34 replies to this topic

[Aaron567]

March 25, 2018

 

Just over a week ago (March 18), I caught two Dorymyrmex queens, which were my first Dorymyrmex of this year. After inspecting them closely, I determined them to be Dorymyrmex smithi. I had no idea these were parasitic until I actually read a little bit about them. 

 

 

 

One of the queens is wingless while the other is winged. This journal is on the wingless queen because she is probably more likely to be fertile. I gave the queens sugar water immediately after catching them.

 

 

 

 

Today, I thought it would be a good idea to go outside and attempt to get some brood out of one of the many Dorymyrmex bureni nests that occur all around my backyard. This is the most common Dorymyrmex here so they would be the best host species to get brood from. After one scoop of a shovel, I had already uncovered some brood. I collected 4 pupae and several larvae. I am not going to use callow workers to give to my parasitic queen because I do not think she needs them. The pupae are naked, anyway.

 

I put the pupae and larvae into the test tube with the D. smithi queen, and she actually picked up one pupa and would not set it down until I left her alone.

 

 

 

After waiting an hour or so, I checked to see that she had all the brood piled together, seeming to be taking care of it. I do not know if she will be able to care for those larvae, but it's worth a try. I hope at least one intact worker hatches out, because I might've accidentally injured some of those pupae.

 

 

 

 

I will keep this updated on what happens in the next few days. I am not sure if this will work out (I've never seen anyone keeping parasitic Dorymyrmex), but if anyone else happens to catch a socially parasitic Dorymyrmex queen, they can see my experience with them.

Edited by Aaron567, April 22 2020 - 3:35 PM.

[Mettcollsuss]

Looking forward to this journal!

Dorymyrmex are native to where I live, but I've never seen any. That plus the fact that these are parasitic will definitely make a cool journal (also makes me a tad jealous, but whatever).

[Dnail]

cool!! looking forward for update

[Aaron567]

March 27, 2018

 

Small update.

 

The queen rejected 3 out of the 4 pupae due to them having injuries/deformities from when I dug them up. There is one perfect pupa left, and all 7 larvae are still left. The only pupa is starting to darken and two of the larvae are soon to pupate. She has been very persistent at taking care of the brood. 

Edited by Aaron567, March 29 2018 - 7:13 PM.

[Aaron567]

March 29, 2018

 

We have eggs today! What a surprise.

 

 

I did not expect her to lay eggs before even getting host workers. I guess she feels like she is settled and comfortable enough to do so. There is still one pupa and seven larvae. The seventh larva is absent from the picture below because it is being carried by the queen. By now, most of the larvae are getting ready to pupate, so there should be some new pupae in the next few days.

 

Edited by Aaron567, April 13 2018 - 6:15 PM.

[123LordOfAnts123]

Very nice find; I’ll be watching closely!

I’ve only encountered D. smithi a few times in Central Florida. D. reginicula is far more commonly encountered in my experience, especially around scrub, coastal sand dunes and beaches where other Dorymyrmex thrive in dense populations. I’ve yet to encounter a wingless queen despite observing some large flights. The few parasitic Dorymyrmex species are intriguing in that their nests are often far more populous in maturity than the species they usurp, despite the fact their queens are much smaller. I can only imagine they must become extremely physogastric to compensate for their small gasters yet high fecundity.

[Aaron567]

Very nice find; I’ll be watching closely!
I’ve only encountered D. smithi a few times in Central Florida. D. reginicula is far more commonly encountered in my experience, especially around scrub, coastal sand dunes and beaches where other Dorymyrmex thrive in dense populations. I’ve yet to encounter a wingless queen despite observing some large flights. The few parasitic Dorymyrmex species are intriguing in that their nests are often far more populous in maturity than the species they usurp, despite the fact their queens are much smaller. I can only imagine they must become extremely physogastric to compensate for their small gasters yet high fecundity.

That sounds awesome. I actually found a winged Dorymyrmex reginicula queen last June, despite the species not having records anywhere near where I live (far western panhandle).

[Aaron567]

April 4, 2018

 

The first host worker (D. bureni) just eclosed within the last couple hours. She's so new that she's not moving around yet

 

 

There are no more larvae left because one of them died and the rest pupated. That leaves us with one worker, 6 pupae, and around 10 or 11 eggs now. I am just about to hook up a little outworld to their test tube for when the worker fully wakes up and starts foraging.

 

I love how the queen's gaster looks.

 

 

In addition, here is a cool picture from yesterday where you could see all of the brood up close and easily:

 

Edited by Aaron567, April 13 2018 - 6:17 PM.

[Jamiesname]

Looks good man, keep up the good work!

[YsTheAnt]

What do you use to take these pictures? Outstanding quality!!! Keep up the great work.

[Aaron567]

April 14, 2017

 

Today we have four host workers, 2 pupae, several eggs, and the D. smithi larvae are starting to hatch out of their eggs.

 

You can see one larva and some mid-hatching in this picture.

 

 

 

Pictures of the D. bureni workers having fun and not knowing that they will soon be accompanied by D. smithi workers in the near future.

 

Edited by Aaron567, April 13 2018 - 6:38 PM.

[antnest8]

looking good

[Jamiesname]

What do you use to take these pictures? Outstanding quality!!! Keep up the great work.

I'm curious also. . .

[AnthonyP163]

 

What do you use to take these pictures? Outstanding quality!!! Keep up the great work.

I'm curious also. . .

 

He uses a "canon rebel SL1/100D" with an attached macro lens

Edited by AnthonyP163, April 17 2018 - 3:56 PM.

[AntsUSA]

This is very interesting ! I have been following your updates on Instagram but there is a few more interesting photos in the forums. Keep up the good work! 

[YsTheAnt]

What do you use to take these pictures? Outstanding quality!!! Keep up the great work.

I'm curious also. . .

He uses a "canon rebel SL1/100D" with an attached macro lens

Would you mind linking the macro attachment? I'm do jealous of those photos

[AnthonyP163]

 

 

 

What do you use to take these pictures? Outstanding quality!!! Keep up the great work.

I'm curious also. . .

He uses a "canon rebel SL1/100D" with an attached macro lens

Would you mind linking the macro attachment? I'm do jealous of those photos

I don't know what macro lens he uses and I don't think he does either, any diopter will probably work well.

[jtremain]

What camera and lens are you using for these pics? Thanks.

[antnest8]

did you read the post before yours?

[Aaron567]

June 11, 2018

 

After many weeks, the first smithi (parasitic) pupa has finally arrived.

 

 

The larva in the last update quickly got eaten before it could grow. The colony would not stop eating their eggs and it was preventing them from ever getting any larvae. I realized they only ate their eggs when they had no other brood, as if it stressed them out to not have any larvae or pupae. A few host workers also suddenly died, bringing them down to just three.

 

A couple weeks ago I brood boosted them with a few more larvae and pupae from a wild D. bureni colony. This brood boost brought them up to six workers, just before yet another worker died. Shortly after this same brood boost, I noticed a single tiny larva, which ended up turning into the pupa you see in the picture above. The bureni brood you can also see in the picture is from their recent brood boost which I did yesterday. It is just tiny nanitic brood from my current founding D. bureni queens. I will need to continue to give the colony more host brood to keep them from eating the smithi eggs.