11 replies to this topic

[Darcy]

So I bought a setup used for semi-claustral ant queen for my Rhytidoponera Metallica queen and it was going sweet until I checked her today and found little black ants crawling in and taking the eggs. The Queen had ran away and she wasn't hurt but all her eggs had been stollen.
Will she lay new ones soon or will she struggle to survive without her first set of workers that she worked so hard to produce?

[Zeiss]

She should be fine making new eggs, just give her some sugar water (1 part sugar to 3 parts water) or byFormica Sunburst if you have it.  That will give her some energy to produce after losing her eggs.  Otherwise you don't necessarily need to give her anything except a peaceful place to start over.

 

Make sure your formicaria are closed off to the outside.

[gs5248]

Well, laying eggs takes a lot of energy out of the queen, so like Zeiss said give her some sugar water for energy. After that it would probably be the same process of what you did when you first caught her. Good luck! 

[Darcy]

Ok thank you, she's in another test tube at the moment while I'm making the setup fully secure from the outside from the litle ants.
As I saw when they were crawling in the bottom of one tube wasn't completely sealed against the acrylic letting them crawl in.

[ConcordAntman]

Hey, if she’s semi-claustral won’t she need protein too? Eggs take energy to lay but protein to make. Correct me if I’m wrong but, I thought workers could get by on sugars alone but that the queen needs the protein to maintain her source. In fully claustral queens, the breakdown of their flight muscles serves as both the energy supply for her and protein supplement for her brood. It stands to reason that adding protein to the mix might be necessary. I haven’t had a chance to read this but the abstract suggests protein is necessary in a queen’s diet. Just my two cents  
 

https://www.scielo.b...262014000400005

[Kaelwizard]

Hey, if she’s semi-claustral won’t she need protein too? Eggs take energy to lay but protein to make. Correct me if I’m wrong but, I thought workers could get by on sugars alone but that the queen needs the protein to maintain her source. In fully claustral queens, the breakdown of their flight muscles serves as both the energy supply for her and protein supplement for her brood. It stands to reason that adding protein to the mix might be necessary. I haven’t had a chance to read this but the abstract suggests protein is necessary in a queen’s diet. Just my two cents  
 

https://www.scielo.b...262014000400005

I was thinking that too.

[ConcordAntman]

I just read the article. I think you need to supply protein too. Queens deplete their protein in the early claustral phase of colony development. Claustral queens are larger and have more carbohydrate and protein reserve than semi-claustral queens. Your queen has spent her protein and lost her eggs. She needs both sugars and protein. 

[gs5248]

Hey, if she’s semi-claustral won’t she need protein too? Eggs take energy to lay but protein to make. Correct me if I’m wrong but, I thought workers could get by on sugars alone but that the queen needs the protein to maintain her source. In fully claustral queens, the breakdown of their flight muscles serves as both the energy supply for her and protein supplement for her brood. It stands to reason that adding protein to the mix might be necessary. I haven’t had a chance to read this but the abstract suggests protein is necessary in a queen’s diet. Just my two cents  
 

https://www.scielo.b...262014000400005

Yeah. That would make sense. 

[Darcy]

So just an update since Rhytidoponera are some of the tricker semi-claustral ants to raise. If you feed her a cricket shell eat some of it, not until the larvae stage do the workers start eating food. I've fed her a couple since the start of the post and she's taken all of them. The only annoying part is she used the substrate against the cotton wool holding the water in and flooded her test tube so her eggs died. Alot of people use the substrate in the tube because these ants can't climb plastic or glass so they tend to scramble. Just something to help them walk around.
I've found that putting a cricket in the tube won't hurt them, tell move it away when done, just don't expect the eggs to eat or her to eat a whole lot.
So just an update since Rhytidoponera are some of the tricker semi-claustral ants to raise. If you feed her a cricket shell eat some of it, not until the larvae stage do the workers start eating food. I've fed her a couple since the start of the post and she's taken all of them. The only annoying part is she used the substrate against the cotton wool holding the water in and flooded her test tube so her eggs died. Alot of people use the substrate in the tube because these ants can't climb plastic or glass so they tend to scramble. Just something to help them walk around.
I've found that putting a cricket in the tube won't hurt them, tell move it away when done, just don't expect the eggs to eat or her to eat a whole lot.

[Kaelwizard]

We don't expect the eggs to eat. All ants don't start eating until the larval stage, then they pause for the pupae stage, and start eating again at the worker stage. (workers need sugar, larvae need protein).

[Ants_Dakota]

We don't expect the eggs to eat. All ants don't start eating until the larval stage, then they pause for the pupae stage, and start eating again at the worker stage. (workers need sugar, larvae need protein).

you will be waiting quite some time, if you want to see an egg eat something...

[Darcy]

Larvae, which ever one it is that's like the grub 😅