13 replies to this topic

[Loops117]

Hey guys. I'm getting a large amount of Citronella ants from a local anter that has not had any luck with founding these queens. After reading about them, i found out they're a social parasite? Other then that, i can't really find much founding information.

 

Anyone else have luck with this species? I have roughly 20 queens coming to me this week and am looking forward to getting at least one started.

[Nathant2131]

Lasius interjectus (and the whole claviger species group) are either misunderstood, just plain difficult or both to raise. Definitely check this out:


http://www.formicult...cial-parasites/

I have two claviger-group and I'm attempting introduction in my journal. Little to no people have had luck with this sp, but that might be because Lasius claviger is the more common and popular species, so little people may have attempted L. interjectus.

Edited by Nathant2131, March 7 2017 - 7:51 AM.

[Canadian anter]

The Acanthomyops subgenus is generally hard to raise and I don't know anyone who has done it successfully yet. I've had the most luck with natural introduction. You should put multiple of them in with a small Lasius colony in my opinion

[Loops117]

After reading that post, i've come up with a plan. I'll divide all my queens up in groups of 2-5.. From there, i'll give them workers and brood from various lasius colonies, including a mature citronella colony near my house.

 

Also, why are ants such savages? She can send chemical propaganda to the workers from her own chamber to help kill/evict the queen. Holy crap.

[T.C.]

The Acanthomyops subgenus is generally hard to raise and I don't know anyone who has done it successfully yet. I've had the most luck with natural introduction. You should put multiple of them in with a small Lasius colony in my opinion

Have you had any luck introducing them to Lasius alienus? Lasius neoniger was all I had any luck with.

[Loops117]

 

The Acanthomyops subgenus is generally hard to raise and I don't know anyone who has done it successfully yet. I've had the most luck with natural introduction. You should put multiple of them in with a small Lasius colony in my opinion

Have you had any luck introducing them to Lasius alienus? Lasius neoniger was all I had any luck with.

 

 

I had awesome success introducing my last queen to some alienus workers. Workers cared for the queen for over a month until she was randomly found dead.

[Batspiderfish]

After reading that post, i've come up with a plan. I'll divide all my queens up in groups of 2-5.. From there, i'll give them workers and brood from various lasius colonies, including a mature citronella colony near my house.

 

Also, why are ants such savages? She can send chemical propaganda to the workers from her own chamber to help kill/evict the queen. Holy crap.

It's not really worth applying human colonial concepts to other animals like ants. Social parasitism bestows great evolutionary benefits, such as: a much greater emphasis on the reproductive caste, which require fewer resources to develop to adulthood (some social parasites are inquiline, which means they do not need a worker caste at all.) By utilizing the workforce of an existing colony, a social parasite does not need to starve herself for months tending to brood in the hopes that her first workers will be able to out-compete surrounding colonies.

They aren't strictly killers, either. If a social parasite infiltrates a colony with a host queen, that queen will usually be short lived. However, an ideal situation for many parasitic queens is an orphaned host colony whose foundress has already perished. While the colony has not lost the ability to pass on its genes (worker eggs will develop into males, and will be genetically distinct from those which the former queen would have produced), a parasitic queen can take advantage of that lacking reproductive viability and take over with less conflict. Queenless colonies are recycled which would otherwise have died out.

[Loops117]

 

After reading that post, i've come up with a plan. I'll divide all my queens up in groups of 2-5.. From there, i'll give them workers and brood from various lasius colonies, including a mature citronella colony near my house.

 

Also, why are ants such savages? She can send chemical propaganda to the workers from her own chamber to help kill/evict the queen. Holy crap.

It's not really worth applying human colonial concepts to other animals like ants. Social parasitism bestows great evolutionary benefits, such as: a much greater emphasis on the reproductive caste, which require fewer resources to develop to adulthood (some social parasites are inquiline, which means they do not need a worker caste at all.) By utilizing the workforce of an existing colony, a social parasite does not need to starve herself for months tending to brood in the hopes that her first workers will be able to out-compete surrounding colonies.

They aren't strictly killers, either. If a social parasite infiltrates a colony with a host queen, that queen will usually be short lived. However, an ideal situation for many parasitic queens is an orphaned host colony whose foundress has already perished. While the colony has not lost the ability to pass on its genes (worker eggs will develop into males, and will be genetically distinct from those which the former queen would have produced), a parasitic queen can take advantage of that lacking reproductive viability and take over with less conflict. Queenless colonies are recycled which would otherwise have died out.

 

Thank you. So there's quite a bit of benefit to social parasites. Which queens do you think have the most success rate? Your info page mentioned that parasitic queens use less resources to create, so they're able to create more alates compared to claustral queens? That's really interesting to hear.

[Loops117]

My plan is to offer a few different approaches to founding this colony, as well as maintaining it. 

 

For founding, i will be testing my new mini founding setups.

Nothing special but make work easy for maintaining and adding to a colony.

For a couple of these experiments, i will hook two test tubes up to one box, and allow the queen and workers to meet on their own.

 

 

For maintaining, i plan on offering byformica sunburst directly to the nest with the Aphid V1. This plugs into a pre-existing nest port and hopefully be a good replacement to the wild aphid.

[Canadian anter]

 

 

The Acanthomyops subgenus is generally hard to raise and I don't know anyone who has done it successfully yet. I've had the most luck with natural introduction. You should put multiple of them in with a small Lasius colony in my opinion

Have you had any luck introducing them to Lasius alienus? Lasius neoniger was all I had any luck with.

 

 

I had awesome success introducing my last queen to some alienus workers. Workers cared for the queen for over a month until she was randomly found dead.

think that's Cthonolasius not Acanthomyops

[Batspiderfish]

I think that's Cthonolasius not Acanthomyops

 

Just looking at the video still image makes it seem kind of like Lasius claviger, but actually watching it, it is clearly Lasius umbratus.

Oh, but from what I understand, these new ants are different.
 

Edited by Batspiderfish, March 8 2017 - 7:22 AM.

[Loops117]

 

I think that's Cthonolasius not Acanthomyops

 

Just looking at the video still image makes it seem kind of like Lasius claviger, but actually watching it, it is clearly Lasius umbratus.

Oh, but from what I understand, these new ants are different.
 

 

What do you mean by different? 

[Batspiderfish]

 

 

I think that's Cthonolasius not Acanthomyops

 

Just looking at the video still image makes it seem kind of like Lasius claviger, but actually watching it, it is clearly Lasius umbratus.

Oh, but from what I understand, these new ants are different.
 

 

What do you mean by different? 

 

 

That the queen in the video is not from the Lasius interjectus sample you are receiving.

[Loops117]

 

 

 

I think that's Cthonolasius not Acanthomyops

 

Just looking at the video still image makes it seem kind of like Lasius claviger, but actually watching it, it is clearly Lasius umbratus.

Oh, but from what I understand, these new ants are different.
 

 

What do you mean by different? 

 

 

That the queen in the video is not from the Lasius interjectus sample you are receiving.

 

 

Oh, well dang.