11 replies to this topic

[RushmoreAnts]

Parasitic Slave-Raiding Formica

Formica sanguina group

Update 1

August 8, 2024

 

Ants_Dakota was camping in Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He came across the tail end of parasitic Formica flights, and caught several queens. He was kind enough to give me the queens he didn't want, so here we are. Shout out to AUD! Anyways, I have two species, both in the sanguinea group, which for now I'm going to call Formica cf. aserva and Formica cf. subintegra. We originally believed they were integra group, so we attempted polygyne, which resulted in the death of a couple queens. I have two of the cf. aserva queens and one of the cf. subintegra queens. AUD only wanted a shinier one that is also presumably in the sanguinea group, as he doesn't want to be completely loaded up with Formica colonies. His was one of the healthier queens. I introduced Formica fusca group host pupae to all of the queens, and they all began to groom them and transport them to the furthest reaches of their test tubes. The cf. subintegra queen seems the healthiest to me, and interestingly her host pupae are naked. Two workers have eclosed so far, with 6 more on the way. She has a total of 25 host brood including a couple larvae they are caring for. The cf. aserva queens have roughly 10 cocooned pupae each. I absolutely love parasitic Formica. While I think pallidefulva group queens are more beautiful per se, I can't get over the robust, aggressive look of sanguinea group Formica. These queens, unlike most others I've kept, seem to have personality. They're quick, nimble, aggressive, and have great eyesight, all of which contribute to their exaggerated-looking movements and behaviors. They seem to be looking at you - watching you - probably because they are. I'm super excited to keep these queens and am hoping they lay eggs before hibernation.

 

Formica cf. aserva Colony A

 

 

 

 

 

 

Formica cf. aserva Colony B

 

Formica cf. aserva Colony B 8/6/2024 (youtube.com)

 

 

 

 

Formica cf. subintegra

 

 

 

Edited by RushmoreAnts, April 19 2025 - 7:08 PM.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Are they like rufa where they can live all by themselves after the slaves die out?

[RushmoreAnts]

Are they like rufa where they can live all by themselves after the slaves die out?

They're parasitic, not slave raiders. They need host workers to found their colonies, that's it. Their own workers are self-sufficient.

[Ants_Dakota]

For those experienced with the Formica genus, you can help us ID these queens here.

[RushmoreAnts]

Update 2

December 7, 2024

 

Well, it turns out people actually know what they're talking about after all... These queens, who I discovered are actually sanguinea group slave raiders thanks to Mettcollsus, do not, in fact, lay eggs before hibernation. I have not updated this journal because these colonies have done absolutely nothing noteworthy besides eat and wait. At the end of October, I put them into hibernation along with my Claustral Formica, only taking them out now to film them. I will take them out of hibernation on March 15, as mid-October to mid-March is typically the duration of a South Dakotan winter, or as close to typical as our weather will ever get. I've seen high 60s F in December and snow in May. But for a hibernation schedule, it works.

 

Formica cf. aserva Colony A

These queens ended up eating most of their pupae, as I think I gave them too many originally. This one ended up with 8-9 full-sized, fat host workers, ready for nursing duty come spring.

 

 

Formica cf. aserva Colony B

Well, this queen never ended up opening her pupae and died a few weeks later. At least I still have one...

 

Formica cf. subintegra

Ok, I'm still not sure on the species of this one, just that it's in the sanguinea group. I'm calling it cf. subintegra for now. She only ended up with 4 host workers, and I may give her more host pupae in the spring.

 

Edited by RushmoreAnts, December 7 2024 - 8:47 PM.

[RushmoreAnts]

Update 3

March 22, 2025

 

I'd like to offer an apology for this journal: last year was boring! I've never kept Slave-Raiding Formica before. While I had read they usually wait until spring to lay eggs, I wanted to make the journal anyways just in case, although that just made the journal stagnant for many months.

 

THAT BEING SAID, stagnation is now with us no more! Any questions about their health and vitality are now resolved. I took both colonies as well as my Claustral Formica colonies out of hibernation on 3/14. I began heating them on 3/16 and feeding them honey-water and mealworms on 3/17. As soon as they awoke, they hit the ground running. They're ready and rearing to make waves this season!

 

As I documented in my Claustral Formica journal, I moved the pallidefulva and incerta colonies into new nests due to test tube drying. However, I only had 1 small heating pad for them and the slave-raiding colonies, so I had to get creative about space:

 

 

 

I thought the setup resembles a Y-Wing fighter from Star Wars, so I'll refer to this group of four colonies as the Y-Wing Complex. The Left Outworld/Bottom Test Tube is the aserva, and the Right Outworld/Top Test Tube is the subintegra.

