6 replies to this topic

[luccat82]

Hi,

Like the title says, my Myrmecia nigrocincta originally had 3 larvae which grew nicely but then 2 died and the one that was left (i thought was going to die) was being closely protected my the Queen and then on giving it a closer look, she started to morph into what an adult ant looks like, which makes me wonder if bull ants occasionally (or any other ant) might morph without spinning a cocoon?

Has anyone experienced this? 

There's plenty of substrate for them to be cocooned with but wasn't even used.

 

Cheers,

 

Luciano

[Leptomyrmx]

Myrmecia nigrocinta often have this problem. It's referred to as 'failed pupation' so there's another term to add to your collection.

I haven't experienced this myself, but I've heard that it's the most common reason for nigrocinta failing to found. Sometimes it's harmless though. I don't think there's really anything you can do. Good luck, hope they're ok.

[JCRHJM]

My nigrocincta have had a few instances of this where cocooned larvae developed successfully and uncoccooned ones were eventually consumed and discarded, camponotus aeneopilosus have also had a few instances of this. I think its probably due to the queens not being comfortable in the current conditions 

[luccat82]

Aw bugger, i hope it’s a harmless incident. I guess it could be stress since I just got her about a month ago and now she seems to recently be getting properly adjusted to her environment. She decided to swap tubes less than a week ago for a cleaner larger one and took her naked pupa with her.
I guess I’ll just have to give her some quiet time and hope for the best.
Thank you everyone for sharing your knowledge

[VenomousBeast]

My Camponotus do this sometimes. I've never had any problems with it, normally it's due to being disturbed during the pupating process and it screws up the larvae/ants and so the pupae just pupates without a cacoon. They always enclose for me though🤷‍♂️ I wouldn't worry too much unless she is eating them and that's probably due to stress

[Max_Connor]

This failed pupation also happened in my starting Formica fusca colony, some pupae are in cocoons and some are not.

[ZTYguy]

Failed pupation happens regularly. I have had it fail and succeed in the same colony. For instance my Myrmecocystus placodops queen originally had 3 larger larvae and they all pupated out of cocoons. 2 of those failed while the other became that queen’s first worker.