7 replies to this topic

[UtahAnts]

I found a couple of Lasius cf. latipes queens this season and I'll be following their progress over the next few months. I don't expect workers before the end of the year, but I'm shooting for a good batch of larvae for each queen before I move away in November.

 

Timeline of events.

 

8/13 Queens flew with at least 5 other species of lasius:

 

Lasius americanus

Lasius neoniger

Lasius cf. murphyi (acanthomyops group)

Lasius latipes

Lasius cf. claviger

Small Lasius sp. in need of ID

 

8/14 Hosts introduced

 

8/16 Queens are accepted by the workers. I tubed each individually thereafter. Fed sugar water.

 

 

 

 

 

Following a series of heavy thunderstorms, I knew something would be flying. Sure enough, 6 species of Laius were flying in my yard, among other species. I found these queens in the evening, and let the parasites sit overnight with some water, planning to get hosts the next day. Indeed, the next day I hiked around the local mountains and found a good amount of host Lasius brood. I believe I mainly used L neoniger but I might have also got some L. americanus brood. I then used two methods to introduce the queens.

 

Method 1 

Worker/callow method. I added a few workers to each queen on the first day. Second day I added a dozen callows and pupae. I tried to add the workers one at a time to allow the queens to settle. I did this at room temperature, with minimal disturbance in a closed test tube in a larger container containing the majority of the host colony.

 

Method 2

This method worked much better than I thought it would. I knew the parasites were basically impervious to the host's attacks, so I dumped the remaining dozen latipes queens in a large container with hundreds of workers/brood of the same host colony. The queens were immediately attacked by dozens of workers, but they didn't seem to care, not even attacking the workers. I left them overnight, and the next afternoon, only one queen was dead. Those remaining queens were integrated with the hosts. I left them alone, still in the dark, for a bit longer. I then tubed each queen with their own workers and brood, ranging from 20 to 70 hosts. I plan to use this method in the future for this species. It seems to replicate natural conditions, and is much less time/energy consuming than other common founding methods.

 

 

Here is video playlist I'll update with videos as the colony develops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by UtahAnts, August 18 2024 - 8:11 PM.

[UtahAnts]

8/19

 

Quick update. Checked on the queens tonight and found one of the test tube queens dead, maybe from precipitation in the tube? Not sure, but the rest of the tubed queens were all fine, including the two-queen colony I set up. I fed each colony hummingbird nectar and a mix of crickets, mealworms, and fruit flies.

 

Conversely, I left a few queens in the original large container full of hundreds of workers and pupae thinking at least one of them would make it. All of them were dead. This container was kept around 70 degrees constantly (cooler than the tubed queens). I thought I saw these queens successfully integrate with the colony, even being groomed at times. But sometime over the next 72 hours they were killed off. Perhaps these parasites have difficulty successfully overtaking large colonies? Or maybe it was simply the large size of the container that did it? Nearly all of the tubed queens made it with under a hundred hosts so I'm not sure what happened to the container queens.

[RushmoreAnts]

Conversely, I left a few queens in the original large container full of hundreds of workers and pupae thinking at least one of them would make it. All of them were dead. This container was kept around 70 degrees constantly (cooler than the tubed queens). I thought I saw these queens successfully integrate with the colony, even being groomed at times. But sometime over the next 72 hours they were killed off. Perhaps these parasites have difficulty successfully overtaking large colonies? Or maybe it was simply the large size of the container that did it? Nearly all of the tubed queens made it with under a hundred hosts so I'm not sure what happened to the container queens.

Would it help to provide the queens with a safe space they can hide in like a test tube? I believe that was in Batspiderfish's Guide. Most queens do die in the wild anyways. If too many parasitic queens are successful they wouldn't have any hosts left.

[BDantsalberta]

I found a couple of Lasius cf. latipes queens this season and I'll be following their progress over the next few months. I don't expect workers before the end of the year, but I'm shooting for a good batch of larvae for each queen before I move away in November.

 

Timeline of events.

 

8/13 Queens flew with at least 5 other species of lasius:

 

Lasius americanus

Lasius neoniger

Lasius cf. murphyi (acanthomyops group)

Lasius latipes

Lasius cf. claviger

Small Lasius sp. in need of ID

 

8/14 Hosts introduced

 

8/16 Queens are accepted by the workers. I tubed each individually thereafter. Fed sugar water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following a series of heavy thunderstorms, I knew something would be flying. Sure enough, 6 species of Laius were flying in my yard, among other species. I found these queens in the evening, and let the parasites sit overnight with some water, planning to get hosts the next day. Indeed, the next day I hiked around the local mountains and found a good amount of host Lasius brood. I believe I mainly used L neoniger but I might have also got some L. americanus brood. I then used two methods to introduce the queens.

 

Method 1 

Worker/callow method. I added a few workers to each queen on the first day. Second day I added a dozen callows and pupae. I tried to add the workers one at a time to allow the queens to settle. I did this at room temperature, with minimal disturbance in a closed test tube in a larger container containing the majority of the host colony.

 

Method 2

This method worked much better than I thought it would. I knew the parasites were basically impervious to the host's attacks, so I dumped the remaining dozen latipes queens in a large container with hundreds of workers/brood of the same host colony. The queens were immediately attacked by dozens of workers, but they didn't seem to care, not even attacking the workers. I left them overnight, and the next afternoon, only one queen was dead. Those remaining queens were integrated with the hosts. I left them alone, still in the dark, for a bit longer. I then tubed each queen with their own workers and brood, ranging from 20 to 70 hosts. I plan to use this method in the future for this species. It seems to replicate natural conditions, and is much less time/energy consuming than other common founding methods.

 

 

Here is video playlist I'll update with videos as the colony develops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I absolutely love this journal!!! Keep us updated!!! Hope they all survive and lay eggs!!

[UtahAnts]

I was feeding these colonies tonight and noticed eggs! I'll do a bigger update sometime soon with pictures. These ants have been taking a ridiculous amount of sugars along with a little protein on the side.

[UtahAnts]

8/31

 

As of yesterday all but one of the 7 colonies now have eggs! The host workers keep these eggs near the queens (or maybe it's the queens that are staying close to the eggs) in large clusters. In one of the clusters, I saw small first instar larvae!

 

A low resolution video of the new egg clusters.

 

Observations:

• These colonies are taking all the sugar they can get with small amounts of protein being accepted.
• I also noted that the amount of host workers doesn't seem to affect the number of eggs significantly. I see roughly the same size of egg cluster in a colony with 15 hosts as one with 70.
• The two-queen colony is still going strong. They were one of the first colonies to have eggs - curiously the workers are keeping each batch from each each queen separate, not sure why or how they know to do this.

Not much else to say other than the colonies will probably be staying in their tubes for the foreseeable future unless feeding becomes too difficult. In that case a standard formicarium will be used. For any utahns reading this, I will need to relocate these colonies to someone willing to care for them as I am leaving the state in November for a few years. Send me a PM if you are interested in adopting these colonies.

 

 

 

 

Edited by UtahAnts, September 1 2024 - 7:37 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Where are you moving to?

[UtahAnts]

Taiwan for an assignment with my church. I'm looking forward to seeing the crazy diversity over there, but I'll miss many of the species here.

 

On another note the latipes are starting to be reserved - only 4 colonies are now available. There's still time to shoot me a message!