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spastic worker in social parasite colony


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#1 Offline bunyan - Posted October 22 2016 - 11:20 AM

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Just read the problem, i keep a journal and i don't want to constantly retype everything so i pasted it... 10-21-2016: Placed queen into test tube, introduced two Tetramorium Spp. workers. No fighting yet, wich is a very good sign. after about 30 min. the queen started acting up, first her front 2 legs were bent inwards (quite distressing for me), then, after a little whyle, i took another look, it looked like she died, i was in panic, eventually i saw her moving, after wich i calmed down, but she had a lot of trouble standing straight. After an hour i introduced some brood from my Lasius niger colony (3 eggs and 1 pupa). She still struggled for hours. Now (20:30) she is standing almost properly again, but i'll have to see if she pulls through the night (i'm nervous since she's VERY rare here).
10-22-2016: Queen shows signs of recovery. She hasn't touched the given brood yet. The tetramorium workers are not touching her, yet also not fighting her.
Afternoon update: I took away the Tetramorium workers and replaced them with about 4 wild L.niger workerd. Some had mites, witch i let free again. I do not yet know if the introduction is succesfull. Though it seems to be okay for now, i'll wait and see.
Late evening update: I noticed one worker had a mite, so i set it back in it's nest, one escaped and 2 were biting the queen's antennae, so i put them alone in a small container. Only one is left with the queen now, but she's a bit spastic what close to the queen, bit she seems to accept the queen, wich is great

#2 Offline Mdrogun - Posted October 22 2016 - 3:52 PM

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First off, what species is this queen? You tried to introduce two completely different genuses of ants to her. generally speaking parasitic queens have a horrible rate of success. Often times random workers you pick up will fight the parasitic queen. A good way to make sure you have the best success rate is to only introduce callow workers to the queen, make sure you have the right genus of workers and let the ants get acclimated to each other (hibernating them together for multiple weeks). Even then the rate of success is very low. I would recommend you move the queen to a test tube setup and hibernate her for the winter. This time of year you won't be able to find any Lasius or Tetramorium pupae and without workers the queen will quickly die of starvation.


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