4 replies to this topic

[Vendayn]

I have seen Pogonomyrmex do this, but that is because they are large ants.

 

But, I don't recall seeing small ants do it.

 

My Pheidole megacephala will eat a little bit of the inside of a bee I put in their ant farm (well three bees in this case, and yeah I freeze it all first and I don't actually kill living bees. Which I guess pesticides might be an issue, but that would be in living bees too anyway. Like getting houseflies in an urban area can be bad.)...Anyway. And then the soldiers and workers will all work together and drag the whole bee (which is huge compared to them) into their nest. Their entrance is a big hole with a mound around it, and they drag it inside into their colony to eat I guess. They did this with all three bees I put in.

 

I know Solenopsis invicta don't do that (they never did when I had them) or Forelius pruinosus/mccooki...they tend to just cover their food with the substrate.

 

Is that a way of preserving the food or something like S. invicta do by burying it? I know Pogonomyrmex californicus workers will drag a bee (or some other insect) and drag it into their nest...but that is I assume they are just big ants who have no problem with it. Seems unique to me for small ants to do that. I've seen a lot of small native ants and they never do that from what I've seen outside.

 

Not a bad thing or anything, its kind of cool to watch them drag a whole bee and then drag the whole thing into their home.

[dean_k]

I've seen Myrmica (medium size, 6mm-ish) do it all the time. If possible, they always take insects into queen's chamber directly. If it's too big, workers eat it outside or try to cut it into pieces.

 

I have 2 long videos of them trying to take a big fly into their queen's chamber. I've also given them bees before. They cut legs and head off and tried to drag it into queen's chamber.

 

 

[Vendayn]

I'll view the videos tomorrow A bit late here for noise.

 

Does it mean they have a lot of eggs and need more food? Any particular meaning behind it? Or do some species (like the ones in your video) just naturally do that?

[Servercheck]

My Pheidole sp. ( maybe Pheidole pieli ) did this with their food as well. I recall watching them drag a whole spider into their small nest opening and getting it stucked.

[dspdrew]

A lot of my ants carry their food into the nest. Maybe they just want to nibble on it somewhere they feel safe.