21 replies to this topic

[AntJohnny]

I found this at my GFS house under a rock by her garden. I don't have and way to measure it or anything to take better pictures. I'm pretty sure it's a slave raiding Formica. I just want to he sure before I let it go. It just rained for about 10 mins and it's about 70 and sunny now. The link is the best pics I could get after taking about 50.

Formica? https://imgur.com/a/suxeFFO

[Nare]

Almost looks like Polyergus (I'm basing this on looks alone, I'm probably wrong), which would be a slave raider. Rare find, but unless you've got a few Formica colonies she's probably better off on her own in the wild.

[AntJohnny]

I actually do have a formica colony I caught at the beganing of this year. She had her nanotics about 2 months ago and is growing fast. But even if I was able to keep a slave raider colony I just wouldn't have time or experience caring for them.

[PacificNorthWestern]

def. polyergus

[rbarreto]

Looks like Polyergus montivagus. If she is, I would release her.

[PacificNorthWestern]

well if you do want to keep her. give her some brood from that colony or try  find a wild colony and give them that brood

[AntJohnny]

My front yard has a few young formica colonies. I will probably release her there. And hopefully next year she will have a colony there

[AntJohnny]

I decided to ask a member from this forum who lives by me if he would want to try to raise this queen. If he doesn't I think I might actually want to give it a try. I've been looking them up and I think I might be able to do it. I should be getting a new formicarium and nest tommorow. I think I could use some of my formica brood.I have 2 species of formica. Also I found a few wild colonies of formica in my yard. I'm going to sleep on it tonight and see if I get a reply from the other member.

[ponerinecat]

These ants are so hard to raise, so unless you want to spend a lot of your time collecting formica brood, I don't recommend it. They're possible to keep, just notoriously difficult, especially when they hit the hundreds. They also get the biggest colonies, since there's about 1 formica for every polyergus.

[PacificNorthWestern]

did you get your awnser?

[AntJohnny]

He never answered me. So after thinking about it I am going to give it a try. If at any time I feel like I am unable to care for her properly. I will release her where she was found. I gave her 3 Formica pupa and she climbed on them and has been sitting there. If she opens them when they are ready to enclose I will give her more. I only did three as a trial run. I will probably give her about a dozen if all goes well. I'm keeping her in the test tube for now. I want to get a nest that I can see in but also attached to a decent sized out world were i can put in brood for them to find. If she lays eggs and has her own workers. The pupa should enclose in a week maybe sooner I will post if she excepts them and lays eggs. I really hope that is how I'm supposed to do it lol.

[AntJohnny]

Luckily my Formica subsericea queen has been laying allot lately. And I have a Formica colony that has around 100 workers. It was a double queen colony but I accidentally lost a queen when trying to attach there test tube to a out world. She bolted out and disappeared in a second. Even now when I pull back there sleeve the queen that is left bolts to the outworld trying to hide. I am unsure what species they are though.

[Canadian anter]

You will need at least 3 mature Formica colonoes to support Polyergus I believe

[AntJohnny]

I found a few wild colonies in my front yard. I could give my formica colony a brood boost and hopefully she will lay even more. Or I could just take from the wild colony and give to her.

[AntJohnny]

With winter coming soon everything will hibernate soon and give me extra time to get a good setup.

[rbarreto]

Since you seem committed I wish you the best of luck.

Edited by rbarreto, August 22 2019 - 11:13 PM.

[AntJohnny]

Thank you. 😁

[VoidElecent]

Wow! Don't see many Polyergus 'round these parts.

[AntsBC]

Just to confirm, this is indeed Polyergus montivagus; due to the blackish legs, shiny gaster, and near lack of pilosity. 

 

Good luck raising her; it will definitely be a challenge. If you are ill-informed, start her colony as you would for a parasitic Formica colony. These ants highly prefer F. pallidefulva as hosts, so try your best to find some of them. There definitely should be some F. pallidefulva colonies in the vicinity of where you found this queen.

 

If you manage to get this queen past the founding stages, you should simulate slave raids as frequently as you need to keep a 10-1 host - slave raider ratio.

Edited by AntsBC, August 23 2019 - 12:01 PM.

[AntJohnny]

Sadly she has died. I don't know if she wasnt fertile or if it was something I did. She had water and I gave her a drop of honey and a PC of meal worm that she ate most off. If I find another space raider special I'm not going to try to raise one unless I have had months of studying and everything I need for sure.

I know someone made a post asking for preserved specimens I will try to find the poster of it and see if he would like her for there collection.