23 replies to this topic

[yibsi]

6 -11-2021

Found this deceased queen in the pool, I even kept her for a while hoping she’d wake up but never did. She was surprisingly tiny, I was unable to get accurate measurements but something around 2.5 - 4 mm. She has brownish orange legs and antennae and a glossy black mesosoma with a matte black head. A segmented gastor with white underneath the segments.

Sorry for the grainy photos, my macro camera arrives tomorrow.

Thanks for the help!

 

Edit: wrong month lol

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Edited by yibsi, June 11 2021 - 6:08 PM.

[NickAnter]

Agreed with posts below. Tetramorium atratulum.

Edited by NickAnter, June 11 2021 - 5:11 PM.

[VoidElecent]

If there’s any way you can get clearer photos, that would be much appreciated. I may be mistaken, but I am pretty sure I see two petiole nodes

[Manitobant]

I may be wrong here, but that looks sorta like tetramorium atratulum, a workerless inqiline. Very cool and rare ant.

[Mettcollsuss]

I may be wrong here, but that looks sorta like tetramorium atratulum, a workerless inqiline. Very cool and rare ant.

That's what I was thinking too, but I didn't want to say it because it seemed so unlikely.

 

Doesn't look like it's been recorded in Illinois yet.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, June 11 2021 - 5:07 PM.

[CheetoLord02]

T. atratulum was my thought too. Didn't realize they were in IL, very nice find. And, that's a queen btw.

[NickAnter]

Apparently I can't read. An incredible specimen! Maybe consider sending to a museum? Or a Myrmecologist?

Edited by NickAnter, June 11 2021 - 5:16 PM.

[yibsi]

T. atratulum was my thought too. Didn't realize they were in IL, very nice find. And, that's a queen btw.

It should also be noted that we had a tetrimorium immigrans flight the other day as well, which further supports this.

[yibsi]

Wow. Better collect a tetra colony!

Sadly she was deceased when I found her, now I kinda wish she wasn't so I could keep such a rare and interesting species lol.

[Mettcollsuss]

If you're not able to get her hosts, or if she ends up infertile, or whatever, she'd make a very cool specimen.

 

Edit: nevermind, didn't realize she was already dead. 

Edited by Mettcollsuss, June 11 2021 - 5:13 PM.

[yibsi]

Apparently I can't read. An incredible specimen! Maybe consider sending to a museum? Or a Myrmecologist?

Unfortunately and ultimately something I now regret greatly I disposed of her outside thinking she was most likely another parasitic lasius or a male.

I’ll be scouring my pool for another.

[Manitobant]

If you find another, get her host workers. Atratulum queens are parasitic and don’t produce their own biological workers, but having a colony with host workers that are continually replaced by the keeper seems like a cool experience. The alates they produce also inbreed and the queens get REALLY physogastric, meaning keeping a colony can be rewarding in some ways.

Edited by Manitobant, June 11 2021 - 5:41 PM.

[yibsi]

If you find another, get her host workers. Atratulum queens are parasitic and don’t produce their own biological workers, but having a colony with host workers that are continually replaced by the keeper seems like a cool experience. The alates they produce also inbreed and the queens get REALLY physogastric, meaning keeping a colony can be rewarding in some ways.

Curious how they don't have workers, and I agree with you it does seem like a unique experience, hopefully I'll be able to find another either in my pool or when I go blacklighting tonight. The photos of the physogastric queens look pretty awesome too, almost as if they're gastors are giant yellow berries.

 

If I do find another I'll post an update in this thread.

 

Wish me luck!

[Kaelwizard]

If you find another, get her host workers. Atratulum queens are parasitic and don’t produce their own biological workers, but having a colony with host workers that are continually replaced by the keeper seems like a cool experience. The alates they produce also inbreed and the queens get REALLY physogastric, meaning keeping a colony can be rewarding in some ways.

Do workerless inquilines kill the host queen? They can't really raid so how would they get new workers in the wild if they did kill the queen?

[Manitobant]

If you find another, get her host workers. Atratulum queens are parasitic and don’t produce their own biological workers, but having a colony with host workers that are continually replaced by the keeper seems like a cool experience. The alates they produce also inbreed and the queens get REALLY physogastric, meaning keeping a colony can be rewarding in some ways.

Do workerless inquilines kill the host queen? They can't really raid so how would they get new workers in the wild if they did kill the queen?

it depends on the species. Most live with the host and don’t kill the queen, however some, like atratulum, do. The ones that do have a very short colony cycle, only lasting until the hosts die out and the new alates fly off in search of new host colonies. However in captivity you could theoretically have an immortal colony since you keep replacing the hosts and the alates keep inbreeding.

Edited by Manitobant, June 12 2021 - 7:57 AM.

[Kaelwizard]

 

 

If you find another, get her host workers. Atratulum queens are parasitic and don’t produce their own biological workers, but having a colony with host workers that are continually replaced by the keeper seems like a cool experience. The alates they produce also inbreed and the queens get REALLY physogastric, meaning keeping a colony can be rewarding in some ways.

Do workerless inquilines kill the host queen? They can't really raid so how would they get new workers in the wild if they did kill the queen?

it depends on the species. Most live with the host and don’t kill the queen, however some, like atratulum, do.

 

Oh, okay. So do T. atratulum basically just try to have as many offspring as possible raised until the workers die so they can just keep spreading from colony to colony?

[yibsi]

I have some really good news, I managed to find ANOTHER queen!!!!

I’ll be posting photos shortly.

Also my macro camera is arriving in the mail today so when it does I’ll post even more photos!

[Manitobant]

If you find another, get her host workers. Atratulum queens are parasitic and don’t produce their own biological workers, but having a colony with host workers that are continually replaced by the keeper seems like a cool experience. The alates they produce also inbreed and the queens get REALLY physogastric, meaning keeping a colony can be rewarding in some ways.

Do workerless inquilines kill the host queen? They can't really raid so how would they get new workers in the wild if they did kill the queen?

it depends on the species. Most live with the host and don’t kill the queen, however some, like atratulum, do.

Oh, okay. So do T. atratulum basically just try to have as many offspring as possible raised until the workers die so they can just keep spreading from colony to colony?

yes, exactly

I have some really good news, I managed to find ANOTHER queen!!!!
I’ll be posting photos shortly.
Also my macro camera is arriving in the mail today so when it does I’ll post even more photos!

now get her host workers. Callows are recommended, which are pale colored workers that recently emerged from their pupae. They are not aggressive and haven’t got the colony scent, meaning they can easily be accepted by the parasitic queen. Look under stones for them and other areas inside tetramorium nests.

[yibsi]

Ok so, I found yet another of these gals in my pool today, this one was still alive when I found her, however after around 10 minutes she just curled up and stopped moving, I really hope she perks back up, but either way at least I got another specimen of these gals. I don’t have the same camera setup as yesterday and instead today I just tried to take photos as fast as possible so the photos aren’t as good as yesterday’s but as I said before my macro camera is arriving today so once it arrives I’ll post better photos.
I was also able to get more accurate measurements this time and she is roughly 3.2 mm.
If you look close enough in the first photo you can see her unique segmented gastor and petole nodes.

Again sorry for camera quality but I assure you I’ll post better ones soon.

It should also be noted that this ones gastor isn’t as “bloated” as the one I found yesterday, but you can still see the same segmentation.

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Edited by yibsi, June 12 2021 - 8:47 AM.

[Mettcollsuss]

Hope she makes it, ants can take a while to "revive" after being seemingly drowned. I've had T. immigrans queens take a couple hours to start moving again. At the very least you've got an amazing specimen now.