3 replies to this topic

[FelixTheAnter]

My Myrmica Rubra colony has one queen, and produced alates this year. However, a nuptial flight never took place. Some queens died or were killed, and discarded in the outworld. Many, however, pulled off their wings and have stayed in the colony. They seem to function like any other worker, gathering food and such. If I had to guess I'd say there's around 20 infertile queens that are acting as workers. Anyone seen this before? Thought it was quite interesting. Here's two of them today by a fresh mealworm pupae. They'd previously just been attacking it.

Edited by FelixTheAnter, October 9 2023 - 4:09 AM.

[Manitobant]

This is quite normal in captive colonies that get alates. Heck I’ve even seen it in some wild colonies before.

[ZATrippit]

From antwiki: Nehring et al. (2012) report that virgin queens (gynes) of the leaf-cutting ants Acromyrmex echinatior and Acromyrmex octospinosus switch to carrying out worker tasks such as brood care and colony defense when they fail to mate and disperse. Thus, while morphologically queens, these individuals act as "workers" within the colony. Helper queens are also known in Probolomyrmex longinodus (where virgin dealate queens which fail to disperse may engage in non-reproductive activities) and Linepithema humile (where dealate queens are commonly found in foraging columns).

[Serafine]

Myrmica rubra is one of the few ant species that can actually inbreed.