7 replies to this topic

[futurebird]

Can anyone tell me why my 3 year old 500 ant pogonomyrmex occidentalis colony produced just one female alate? The colony is too young and small to produce a nuptial flight… so what is going on?

 

[ANTdrew]

Three years may not be too young.

[TacticalHandleGaming]

That's cool! I hope one day my Pogonomyrmex colonies produce alates.

[futurebird]

But just one alate? I could see if there were a handful of them... but it's literally just the one queen.

[RushmoreAnts]

But just one alate? I could see if there were a handful of them... but it's literally just the one queen.

It is quite natural for a small colony to produce only one or a few alates. Alate number is proportionate to colony size. The larger a colony, the more resources it can collect, and thus the more alates it can produce.

[futurebird]

It's kinda morbid, but I hope she she comes out of nest so I can pin her. It'd be neat to have a winged queen in my pinned collection... But they might remove her wings before I get the chance. 

[RushmoreAnts]

I suppose you could attempt to initiate a nuptial flight by spraying their outworld and maybe a little into their nest entrance with a spray bottle to simulate rain, to trigger a nuptial flight (in the summer when they'd have their nuptial flights, not now).

[ANTdrew]

She may get antsy this summer and start wandering up into the outworld looking to fly. Different species’ alates act differently in captive situations, but most get wanderlust eventually.