16 replies to this topic

[Herdo]

My colony seems to have killed one of their own.  They are now cleaning or eating the remains, I'm not sure which.  I got a nice tripod today which I wanted to try out so I went into the ant room and started filming.  After a minute or so I realized two workers were cleaning another.  I assumed it was a pupa that was getting ready to eclose, but upon further examination I realized it was just the head of a young (lightly colored) worker.

 

I kept filming and I've been uploading the video for the last 3 hours, which is ridiculous considering I have a 150Mb down 50Mb up connection.  

 

YOU HEAR THAT YOUTUBE?!  THAT'S RIGHT, I'M CALLIN YOU OUT!!

 

Anyways, I finally got the video uploaded.  At the beginning you can see the two playing with the head directly in the middle.  At around the 2:15 mark you can see another worker (up and left slightly from the two with the head) carrying what I assume to be the gaster.  

 

 

 

Any idea why they would have killed one of their own?  You can see some fibrous material coming out of the base of the head, which tells me the workers head was most likely pulled off.

[Crystals]

Assuming they had enough food, then there was probably something wrong with the pupae.

 

Changing from a larvae to worker involves a lot of small precise things things happening correctly, and it doesn't always go smoothly.  When something goes wrong, they will eat the pupae/larvae.

[Herdo]

Assuming they had enough food, then there was probably something wrong with the pupae.

 

Changing from a larvae to worker involves a lot of small precise things things happening correctly, and it doesn't always go smoothly.  When something goes wrong, they will eat the pupae/larvae.

 

Thanks Crystals.  It sounds like this isn't something terribly uncommon.  I'll just keep an eye on them for now.

[Crystals]

It is fairly common in some species.  I know in my larger two Camponotus colonies I see this 1-3 times a year.  I usually see this 1-2 times a year between all of my 5 Formica colonies.

It has been quite some time since I had my larger Myrmica colony, but I saw it once or twice then as well.

 

Always ensure humidity doesn't drop too low, or you can get more brood deformities or brood cannibalism.

 

They may also kill alate pupae if they think the colony is not ready for them yet.

[Herdo]

One reason I found it so odd is that the colony is barely a month old with about 25 workers. The queen was captured on June 25th right after she was mated.

They do love water an awful lot for being a desert species. The GroTube had two water reservoirs and I've tried to keep them both as saturated as possible, but they are still crammed against the wettest area. They have also been drinking water like crazy.

I guess I will just wait and see what happens. Thank you again Crystals.

[Jonathan21700]

My grout nest dries very fast and when I add water the ants go crazy for it. Maybe because it's too dry Idk?

[drtrmiller]

Make sure you're using distilled water only for hydrating the reservoirs.

 

Water containing minerals, even bottled water, may clog the plaster, making it absorb less over time.

[BrittonLS]

Also for stuff like this mention what species it is, might help figuring stuff out when mysteries happen

[Crystals]

I found Myrmica do love water, and their brood can suffer if it is not humid enough.

 

If they are jam packed against the water source, then you need to somehow increase the humidity.  In my experiece, if they are packed extremely tightly against the dampest areas, then they need more moisture.

In a well watered nest, they will spread out somewhat.

[Jonathan21700]

I found Myrmica do love water, and their brood can suffer if it is not humid enough.

 

If they are jam packed against the water source, then you need to somehow increase the humidity.  In my experiece, if they are packed extremely tightly against the dampest areas, then they need more moisture.

In a well watered nest, they will spread out somewhat.

I agree.

Edited by Jonathan21700, July 29 2015 - 1:33 PM.

[Herdo]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. The species still hasn't been identified, but the consensus is that the genus is Pheidole, most likely the fallax group.

Hopefully this was just some isolated incident. So far everything seems normal now.

[Herdo]

Annnnddddd   the queen died.

 

Not sure what happened there.  I found her in the same exact place she was last night.  She's either dead or she's in a coma, because I can't get her to move.

 

I've tried bright light, blowing into the nest (which freaks out everyone but the queen), tapping on the glass (again, everyone reacts but the queen).  The only thing I find odd is that they aren't cleaning or moving her.  I figured if the queen had died they would move the body or at the very least interact with it in some way, but they seem oblivious.

 

It's all very odd, especially considering the workers killed one of their own just yesterday.

[drtrmiller]

Well that's disappointing.  Just looked at the video again and saw that she didn't move at all in the video.  Could she have been dead for a while?

[Herdo]

Well that's disappointing.  Just looked at the video again and saw that she didn't move at all in the video.  Could she have been dead for a while?

 

I actually noticed that while filming, but I think I just assumed she was getting use to the light.  I try not to check on them too much, maybe once every day for 3 - 5 minutes.  The last time I had checked on them was the the day before when I took this video:

 

 

She seems completely normal and healthy there so I guess it happened sometime during that 24 hour period.

 

 

 

 

EDIT: I just went and checked on them again, and I actually got her to move.  So apparently she was in a coma?  It still seems odd for her to not have moved at all in 24 hours.  She was in literally the same exact location and position 24 hours ago.

Edited by Herdo, July 30 2015 - 12:05 AM.

[LC3]

If an ant dies it usually curls up. I've also seen workers tying to "revive" a dead queen in small colonies by non stop cleaning the queen.

[Jonathan21700]

The queen was moving in the beginning of the video. I think it's normal for queens not to move too much. They can stay in one place for a lot of time.

Usually when I peek on my ants at first the queen starts walking for a bit and then just stops moving.

Edited by Jonathan21700, July 30 2015 - 11:58 AM.

[Herdo]

Alright thanks guys. Terry told me to place an ice cube in a ziplock bag and to place it over the middle chamber of my GroTube to check for humidity. Turns out it wasn't very humid. I added more water and now the queen is very active.

Maybe she was just dehydrated and sleepy. She seems fine now.