21 replies to this topic

[BMM]

So today I made a rather interesting find. There's a Tetramorium sp.E colony that's lived in my backyard for years and today I noticed a bunch of workers about 25 feet away from the main nest. They were congregating around a relatively small rock, so I got curious and flipped it. I was a bit surprised to see several thousand ants, huge piles of brood, and about half a dozen wingless queens. My anting instincts kicked in and I scooped up three queens before they began to panic. 

 

In retrospect, I'm a bit confused though. Why were there so many queens under that rock? My understanding is that Tetramorium will only tolerate multiple queens during the founding stages. 

 

 

[superjman]

Lol do you want to get rid of any of those queens? I'll happily come pick up one hahaha!

 

But for real that is strange. I thought Tetremorium sp. E was single queen only too.

Edited by superjman, February 21 2017 - 6:42 PM.

[BMM]

I'm actually planning to put them back tomorrow. I really only grabbed them out of excitement. My understanding is that the queens won't do well on their own and I really don't want to disturb the colony further to grab workers and brood. 

[superjman]

Yea I've heard that too. I'm really curious though about that colony and why it had so many queens. Did you grab any pictures of the colony itself?

[BMM]

No, I didn't get any pictures of the colony. It wasn't anything special save for the multiple queens. There were some tunnels into the dirt that the queens fled into, so it's quite possible that there's more queens below. The main colony lives under a much larger rock, so I can only imagine what that would look like.

[superjman]

Yea. that's wild man. Hey this summer do you want to go anting at one one of the state parks near St Louis? I've been thinking about trying to put together an expedition to Babler, Weldon Spring, or Howell Island (all near chesterfield in the same area).

[BMM]

Yeah, I might be up for that.

[superjman]

Cool cool. I'll probably wait till a little further into the summer when something else is flying besides P. Imparis (since I don't even know when they will finally start flying here  ) or maybe even after a couple known nuptial flights to look for queens that have dug their little holes.

[Martialis]

Tetramorium can be polygyne and monogyne,

Edited by Martialis, February 21 2017 - 7:21 PM.

[Alabama Anter]

Tetramorium can be polygyne and monogyne,

Yes.

[Miles]

You absolutely need to get more of the colony or those queens will die.

Edited by Miles, February 21 2017 - 7:50 PM.

[BMM]

Tetramorium can be polygyne and monogyne,

 

Obviously there must be some truth to this based on what I found, but I'm curious about how common this actually is. I read quite a bit about them when I first got into ant keeping and people almost universally describe them as monogynous, accepting pleometrosis at best. 

You absolutely need to get more of the colony or those queens will die.

 

I'm aware. I'm going to return them tomorrow. I'd prefer to raise a colony from the start rather than capture an existing colony.

[BMM]

So the queens happily scurried back under the rock. I tried to leave it at that, but curiosity got the better of me and I ended up flipping a couple more nearby rocks. Once again, tons of ants, brood, and multiple queens. One had two queens under it and the other had three. Apparently I've got something of a Tetramorium goldmine in my backyard. 

 

It's going to be hard to resist scooping some up to get my first colony going.

[Alabama Anter]

So the queens happily scurried back under the rock. I tried to leave it at that, but curiosity got the better of me and I ended up flipping a couple more nearby rocks. Once again, tons of ants, brood, and multiple queens. One had two queens under it and the other had three. Apparently I've got something of a Tetramorium goldmine in my backyard. 

 

It's going to be hard to resist scooping some up to get my first colony going.

Just do it, They have multiple queens so losing like 3 won't hurt them.

[BMM]

So I think I've confirmed that these are not Tetramorium caespitum/sp.E. After a bit of reading I discovered that St. Louis is home to an invasive Tetramorium species: Tetramorium tsushimae, the Japanese Pavement Ant. They're very similar to caespitum/sp.E, but are polygynous. Since Dr. Trager is from the area, I contacted him and he seemed to agree that these could be tsushimae. He suggested checking their size to confirm. I measured some workers and at 2.6-2.8 mm they're in line with tsushimae's size.

 

This is an interesting turn of events, as I'm not sure that anyone's raised this species in captivity before, or at least not knowingly. I think my goal for this year is going to be start a polygynous colony and see how they do. If they're as hardy as other Pavement Ants but with the benefit of being polygynous, then I think I've found an ideal beginner ant.

Edited by BMM, February 23 2017 - 10:31 PM.

[superjman]

That's awesome! Make sure you keep an eye out for nuptial flights!

[Roachant]

From my experience, they tolerate multiple queens only for a short period before one ends up becoming the dominant one.
I tried having multiple queens and the workers killed one after the colony grew to a certain size, about 50 workers or so. I even filmed it and put it on YouTube .

[ctantkeeper]

 

Tetramorium can be polygyne and monogyne,

Yes.

 

Wait up a moment. Tetramorium sp.e does not exhibit polygyne behavior, instead it is pleometrophic as well as monogyne. Pleometrophic founding occurs when two or more queens of the same species join together after mating in order to found a colony together. this allows the colony to have a much greater chance of survival and to produce a greater number of workers during the colonies infancy. After the founding period is over however, queens are singled out and killed until one, healthy queen remains. Although having a colony with several queens is quite beneficial, queens require more nourishment than workers do, which may put excess strain on the colony and its ability to find enough food to support themselves. By killing all but one of the queens, pleometrophic colonies gain more brood and a greater workforce early on, but without risking starvation. 

Edited by ctantkeeper, February 24 2017 - 8:09 AM.

[ctantkeeper]

 

 

Tetramorium can be polygyne and monogyne,

Yes.

 

Wait up a moment. Tetramorium sp.e does not exhibit polygyne behavior, instead it is pleometrophic as well as monogyne. Pleometrophic founding occurs when two or more queens of the same species join together after mating in order to found a colony together. this allows the colony to have a much greater chance of survival and to produce a greater number of workers during the colonies infancy. After the founding period is over however, queens are singled out and killed until one, healthy queen remains. Although having a colony with several queens is quite beneficial, queens require more nourishment than workers do, which may put excess strain on the colony and its ability to find enough food to support themselves. By killing all but one of the queens, pleometrophic colonies gain more brood and a greater workforce early on, but without risking starvation. 

 

Pleometrophic founding IS POSSIBLE and can lead to some very impressive results when executed currectly, however most people are not aware of the existence of this kind of behavior or how to best orchestrate rearing a colony in this way. Maybe someday, I will share what I have learned if enough people are interested, but if you would like to hear more on this topic, you can PM me.

[Roachant]

Ctantkeeper, what you described sounds exactly like what happened in my colony! I noticed before the brood was mixed that one queen had far more brood than the other. I would surmise that she was the one was left due to a larger supporting workforce, but since I never marked the queens, I'm not entirely sure. Was very interesting to witness and I suggest if you try it out, mark the queens first and observe and find out why one teen is chosen over the other. I may try again this year as I get dozens of tetramorium queens every year.