78 replies to this topic

[nurbs]

I collected this winged alate walking on a hiking trail at Big Bear CA on July 4th, 2015.

 

I initially thought she may be F. moki since there were so many in the area:

 

She would not settle and would not tear off her wings:

 

 

Then out of curiosity, I gave her some F. ravida and F. subpolita pupae which I collected to take pics of (along with their winged alates) and she immediately took to them and grabbed them all! 

 

Then she ripped off her wings! Pretty cool. It was all done within a matter of minutes. So I'll keep a journal here and see where it goes. So it looks like she may be parasitic? The only parasitic Formica in this area are F. ravida I believe.

 

 

 

EDIT:

ID'ed as Formica aserva by James C. Trager

Edited by nurbs, July 8 2015 - 1:12 PM.

[dspdrew]

You're so lucky! I've wanted one of these for a while. Crazy how finding that brood just made her decide she must be in her new home.

[Foogoo]

You're so lucky! I've wanted one of these for a while. Crazy how finding that brood just made her decide she must be in her new home.

Agree, that's really interesting. Although would successful boosting necessarily imply parasitic? It seems like a number of people have had luck boosting Pogonomyrmex and other species.

 

I tried giving one of my F. francoeuri queens who lost her workers and was very restless a pupa. She literally ignored it for two days so I returned it to the rightful owner.

[Ants4fun]

That queen is most likely parasitic. The coloration, small gaster, and large mandibles gives it away.

Edited by Ants4fun, July 6 2015 - 4:38 PM.

[nurbs]

I still have two test tubes with F. subpolita and F. ravida eggs and pupae. Should I give them all to her or would that overwhelm her?

 

Just checked on her again and she has definitely settled in. She is on top of the pile guarding them like Smaug and his gold from The Hobbit.

Edited by nurbs, July 6 2015 - 6:40 PM.

[nurbs]

 

You're so lucky! I've wanted one of these for a while. Crazy how finding that brood just made her decide she must be in her new home.

Agree, that's really interesting. Although would successful boosting necessarily imply parasitic? It seems like a number of people have had luck boosting Pogonomyrmex and other species.

 

I tried giving one of my F. francoeuri queens who lost her workers and was very restless a pupa. She literally ignored it for two days so I returned it to the rightful owner.

 

 

Foogoo - I also have F. francoeuri and gave her some F. subpolita eggs and larvae. She didn't touch them at all, so I put them back away.

Edited by nurbs, July 6 2015 - 6:44 PM.

[Myrmicinae]

This will be fascinating to watch if it turns out successful. 

 

It's common for Formica rufa-group colonies to be secondarily polygynous and supercolonial, so, as this colony grows, it would be interesting to try introducing more queens.

Edited by Myrmicinae, July 6 2015 - 7:19 PM.

[nurbs]

This will be fascinating to watch if it turns out successful. 

 

It's common for Formica rufa-group colonies to be secondarily polygynous and supercolonial, so, as this colony grows, it would be interesting to try introducing more queens.

 

For sure! If it does become successful, adding more queens would be fascinating to watch. 

[nurbs]

I decided to give her a few more F. subpolita pupae. I carefully put them on a tin foil and slid them into the front of the test tube.

 

I had no idea she would come out and grab them so fast!

 

I was going to setup the camera and lighting (which I should have done before dropping in the pupae), but had no time since she came out so fast. Video is not the best but is it hilarious how fast she took them.

 

 

Edited by nurbs, July 6 2015 - 7:51 PM.

[LC3]

Anybody home? hmm no? ok.

:T

mine

mine 

mine

mine

mine mine

mine 

and

mine.

K noaw

YOU DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING.

wait is this being recorded. ummm [censored].

[kellakk]

You should make little clay cocoons and give them to her, maybe she'll accept them as brood too.

[LC3]

o.O  weird idea,doubt it would work if your using clay.

[dermy]

I think scent plays a role, so clay wouldn't work.

[nurbs]

You're so lucky! I've wanted one of these for a while. Crazy how finding that brood just made her decide she must be in her new home.

 

Maybe not that lucky. I am not so sure this is F. ravida. Mainly because I found one last year and remember her being much larger. Dunno.

 

Here is the post I made with pics:

http://www.formicult...rnal/?hl=ravida

 

She died because I accidentally fed her an apple piece with pesticide on it.

 

There are so many red/black Formicas out there. Are there any other parasitic Formicas here aside from Ravida?

[Gregory2455]

I really would not worry about size unless it is significantly different. Last year I found a P.rugosus queen the size of P.rugosus workers! (Except looking back at it it may have been P.colei which explains its size and why it died so fast. We will never know what she was because I was too new to think of her as anything else but P.rugosus and I threw her body away instead of preserving her...)

Edited by Gregory2455, July 7 2015 - 12:54 AM.

[James C. Trager]

I see what looks like a notch in the clypeal margin (scooped out middle) on the video, making this something possibly in the F. sanguinea group. Formica puberula seems a likely one. If you can get good close-ups of the face view, scapes in focus, the upper petiole edge, and a lateral view showing any pilosity, we can pin this down further. 

If so, you'll want to watch those emerging F. ravida workers. They might not like her. F. subpolita are fine, though. 

[nurbs]

I see what looks like a notch in the clypeal margin (scooped out middle) on the video, making this something possibly in the F. sanguinea group. Formica puberula seems a likely one. If you can get good close-ups of the face view, scapes in focus, the upper petiole edge, and a lateral view showing any pilosity, we can pin this down further. 

If so, you'll want to watch those emerging F. ravida workers. They might not like her. F. subpolita are fine, though. 

 

So that was pretty difficult to do, but think I got one good head shot out of about 50.

 

She is hypersensitive to movement and sound, and the lens is literally a few inches from her face. My big loud obnoxious camera makes a "CLICKETY CLACK" shutter sound which always startles her - and her antennae react by jerking - so it was hard to get a sharp focused image.

 

Here is the best shot:

 

 

 

 

Also made a video. Focusing was manually done by shifting the camera back and forth because it was so close. There is a siren the background and it is as if she hears it by looking up.

 

She looks toward the camera at around the 55 sec mark:

 

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Here are two lateral views and another decent head shot:

 

 

 

Edited by nurbs, July 7 2015 - 1:43 PM.

[drtrmiller]

So that was pretty difficult to do, but think I got one good head shot out of about 50.

Hell yeah, you did!  Great shot!

[nurbs]

I've been reading up on F. puberula and it looks like Dr. Trager is correct - looks like there is a notch at the clypeal margin.

 

https://www.antweb.o...project=calants

 

And according to antwiki, they are also parasitic:

 

http://www.antwiki.o...ormica_puberula

 

"The colony-founding female forces her way into a small colony of another species of Formica, somehow gets rid of its queen and workers and appropriates its nest and brood. The workers emerging from this brood accept the intruding queen as their own. The enslaved species belong to theFormica neogagates, fusca, and pallidefulva species groups. When the workers of the slave-making species have become numerous enough, they start raiding for more slaves."

 

EDIT:

 

It does say most of these are found at 635 - 3270 elevation. I found her at about 7500 feet of elevation.

Edited by nurbs, July 7 2015 - 4:42 PM.

[Ants4fun]

Wow, those are some big pupae... larger than her. I wonder what the workers will think of such a small queen...