3 replies to this topic

[Ferox_Formicae]

I recently found a young colony of Aphaenogaster fulva and put them in a small container that contained pins. I've been checking on hem, and they've been doing good, they're even eating okay. But, this morning I woke up to a bit of a problem, they disembodied the queen! They ripped off all of her legs except for one and I think hey are trying to eat her now! Why did they do this? Is it possible that they have a reproductive gamergate and they overthrew the queen because she was too much work, or were they just too stressed?

[Mettcollsuss]

Aphaenogaster does not have gamergates. It could also be that the queen died of natural causes, and they decided not to let it go to waste.

[Ferox_Formicae]

Okay. I've heard on the forum that several people have owned queen-less ant colonies that are not known to have gamergates  which have produced workers instead of males, so I think I'm going to test my luck, the only problem is, they are about to go into hibernation so they might die before they lay any eggs. I'll just have to wait and see. 

[Ferox_Formicae]

I think that the workers are going into hibernation as they are all bunched up next to their water source and they are barely moving. There is also very little foraging. I am going to put them in my crawl-space and see how they do.