8 replies to this topic

[voylin]

So last year was very unsuccessful for starting with ant keeping in Japan. I think I finally got a queen ant (big but, scars where wings are supposed to be and not a spider acting like an ant like last time).

However, it took a good 40 minutes to get home so I could put her in a tube with some water. The fact that the wings are also gone already make me think she will probably die before her colony even started. I just checked on her after giving her some minutes of peace and now she is not moving at all anymore. She is still holding onto the tube so I guess she is still alive.

Is this normal behavior? Like de-stressing or something?

Walked in the park with my wife and kid for over one and a half hour and only found 1 queen. Really hopes she survives as I have already given her a name haha.

 

Anybody knows which species it is or if it even is a queen. I got this book "Ants of Japan", but so far no luck in finding out which species it is. :s

 

Edited by voylin, June 26 2022 - 3:19 AM.

[ANTdrew]

You’ll just have to wait and see. The queen not having wings is actually a good sign she mated.

[PurdueEntomology]

Many queen ants, especially those that display claustral colony founding are very inactive.  Consider, the only food reserves for her and her brood will be those she contains already in her body ( muscle histolysis)  and any excess or unnecessary movement assists in an earlier depletion of those food reserves and thus affects the possible success of the colonies survival, till workers are produced that can forage for food.  

 

 

Here is an interesting paper:  https://www.ncbi.nlm...les/PMC3881093/

 

and this one on muscle histolysis:

 

https://www.antwiki....@am.013003).pdf

[OiledOlives]

Lasius subgenus

[voylin]

Update 1: 1 day has passed, watched with a redvlight very carefully but couldn't see any eggs yet. Was too curious and couldn't help myself. Next time that I will look will be in around a week.

[ANTdrew]

Give it time. Trust the process.

[voylin]

She sadly died
And there's a typhoon now so for the next week only rains and cloudy weather so no opportunity to finf more queen ants

[futurebird]

Aw that sucks! But there is still a lot of summer left to find ants. 

[ANTdrew]

Sorry, man. There surely are many more queens to be found. Try to connect with other ant keepers who can offer guidance on finding queens.