78 replies to this topic

[AntsAreUs]

We will just see when I can take pictures, hopefully in less than a week.

[AntsAreUs]

Is this a sign? She is sitting on top of the pupa but when I shine light her she doesn't start moving them but she just moves around on top of the pupa as if she is trying to figure out what's going on. I am convinced she is parasitic.

[nurbs]

Is this a sign? She is sitting on top of the pupa but when I shine light her she doesn't start moving them but she just moves around on top of the pupa as if she is trying to figure out what's going on. I am convinced she is parasitic.

 

Another sign she is parasitic is the small gastor relative to the size of her thorax and head (like it is not bulging with eggs).

[AntsAreUs]

I know that and she does. When I woke up today I shined a light on her to see what happened and she started to move the pupa around.

[nurbs]

After successfully removing the female alates, a bunch of smaller male subpolita alates eclosed.

 

Still only one actual subpolita worker. I am hoping more workers emerge from some of these cocoons.

 

She has laid a ton of eggs, though.

[AntsAreUs]

I hope mine starts laying eggs!

[nurbs]

Wow that was fast. Just checked on them today and two F. ravida/aserva (I honestly cannot tell at this point) workers eclosed from the larger cocoons! 

 

Pics to follow.

[nurbs]

Here is a video of the new workers and male F. subpolita alates.

 

I've successfully removed the female ones and now all these male alates eclose.

 

As you can see her eggs have also hatched, so it looks like she is fertile. 

 

 

 

Here is another video of the largest worker. Notice how wide her head is in relation to her thorax relative to the queen:

 

Edited by nurbs, July 25 2015 - 3:17 AM.

[Ants4fun]

Wow, I never realized what a massive size difference there was between the workers! She looks fertile with those eggs hatching. I have high expectations for this colony.

[nurbs]

Just an update on this. They are doing really well and survived winter. The first eggs that she received from earlier videos were actually not F. politas but were Lasius! And they accepted her!

 

The colony now has about half politas and half native aservas. She also had laid a ton of new eggs.

[LC3]

Lasius?! What?...

[dspdrew]

Just an update on this. They are doing really well and survived winter. The first eggs that she received from earlier videos were actually not F. politas but were Lasius! And they accepted her!

 

The colony now has about half politas and half native aservas. She also had laid a ton of new eggs.

 

Do you mean F. subpolita?

 

Are you saying she has Lasius workers?

[nurbs]

Yeah,  sorry F. subpolitas.

 

The initial brood that I gave here were lasius. Confirmed by Trager. They were the really small ones. And they accepted her! They have since died off and now all her brood are subpolitas and native.

[dspdrew]

Yeah,  sorry F. subpolitas.

 

The initial brood that I gave here were lasius. Confirmed by Trager. They were the really small ones. And they accepted her! They have since died off and now all her brood are subpolitas and native.

 

That's so strange.

[nurbs]

Another update. I saw a lot of dead ants in the foraging container and noticed they were all the black F. subpolitas. Apparently the queen did a Star Wars "execute order 66" on the remaining non native ants and had them killed. These ants are evil.

[Okeedoke22]

Awesome Journal.  

[YsTheAnt]

How are they doing?

[nurbs]

OH man, forgot all about this one. The queen died late last year. All her brood for some reason died, and she was the last to go.

 

Was telling Drew the other day I am going to make a concerted effort to get more Formica next season.

[YsTheAnt]

Aww... Well hopefully you will catch another one, they are beautiful!