9 replies to this topic

[buglover123]

Hi all

 

Not sure if this should be under Journals or whatnot but I figured this is the most appropriate place for this post.

 

I obtained a Camponotus drone and mated with an infertile Queen and just wanted to share!

 

 

In October 2021 I caught a black Camponotus Queen suspected to be vicinus. After hibernating over winter and taking her out and putting her in heat in 2022, as of May 2022 she still laid no eggs (while the others I caught from that time period have), so I say she was infertile.

 

Earlier this year, a different Camponotus Queen I caught Sept 2021 from a different locality laid eggs but only one hatched into a male drone! I figured I may as well try to pair this newly hatched drone with my other infertile female to see if they mate!

 

Here is the one infertile queen with her drone she produced: 

 

Here is the first Camponotus Queen with the drone newly introduced. I put them together in a heated incubator for a few days. I did not see them mate, but...: 

 

Shortly thereafter, the Camponotus queen laid eggs! Image quality is poor, I snapped a quick picture so as to not disturb her much: 

 

I will update soon with better pictures, hopefully the eggs are fertile!

[Dumpling]

Did the male die?

[buglover123]

Did the male die?

 

Yes.

[buglover123]

Update-she's fertilized and has hatched workers! One worker hatched and one more to hatch soon with some smaller eggs.

 

 

I am not sure if the drone and the queen that mated are the same species, at the very least they are some sort of color variation. I wonder if they are hybrids!

Edited by buglover123, July 16 2022 - 4:56 PM.

[NotAxo]

Wait WHAT? NEW SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY,

or I think

[ANTdrew]

Wait WHAT? NEW SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY,

or I think

To make that conclusion one would need to prove she hadn’t mated before being collected.

[buglover123]

 

Wait WHAT? NEW SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY,

or I think

To make that conclusion one would need to prove she hadn’t mated before being collected.

 

I'm not sure how that's even possible.

 

She had not laid any eggs after 7 months of being in captivity also having been fed sugar water and undergoing hibernation, at that point every other Camponotus I caught at that time had either laid eggs or died. I can say I'm 99% sure she was fertilized by captive breeding.

 

The second worker has hatched. I hope she will make it to and through hibernation, it would be very interesting to see what the large workers and majors look like next year!

 

[NotAxo]

Or to guarantee a unfertelized queen, just grab one stariaght outta a wild colony

[buglover123]

I don't want to go on a tangent and derail from my journal, but even plucking a young queen from inside a colony does not guarantee that she's infertile. As far as I know there's no way to 100% know that a queen is infertile...likely  you'd have to do something ridiculous like some microsurgery which would obviously kill the queen. Regardless, I think what happened in my case is the queen was mated in captivity. I have successfully done this with Prenolepis as well. I'm excited to see what the majors will look like!

[gs5248]

You would have to have two queens that were confirmed by rearing males, then just swap the off spring in their test tubes.