jinsectscienc...content/11/1/17

Edited by Batspiderfish, November 12 2016 - 4:32 AM.

[Kevin]

So you know, I've been looking at these photographs a little more -- I think those are actually male genetalia at the end of the gaster, which would make this ant a gynandromorph (part male, part female). I thought at first that gynandromorphs were always split laterally into the two different anatomies, but apparently this quality can be expressed in other ways.

 

http://jinsectscienc...content/11/1/17

That's quite interesting. I'm wondering if it could still become a fertile queen.

[Alabama Anter]

Daaannng that is insane