4 replies to this topic

[Unfrozen]

if you have multiple colonys of the same ant can you take a elate male and female from two different colonys put them in a test tube and have a successful colony? has anyone tried this

[Herdo]

Don't quote me on this as it's been years since I think I've read it, but I believe pretty much every captive breeding attempt has failed.

Maybe someone has, but I imagine it's more luck than anything.

I know in a recent Attenborough documentary I watched, a super colony of Camponotus would interbreed, but that's probably only possible because this particular colony had hundreds of queens in the same large nest. They would exit the nest and then breed with each other on top of the nest without ever taking flight.

Again, this was an enigma from what I understand.

 

 

EDIT: Apparently I was very wrong.

Edited by Herdo, June 18 2019 - 2:42 PM.

[Canadian anter]

Retroman has a thread on how he has bred Pogonomyrmex. Many people have experienced captive flights, especially in more naturalistic setups. I've personally gotten Ponera to fly through very light misting

[TennesseeAnts]

I've gotten Aphaenogaster rudis to mate in captivity.

[Barristan]

Some species do inbreed like Pheidole megacephala, Tetramorium bicarinatum, Monomorium pharaonis. So you can easily breed them.

 

Researches were able to artificially inseminate Atta colombica queens. But the successrate was quite low. They inseminated 135 queens and only 8 laid eggs and in the end only 3 colonies had 20+ workers.

 

Ant species which do quite long nuptial flights before mating are probably not breed-able.

 

I already had a lot of nuptial flights of several ant species in my formicaria  and sometimes the alates tried to mate, but I never had any fertile queens afterwards. But some species even if they have a lot of alates just don't want to fly, because they probably wait for the right weather conditions which just don't occur.

Edited by Barristan, June 18 2019 - 1:42 PM.