5 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, Yesterday, 12:08 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, Today, 11:29 AM.