10 replies to this topic

[TheAnswerIsTheLogic]

I did try to brood boost my camponotus queen which had 5 workers 3 nanitics and 2 minor workers with pupae from another colony I got (pretty easy thing to do as the ants are using 2 connected test tubes and in one of them they keep pupae along with 5-6 workers which take care of it) , the whole thing went great 

I would like to do another brood boost but this time with some bigger workers from a species like camponotus vagus but I don't know if there is any risk involved like workers killing the queen .

Can you clear this out for me?

[Serafine]

No, it doesn't work. They smell different, they speak different languages and most likely the ants will just eat the alien pupae.

[Connectimyrmex]

Actually, I have to admit that I was successful with inter-species brood boosting (only within the genus Camponotus). I once took a sickly C. Nearcticus larva to feed my skinnier C. Chromaiodes queen. Surprisingly, the C. Chromaiodes queen took it in and raised it as her own. After the larva made a cocoon, I gave it back to the C. Nearcticus colony. I'm starting to wonder if an egg from the C. Chromaiodes tube got stuck on the cocoon, because there's an egg (not a larva, I checked) about twice the size of the average C. Nearcticus egg.

I think that inter-species brood boosting only works with species of a very similar size. The C. Nearcticus pupa was about the size of a C. Chromaiodes nanitic pupa, and the C. Chromaiodes egg probably is too similar to the other eggs to tell apart.

Edited by Connectimyrmex, August 4 2017 - 4:48 PM.

[Tyler_Fishman]

People use thhe callow method when trying to start an lasius claviger colony, which invloves taking pupae from L. Niger or neoniger (I forgot) and putting them with the claviger queen, so its possible, but risky
People use thhe csllow method when trying to start an lasius claviger colony, which invloves taking pupae from L. Niger or neoniger (I forgot) and putting them with the claviger queen, so its possible, but risky

Edited by Tyler_Fishman, August 4 2017 - 4:55 PM.

[Connectimyrmex]

Okay? Lasius Claviger, Umbratus, and other parasitic species are much different than what we are talking about (Camponotus is a non parasitic species).

Edited by Connectimyrmex, August 4 2017 - 4:58 PM.

[TheAnswerIsTheLogic]

update : 4 more workers from the brood boost hatched today , seems fine even if their size is pretty low : 1 worker =  aprox 1/2 size of the nanitics(which are almost the same size as the minor workers) and 1 major worker is a little lower in length than the nanitics  . If I find some bigger camponotus brood I will most likely try it as it seems like there are no problems by now.

edit: The strange thing is that they took the brood right after they found about it,usually when I try to brood boost a queen after she got workers it would dump the brood into a corner/in the outworld or something like that.

Edited by TheAnswerIsTheLogic, August 4 2017 - 10:09 PM.

[TheAnswerIsTheLogic]

Added some camponotus vagus pupae , it looks like they took it also they have opened 1 worker I'm going to do some photos tomorrow then the worker is getting darker

[Ameise]

I've yet to encounter any difficulty brood boosting Camponotus with other Camponotus, even across subgenera... though apparently (I've yet to experience it) once the 'native' worker population builds up, they will usually kill off the 'foreign' workers.

At the moment, though, I only have boosted Camponotus within the same subgenera - my C. chromaiodes has a C. pennsylvanicus worker, but some C. subbarbatus and C. nearcticus brood (from a different subgenera), and my C. subbarbatus queen has 1 boosted C. subbarbatus worker and 1 C. nearcticus worker, both from larva/cocoons, but also has some C. pennsylvanicus brood.

They don't appear to distinguish other than the fact that watching the C. chromaiodes queen tend to a first instar C. nearcticus larva is rather hilarious (the larva is smaller than a chromaiodes egg), and that C. pennsylvanicus final instar larvae are rather... big for C. subbarbatus to move around.

Edited by Ameise, August 6 2017 - 2:37 PM.

[Bobby_Hill]

Will try to boost a camponotus sexguttatus colony with camponotus ineaqualis brood I will keep this updated.

[Swirlysnowflake]

Will try to boost a camponotus sexguttatus colony with camponotus ineaqualis brood I will keep this updated.

You should probably make your own thread rather than necroposting

[Bobby_Hill]

 

Will try to boost a camponotus sexguttatus colony with camponotus ineaqualis brood I will keep this updated.

You should probably make your own thread rather than necroposting

 

Will do.