13 replies to this topic

[Polyacanthus]

Spinning this species off my combined journal located here: https://www.formicul...us-ant-journal/

On the afternoon of July 10 I found some of these queens in my yard. I know of at least two of their colonies that I often see conducting slave raids on the F. pallidefulva nests around the yard. One of the pergandei colonies has mostly pallidefulva workers but also has some subsericea.

Last year I saw a gathering of alates thinking about flying, but they went back into the nest. It was evening and I'm pretty sure they fly in the morning. I missed their flight and hadn't seen any alates after that.

Fast forward to the 10th and I was checking out pallidefulva queens running around, and noticed the pergandei! So I kept my eyes peeled and found a few more.





I figured they were sanguinea group, and the identification forum agreed. With some more pics I have narrowed them down to pergandei.

Edited by Polyacanthus, July 18 2021 - 6:49 PM.

[Polyacanthus]

The next step was to figure out how to raise these. I honestly hadn't done much research since I didn't know if I'd ever actually catch a queen 😆

Lucky for me AntsBC has a great tutorial here: https://www.formicul...aiding-formica/

Adding a parasitic queen to a colony is a little too brutal for me, so I was glad to read about donating pupae to the parasitic queens. Also lucky for me, I have half a dozen young colonies of Formica pallidefulva that could be donors! They aren't very big though, a couple of the largest colonies are around 30 workers. So I don't have too many pupae to spare yet. I'm also not willing to dig up a wild nest, although if I catch a brood raid going down in my yard I definitely will (and have) steal back some stolen pupae. Finders keepers!

So I went about stealing some pupae from my pallidefulva. This isn't as easy as it sounds since they are so jumpy and grab all the brood and run around all crazy whenever they are disturbed. And by disturbed I mean just touching their tube to remove the cotton ball will set them off! I guess I understand that behavior with pergandei around always trying to steal their brood.

I was able to wrangle several pupae. I gave three to one queen and a couple to another. The following night I was able to steal some more from another colony, so I believe they had 5 each



When I checked back the following night, one of the queens had died, but the other appeared to be tending to some of the pupae.

It has been a week now, so I checked on her tonight, success!



Thinking tomorrow I'll see if they want some sugar water.

Edited by Polyacanthus, July 18 2021 - 7:40 PM.

[Polyacanthus]

They both drank some sugar water tonight.

And while we wait for the other pupae to eclose,

PIGGYBACK RIDES!!

[Polyacanthus]

About a week ago I saw a brood raid on the driveway when I got home from work. I collected a bunch of workers carrying brood and put them in the fridge until they dropped their ill-gotten goods. Then I gave the brood to one of the other queens who didn't have any yet.

Tonight when I checked on them, she has laid three eggs!

Edited by Polyacanthus, August 2 2021 - 7:48 PM.

[smares]

Is this an obligate slave raider? They can't care for there own larvae and need workers of other sp to raise their brood?
It's super cool that both slave and raider occur on your property and you get to see their natural behavior!

[JamesJohnson]

Is this an obligate slave raider? They can't care for there own larvae and need workers of other sp to raise their brood?
It's super cool that both slave and raider occur on your property and you get to see their natural behavior!

No, this species is a facultative slave-raider, so although they'd prefer having slaves, they don't need them.

[Polyacanthus]

It's super cool that both slave and raider occur on your property and you get to see their natural behavior!

Yes, I have talked about it more in my main journal but it isn't uncommon to see a raid on a hot, sunny summer afternoon in my yard. It's a little sad to watch, but interesting. And the pallidefulva must be doing just fine despite being raided all the time because queens were absolutely everywhere a couple weeks ago. And it's not like I'm out in the country either, just a regular suburban lot.

Edited by Polyacanthus, August 3 2021 - 7:56 PM.

[Polyacanthus]

By the end of last year, the two colonies I had first given pupae to were both found suddenly deceased, but the last one that I gave the wild pupae to survived diapause with workers and has a batch of eggs going. I had forgotten she had laid some eggs last year per my 8/21/21 post but they promptly ate them at that time.

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[NicholasP]

By the end of last year, the two colonies I had first given pupae to were both found suddenly deceased, but the last one that I gave the wild pupae to survived diapause with workers and has a batch of eggs going. I had forgotten she had laid some eggs last year per my 8/21/21 post but they promptly ate them at that time.

Beautiful queens! I wish you good luck with your pergandei!

[Polyacanthus]

My new phone is terrible at focusing with the macro lens, but the pergandei queen with pallidefulva workers have a good pile of eggs going. Can't make it out in the pic but I have seen at least one larvae in the pile. Their water is getting nasty but I really hate to try and move them at this precarious point. I'd like to see some bio workers before I try it.

[NicholasP]

I'm so jealous. I've only seen 1 Parasitic Formica worker before in the wild and that was it. I'm glad someone has been able to find parasitic Formica queens here in Michigan.

[Polyacanthus]

Hopefully I can catch their flight this summer and maybe hook you up.

[Polyacanthus]

So these have gotten a slow start this year. As I mentioned on April 29 their water reservoir was quite nasty but I didn't want to disturb them. When I gave them some sugar water a while back their small pile of larvae looked all dead and shriveled up so I went ahead and moved them to a new tube. Since then they've been raising another batch.

Tonight I was feeding them and decided to give them a little boost of pupae from a F. subsericea colony. The subsericea colony had placed a big pile of pupae in their outworld so it was easy to grab a bunch on the end of a wet q-tip.



As it's warmed up and the Formica are more active outside I've been monitoring the colonies in the yard. I no longer see the original pergandei colony that I discovered last year, but I see another one that is quite active. I mostly see pallidefulva workers but I do see the occasional pergandei worker come out of the nest opening. I'll keep my eye on them to see if I can catch their nuptial flight again this year.

[Polyacanthus]

Looks like I neglected to update this thread last summer!

Unfortunately I missed their nuptial flight last year but I still have two booming colonies in the yard this year so hopefully I can catch their flight this year.

This colony was not doing too well toward the end of last year. After the brood boost from my last post I believe they ate the larvae. They produced some more workers and I moved them to a mini hearth so they would have a foraging area. They are doing better this year, I think they will take off now. After diapause there were 13 workers, a mix of pallidefulva and pergandei. Here is a family portrait from a few weeks ago with both species represented.