6 replies to this topic

[Darcy]

Hey guys so I went out after the rains we had in my city and flipped over some stones and bricks near a Rhytidoponera metalica nest and decided to brood boost the queen with eggs from that colony.
Now the reason I'm asking this is because when I dug up the nest to see if they had alates, there were termites living along side the ants. When the ants were running around gathering all they could I made sure to grab the ants that were carrying eggs and not pupae or cocoons to better the chance of workers and not alates. They did attack the termites that were exposed during the dog but I'm concerned about having them in the same area as the queen and her brood. What do you guys recon?

[Darcy]

i could get a few workers from the other colony just to raise em up to cocoons if they are the ant eggs and the get rid of them once they're close to hatching. but i don't think termites spin cocoons so thatll be the biggest give away to whether or not theey are ant eggs. better having a few workers from a wild nest where i found them take care of the unknown eggs than my only queen that might be killed if I'm wrong.

[Darcy]

[Chickalo]

Pretty positive that termites don't have larvae, instead they have nymphs that molt into different workers, they're related to roaches in blattodea, not ants

Edited by Chickalo, April 8 2021 - 3:59 AM.

[NPLT]

I'm pretty sure you shouldn't worry about termites spinning cocoons as termites undergo only a partial metamorphosis and not a complete one like ants, so, if by any chance you grabbed termite eggs, you will not have to really worry about not recognising which is which, besides, the queen will probably eat the termite eggs/nymphs, and if not, just be on the lookout for small, white termites.

Edited by NPLT, April 8 2021 - 4:00 AM.

[Darcy]

Cool, so in the photos they seem more like larvae with the little brown dot in the middle of it, you think that they'll be ant eggs since they're not small termites already at this size?

[Temperateants]

Cool, so in the photos they seem more like larvae with the little brown dot in the middle of it, you think that they'll be ant eggs since they're not small termites already at this size?

They are definitely ant eggs, and her tending to them is pretty much 100% confirmation those are her brood.