3 replies to this topic

[MrWeather]

On 7/26 I found an ant crawling in my bathroom while doing my morning routine. At a glance, I thought it was just some small, wild Formica worker that got lost in my home (which was frequent) but upon closer inspection I noticed that it has queen like features. I've never seen this type of ant before in my area so it was interesting.

 

 

 

 

I'm still not sure of the species, but I'm thinking Lasius cf. Minutus. I found someone classifying the different types of parasitic Lasius and it matches my queen pretty well. It's about 5-6 mm and there're hairs on the gaster as well.

 

 

Regardless, the next day I went host-hunting; I went to some local park and tried flipping up rocks, after like 30 minutes I finally flipped a rock with a Lasius (probably brevicornis or pallitaris) colony underneath. I grabbed a few pupae and took like 20 workers home. Unfortunately, 10 of the workers died on the way home, which I'm not sure why, maybe it was too hot in the tube? I introduced some host workers using the chilled method to the queen while keeping some on the side to take care of the pupae in a separate area. The queen ended up killing like most of the host workers and only spared 2 alive. 

 

 

I also gave her a pupa just to see if she'll take care of it. She gladly took it and has been carrying it in her mouth since.

 

 

 

[AnthonyP163]

Amazing job with the introduction! It's also very interesting that you've noticed a queen taking care of pupae. 

 

I've had some experience with Cthonolasius, namely aphidicola and speculiventris. I recommend getting dozens (maybe up to 100) host workers. All my colonies with very few host workers have either died, failed to lay eggs, or only get a few biological workers and sometimes just fizzle out. To get a healthy, functioning colony, I recommend 50+ (minimum). I would honestly recommend getting at least 100. If you get workers, make sure to get them from the same colony, or get a lot of pupae. 

 

Good luck!

[Wegmier]

Congrats on your find. Looking forward to updates about this colony!
I've tried hosting both L. fuliginosus and L. umbratus, but with little success. Both were hosted on L. niger workers, but I presume the niger workers kept miscommunicating with the brood and letting it die.

EDIT: after posting this comment I went to check on my fuli's, and they actually have parasitic workers now hah. Only took them 1 year and 3 months.

Edited by Wegmier, August 17 2020 - 5:02 PM.

[MrWeather]

UPDATE as of 8/23/20:

 

The queen has about 10 host workers with her now; I've been feeding them once in a while with honey but it doesn't seem like the queen is accepting much insects yet (I tried offering a spider and they only consumed like 2 legs). They just congregate on the cotton most of the time so I don't see much activity. 

 

Here's a picture of two workers performing trophallaxis.

 

 

It looks like the queen laid some eggs! I hope this means that I can start feeding her more insects now.

 

 

 

On a side note, I'll appreciate it if I can get some tips for better photos on a phone. Currently, I take these photos on an XR with like a $15 macro len, and I can only take dark pictures whenever I use the lens because I have to put it really close to the tube. Maybe it'll be better if my tubes were glass instead of plastic, too...