 

 

Formica cf. aserva

 

HIBERNATION STATS:

   - Ingoing Host Worker Count:   9

   - Outgoing Host Worker Count: 9

   - Total Casualties:                    0

 

This queen wasted absolutely no time. They were the first to become active even before I put them on heat, and practically the moment I did heat them she began pumping out eggs like she was holding them in all winter. She laid well before I even fed them. After I did feed them, the workers gorged themselves, making themselves as close to repletes as Formica can get. I fed them a mealworm head, and they dragged it into their test tube. I believe the egg count only increased from there. I ran a picture of their egg pile through Antcounter by Barristan, a highly effective tool, where you can, as the name suggests, counts ants manually (and in this case, brood). The total which was visible in the photo came out to 40. Considering they have 9 host workers, proportionally this is one of the most impressive egg piles I have ever seen. The bio population will be almost quintuple that of the host population if, as Canadian Anter points out, the hosts don't rebel and start killing the brood. I believe they've spent enough time with the queen to avoid that, yet I won't discount the possibility until an overwhelmingly large generation of bios eclosing essentially seals the hosts into their servitude. But I will continue to remain optimistic, and I am quite excited for this colony in particular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Formica cf. subintegra?

 

HIBERNATION STATS:

   - Ingoing Host Worker Count:   4

   - Outgoing Host Worker Count: 4

   - Total Casualties:                    0

 

Despite not having as many host workers as their cousins, this colony is still doing impressive things. They have an egg pile of roughly ~15 eggs, which proportionally is around the same as the aserva. In every other metric, they're doing just as well as the aserva: they're eating well, active, and diligently taking out their trash and organizing debris like the aserva. I also have high hopes for this colony.

 

However, I do hope it's not subintegra as I originally guessed. Nare describes subintegra as the only confirmed obligate slave raider in the sanguina group, i.e. they need a constant supply of host workers to function as a colony. aserva have proven in captivity and in the wild that they can easily be independent from host workers when the need arises, yet subintegra is the opposite. I'm going to treat them like a facultative (doesn't need hosts after founding) species like aserva and hope for the best. Hopefully I can buy a better camera this summer and get a positive ID on both species.

 

Sorry for the poor camera quality, there's quite a bit of condensation in their tube:

 

Edited by RushmoreAnts, March 23 2025 - 11:29 AM.

[RushmoreAnts]

Update 4

April 6, 2025

 

Well, that was fast. Both of these colonies' brood is developing at breakneck speeds, and so far, it appears they're on track to beat my claustral Formica colonies.

 

Formica cf. aserva

We have pupae! The first larvae to hatch took only about a week to fully develop, and two have already pupated, and one is in the process of spinning its cocoon. In total, the colony has around 20 larvae and pupae, as it appears around half of the eggs were trophic (unfertilized & for consumption). As other keepers of slave-raiding Formica have pointed out, the first generation will consist of small, weak minors in order to pacify the host workers, who might otherwise be threatened by the foreign pheromones and normally menacing stature of a full-sized Formica aserva worker or major. Host workers have been known to kill the bio callows as soon as they eclose, and I'm hoping this won't be the case. If this first generation develops properly, we'll be all set!

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's not a Tetra escapee, you're a Tetra escapee.

 

 

I love how the colony appears to revolve around that cricket skull.   

 

 

Formica cf. subintegra?

This colony chose to devote all of their resources to three larvae, all of which look almost ready to pupate, while the rest of the larvae look like they hatched yesterday. This colony looks like it will raise 10-15 bio workers in its first generation, which makes sense considering they have half the host worker population.

 

 

The queen is noticeably more skittish than the aserva queen, immediately evacuating the nest and going for a stroll around the outworld. I've even seen her foraging on a couple occasions. Perhaps it's the difference in species? Or perhaps it's the difference in host worker population? I hope it's not a difference in fertility (it doesn't seem to be, she's plenty fertile from the looks of it). Either way, it's entertaining and amusing to observe the queen being the boldest, most adventurous ant in that colony.

 

Edited by RushmoreAnts, April 6 2025 - 12:55 PM.

[RushmoreAnts]

Update 5

April 19, 2025

 

Things just got interesting. The aserva may be in jeopardy and the 'subintegra' may not be what any of us thought!

 

Formica cf. aserva

I am both excited and apprehensive about this colony. Shortly after last update, the colony had 20 pupae. Since then, the host workers have destroyed half of them, leaving only 10. I'm not rounding these numbers either; it was exactly 20 and exactly 10. Formica must have a base 10 counting system.   Of the 10 remaining pupae, however, several are starting to darken and appear like they may eclose soon. So, I am apprehensive that the hosts may kill off the rest of the pupae, yet excited that several of these pupae are so close to eclosing and may have a shot. Even if only a few bio workers eclose, they will force some of the hosts into outworld duty, which will allow even more of the next generation which the queen just laid a few days ago to survive. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remains of dead pupae.

