119 replies to this topic

[Jamiesname]

Pleased to announce that after almost two years of waiting, my Lasius latipes queen finally got her first worker.
 
Cigars and sugar water all around.

Congratulations, Bat! I'm sure it was exciting to see your first worker running around, especially after two years. Were you waiting that long with the same queen the entire time, or did you make several attempts for a span of two years?

[Batspiderfish]

Congratulations, Bat! I'm sure it was exciting to see your first worker running around, especially after two years. Were you waiting that long with the same queen the entire time, or did you make several attempts for a span of two years?

 

Thanks! This was a queen from September of 2016. This is the first year that her brood made it to the pupal stage, and I've been anxiously waiting to see whether males or workers would emerge. She did get a fresh batch of Lasius nearcticus pupae last year, I believe, because I wasn't willing to let the possibility of an aging workforce undo her. The workers she received originally were leftover from a failed attempt at... a Lasius aphidicolus introduction, I think? They were quite mature by the time Lasius latipes was flying.

I was a little unorthodox about introducing them. I took a sample of orphaned Lasius americanus and the Lasius nearcticus and placed them in the same foraging space with three L. latipes queens to try and give them a little choice about their host. None of the queens wanted anything to do with the L. americanus sample, but this queen went after the L. nearcticus with seeming determination. Some of the workers did not like her at all, and she killed them -- the rest accepted her. I removed the other two queens which were running around aimlessly and provided them with L. americanus callows, but in common Acanthomyops fashion, they died during hibernation.

I am quite pleased that this mite-laden queen has come so far!

I have made one other attempt at Lasius latipes in the past (the beta morph, like your own impressive queen) but all five that I captured failed. Those were some very weird queens, taken nearby their nest, all with wings attached on one side, all died statuesque and so life-like that I doubt you could previously tell by their photograph in the guide. Those were given mature L. aphidicolus workers, and got along without fighting, but the queens dropped off one by one.

Edited by Batspiderfish, July 6 2018 - 2:16 PM.

[rbarreto]

Anybody have any information on Formica integra? I'm having trouble finding any? I have one of these queens who has accepted two different species of Formica brood and would like to know more about this species. 

 

*EDIT* I don't know why I posted in this thread sorry  .

Edited by rbarreto, August 2 2018 - 6:58 AM.

[Jamiesname]

I just wanted to post a minor observation of mine. I've noticed with my L. Interjectus that so far the only two queens that have lay eggs are coincidentally paired with L. Interjectus host workers. This leads me to believe that there may be an advantage, for those struggling with parasitic Lasius queens, to pair your queens with host workers of the same species if it is an option for you. Its also important to know that both of my queens were welcomed without incident by their host workers, while host workers of different species showed varying levels resistance. I also didn't introduce my queen's until two days after I caught the host workers so that their old queen's pheromones had a chance to weaken.

I didn't recall this being mentioned yet in this thread, so I thought I'd point it out.



Lastly, Sorry, can't help with your question, rbarreto. I will say that even though the queen has accepted two different formica brood, I think those workers will kill each other and possibly the queen by accident if/when they emerge.

[rbarreto]

Thank you for trying Jamie. I've actually read many accounts of people using brood from multiple species. I think this may have worked out to my benefit because the queen seems to have eaten all the pupae from the slave maker species and kept the pupae from a fusca group species.

[CoolColJ]

Any info on Papyrius? I believe these are an Australian parasitic species
I caught a queen of these.

Found another Papyrius queen in my backyard last week, although this one is slightly injured.
I moved her to a Iridomyrmex nest, and like with my other queen, they seem to excrete something that has a strong smell... when they encounter other ants
Then I noticed that none of the Iridomyrmex ants would actually attack her.... some would grab her and then let go immediately.

Very interesting. Might have something to do with the chemical she sprays, and does lend some weight to her being parasitic.
Anyway she eventually crawled into the nest with some prodding


queen


Workers

Edited by CoolColJ, September 17 2018 - 4:12 PM.

[Jamiesname]

Just had the first worker of an unidentified queen eclose today. She's likely L. Clavigar or L. Umbratus, but it's hard to tell. Here's some pics.









If anyone can tell what species by these pics feel free to do so, otherwise I'll get better ones when more workers eclose and darken in color. You'll notice this one is very pale.

