4 replies to this topic

[FloridaAnts]

Greetings!

So, me catching soo many Odontomachus, I wanted to try something. First, was oligarchy among Odontomachus ruginodis, which may be plemeostrosis. Next, I wanted to do some risky stuff. Introduce a O. Haemotodus to the founding queens, who had no eggs. For the first day, they stayed away from each other, hiding under a leaf I gave them. Now, getting them to have the same nest scent without any methods is something. But now… eggs…. They are both kept in different areas, but by the looks it is ruginodis eggs. Not only this, but I am pretty confident both species make some form of communication. It is so cool watching a large Odontomachus peacefully coexist with a tiny(For them) Odontomachus queen. If you want me to try anything else with these species, let me know. I stopped catching them, as I think I have around 50.

Forgive the title, they are agressive towards other insects, not typically humans.

Coming up is multi-genera founding with Odontomachus, so keep an eye out for that. It’s going to include Odontomachus and maybe Psedumyrmex(gracilis)…. we will see on that though.

Some people may not like that fact that I took these risks, but a reminder that these ants are invasive and are essentially competing with natives. Removing them (queens and colonies) is the best I can do. It is highly unlikely that I try this with natives…

[FloridaAnts]

I may say, the ants hunting capabilities drops a lot when I did this. The termite I gave them(live) wasn’t detected for 30 seconds. Most queens immediately detect termites and dead prey. Also, update on eggs. Their is now one egg for each ant. 2 ruginodis eggs, and one haematodus(These are yellow, ruginodis are more white)

[Ants_Dakota]

Interesting. I will be following. The only Invasive ant we have here is tetramorium, however the queens seem to be pretty aggressive. (Also if there are 2 species of tetramorium in South dakota, they are basically indistinguishable I believe)

[FloridaAnts]

I need to rethink my approach. One queen died(a natural causes or else she wouldn’t be in a fetal position right?). Eggs are scattered everywhere. I am probably separating them. Will need to rethink why they are scattering the eggs.

[RushmoreAnts]

Interesting. I will be following. The only Invasive ant we have here is tetramorium, however the queens seem to be pretty aggressive. (Also if there are 2 species of tetramorium in South dakota, they are basically indistinguishable I believe)

Tetramorium queens usually are not very aggressive to each other in the founding stages. Sometimes I have observed no aggression between queens, since it is the workers who slowly kill the extra queens. Tetra queens just don't attack each other on sight (*cough Camponotus cough). Also the presence of T. tsushimae in the state is only suspected by me based on limited evidence, and not confirmed. Also T. tushimae is polygynous, so it would not apply to your aggressive Tetra queen statement even if it was confirmed. Also younger tushimae workers usually have a distinct red thorax, and marginally smaller queens, so there are a couple physical differences. Those differences though are not 100% reliable, as young immigrans can occasionally have red thoraxes, and queen size varies in both species. True polygyne is the best way of determining species short of a genetic analysis.

Edited by AntsDakota, July 18 2022 - 8:38 PM.