 

Formica cf. talbotae???

This colony took a HUGE turn from their sister colony. While the aserva invested into many small workers, this colony put all their eggs into one basket (no pun intended). That basket just so happens to be an alate??? That's right. They ate all other brood (she laid more since) and produced one single massive alate pupa. Not sure if it's a queen or a male, as Formica alates are actually similar in size to one another. Either way, this (likely) means that 1. the queen is unmated or 2. she is a workerless inquiline. A permanent inquiline is a parasitic species that doesn't kill the host queen, instead tolerating the host queen(s) in a multi-species polygyne and producing her own offspring alongside the hosts. A workerless inquiline is the same except they only produce queen and male alates, which the host colony will raise and release in their next nuptial flight. According to AntWiki, the only known workerless inquiline in the genus Formica is Formica talbotae, which I am assuming this queen is for now. The only normal inquiline (ones that produce workers) is Formica exsectoides, although even if she was a normal inquiline she would still, as the definition suggests, produce workers instead of jumping right to alates. If she is a workerless inquiline and not simply unmated, I am still going to keep them anyways. Unmated queen alates often drop their wings and act like workers, and I would be interested to see if raising a colony of only queen-workers would be possible. I will document that progress further in future updates.

 

 

 

Edited by RushmoreAnts, April 19 2025 - 7:09 PM.

[Nare]

As far as I remember, F. talbotae is associated with F. obscuripes, so I expect it to be in the integra-group. I can't really tell much about your queen though. In post #6 the thing you labelled as subintegra gives me sanguinea-group vibes, but then from post #7 in the queen's morning jog video I'm getting integra-group vibes, based on the slimmer proportions and the way she holds herself a bit higher. This is by no means a formal ID just a vibe check. If you can get a nice shot of her face so that I can check for a clypeal notch I'll be able to confirm if she's integra-group or sanguinea-group.

 

I guess the other thing to check is if the pupa is as large as the queen or not. If it's smaller, we're probably talking a male.

 

Also curious about where you got F. exsectoides being an inquiline from? I know it's fighting over semantics but I guess the implication is that they've been found in nests with the host queen still alive? I'm curious to see where that was reported because as far as I know the exsecta-group in North America are fairly integra-like in their behaviour, in that they spread through parasitism but also (and maybe primarily depending on locale?) by colonial budding. Them leaving the host queen alive would be news to me assuming it isn't just a fluke - especially given the offensive equipment those queens come with.

[RushmoreAnts]

As far as I remember, F. talbotae is associated with F. obscuripes, so I expect it to be in the integra-group. I can't really tell much about your queen though. In post #6 the thing you labelled as subintegra gives me sanguinea-group vibes, but then from post #7 in the queen's morning jog video I'm getting integra-group vibes, based on the slimmer proportions and the way she holds herself a bit higher. This is by no means a formal ID just a vibe check. If you can get a nice shot of her face so that I can check for a clypeal notch I'll be able to confirm if she's integra-group or sanguinea-group.

I will try to get a better shot of her later today.

 

I guess the other thing to check is if the pupa is as large as the queen or not. If it's smaller, we're probably talking a male.

 

Well, the pupa is roughly the same size as the queen. It may be 1 mm smaller or so, I figured that may be due to the fact that pupae are curled up.

 

Also curious about where you got F. exsectoides being an inquiline from? I know it's fighting over semantics but I guess the implication is that they've been found in nests with the host queen still alive? I'm curious to see where that was reported because as far as I know the exsecta-group in North America are fairly integra-like in their behaviour, in that they spread through parasitism but also (and maybe primarily depending on locale?) by colonial budding. Them leaving the host queen alive would be news to me assuming it isn't just a fluke - especially given the offensive equipment those queens come with.

It was listed as a permanent inquiline in this AntWiki page.

[RushmoreAnts]

If you can get a nice shot of her face so that I can check for a clypeal notch I'll be able to confirm if she's integra-group or sanguinea-group.

These are the best I could get:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nare]

 

If you can get a nice shot of her face so that I can check for a clypeal notch I'll be able to confirm if she's integra-group or sanguinea-group.

These are the best I could get:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice pictures - there's definitely a clypeal notch so she's sanguinea-group. We'll have to wait and see what the pupa is then but my money's on a male. Doesn't mean all the rest of the brood is infertile though, again just have to wait and see - fingers crossed. You can probably ID her from the clypeal notch and the margin of the petiole node (looking at it down her back from over her head) to species level.