[Jamiesname]

It has been a few weeks since the pic of my first unidentified parasitic lasius (above). Since then I've had several more workers enclose, and I've moved them into a new test tube for better visibility. Here's the pics of this colony today. I'm still not sure what species these are, but I'm leaning toward L. Umbratus. If anyone can tell from these pics, please let me know. FYI the queen is 7mm.

Edited by Jamiesname, October 31 2018 - 5:05 PM.

[DJoseph98]

How should I go about catching a wild Lasius host colony? (Just enough workers and brood to get a parasitic queen through the founding stage)

[Canadian anter]

How should I go about catching a wild Lasius host colony? (Just enough workers and brood to get a parasitic queen through the founding stage)

You can find their brood under flat rocks.

It has been a few weeks since the pic of my first unidentified parasitic lasius (above). Since then I've had several more workers enclose, and I've moved them into a new test tube for better visibility. Here's the pics of this colony today. I'm still not sure what species these are, but I'm leaning toward L. Umbratus. If anyone can tell from these pics, please let me know. FYI the queen is 7mm.

This is umbratus-group Lasius

[Jamiesname]

It has been a few weeks since the pic of my first unidentified parasitic lasius (above). Since then I've had several more workers enclose, and I've moved them into a new test tube for better visibility. Here's the pics of this colony today. I'm still not sure what species these are, but I'm leaning toward L. Umbratus. If anyone can tell from these pics, please let me know. FYI the queen is 7mm.

In case anyone out there is interested, I just heard back from The School of Ants (FSU) and this colony has been ID'd as Lasius Subglaber. If anyone is interested in getting as close to definite ID's as possible, check out their program.

[LIFEsize]

Really neat post! I'm going to attempt this with umbratus this year. Any tips on where to look for a lasius host colony in the woods perhaps?

[FeedTheAnts]

Really neat post! I'm going to attempt this with umbratus this year. Any tips on where to look for a lasius host colony in the woods perhaps?

I find Lasius colonies at the base of trees, usually pine. Under rocks are also a good bet. Under a rock that's at the base of a tree and you're bound to find a colony.

[Ants_Dakota]

I thank you all for this wealth of information. I will be attempting to raise a lasius interjectus queen, and so all of these tips help. If anyone knows any other posts that are helpful, let me know!
I thank you all for this wealth of information. I will be attempting to raise a lasius interjectus queen, and so all of these tips help. If anyone knows any other posts that are helpful, let me know!

[futurebird]

How large of a monogyne colony will a parasitic queen take on?

Do these queens take on colony that are years old with hundreds of workers? Or would the large number of habituated adult angry ants make this too dangerous?

If I had a large pet colony that lost a queen could I install a new parasite queen to keep the colony going longer?

[BDantsalberta]

Depends. Most parasitic lasius queens from what Iv'e found have a preferred host species that are way more accepting than any of the other host species. For example, I caught 10 lasius subumbratus queens this year, and gave all of them hosts right away. 8 of the queens got lasius pallitarsis hosts and 2 got lasius neoniger. The queens that got pallitarsis for hosts had a wide range of worker counts. from 20-30 for some or 300-400 for another. Meanwhile I gave the queens withs neoniger hosts many many more than that. Queen #1 got 500 hosts(just set up a large acrylic nest and hooked it up to a big plastic container for both queens)and queen #2 got 1000! Just threw the queens in with them. both queens are still alive although they had HUGE die offs because I got mostly adult workers but both have larvae that are plump and halfway to becoming pupae. So it really depends on which type of parasitic lasius queen you have, and which host species you provide her.

[Stubyvast]

Wow this is a great post! I hope the Queen can get rid of those mites, though...that could be dangerous later on. Nice job on raising those! 

[Naturenut1233]

Just got a lasius claviger colony from stateside ants. It's doing great. Eating well and has probably 100 workers. I'm so excited to see how they do but also nervous. Been out of ants for a few years and getting back into it now. 

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

I would get more hosts the more the better.

[Artisan_Ants]

Are they hosts or biological workers (workers from the species of the queen). If not, then wait for her to lay eggs. Any eggs present in the nest right now are probably from her. Introducing more hosts can help in the survival of the queen, but with a hundred workers, I think that is enough. If they are biological workers, or yellow colored workers present within the nest, then treat them as if they were any normal Lasius colony, or how you would treat your regular colonies. Although, these guys do need a lot of sugars as they are more of farmers in the wild and herd aphids for honeydew. And I also think you might want to make a new post for this kind of like a journal. Good luck!