6 replies to this topic

[D.Picta]

I have a 2 month old pheidole colony with 100+ workers and a new pheidole queen I caught a week ago. If I put the new queen's test tube inside the other colony's outworld when they have about 10 workers, will the colonies merge to make a 2 queen colony? 

[TennesseeAnts]

That depends on the species. Most likely, no, they will not.

[TechAnt]

Do you know what species they are? If you can say the species for the colonies then we could maybe see if they could merge. Otherwise it’s likely no and the queen would be killed by the colony workers.

[D.Picta]

hmm... thanks man. It's pheidole latinoda BTW.

That depends on the species. Most likely, no, they will not.

[D.Picta]

It's Pheidole Latinoda. I think I should avoid the risk though... Thank you.

Do you know what species they are? If you can say the species for the colonies then we could maybe see if they could merge. Otherwise it’s likely no and the queen would be killed by the colony workers.

[ponerinecat]

It's not worth it imo. It's been proven fairly early on that monogyne colonies produce more workers per queen (in general) so a 2 queen colony doesnt make a drastic enough difference in queen count to change the total population growth by much. Also keep in mind colony growth depends on the amount of resources available, as well as a number of other factors. Simply increasing the queen count while not changing the living conditions won't affect the colony and may even put additional strain on the colony.

[D.Picta]

oh! i did not know that. That is really helpful information, thank you very much.

It's not worth it imo. It's been proven fairly early on that monogyne colonies produce more workers per queen (in general) so a 2 queen colony doesnt make a drastic enough difference in queen count to change the total population growth by much. Also keep in mind colony growth depends on the amount of resources available, as well as a number of other factors. Simply increasing the queen count while not changing the living conditions won't affect the colony and may even put additional strain on the colony.