4 replies to this topic

[Kansant86]

Date collected: 06/03/2014

 

Colony Size: 1 queen; 14 host workers; 2 host brood; 0 parasitic brood; 0 parasitic workers

 

Location: Kansas City, Kansas; Semi-urban area

 

Collection Method: hands

 

Conditions: warm

 

Family:    Formicidae

Subfamily: Myrmicinae

Tribe:     Pheidolini

Genus:     Aphaenogaster

Species:   A. tennesseensis

 

6/20/2014

 

This is my first attempt at rearing a parasitic species so I'm excited and may end up updating this journal more frequently than I normally would due to my unfamiliarity of the behaviors in the colony.  For instance, this queen will get carried from chamber to chamber in the haven and looks dead at times!  This blows my mind!  However when the worker that is carrying her puts her down, she sparks right up and all is well in the world!  If anyone has any information on this behavior, I'd like to read about it!  I'll work on getting a better picture of this queen asap! 

 

 

[dspdrew]

I can tell you for whatever reason, whenever ants carry other ants, the one being carried always seems to go into that fetal-like position with their legs pulled in and not moving, then when dropped they jump up and carry on like normal. This is certainly what I have observed with many different species and casts. I even have a video of my Pogonomyrmex subnitidus dragging their queen around before finally pulling her down into her new nest, and she was doing the same thing.

[dspdrew]

Here's that video I mentioned previously.

 

[Kansant86]

Yeah this is EXACTLY what my colony does!  The first time I noticed it I was so afraid she had died or been killed.

[dspdrew]