5 replies to this topic

[BMM]

Has any else ever seen this during a flight? I'm specifically seeing it with the Tetramorium tsushimae nests around my house. Over the past few days I've managed to hone in on their flight time, so I thought I'd watch this morning to see it start. I saw the usual behavior where a few alates would hang out around the nest entrance and I even saw a couple wander off and take flight. However, what was really strange was that there were some wingless queens emerging as well. Much like the alates, they'd wander around the entrance for a bit and then head back in. I didn't see any go off on their own, but they weren't escorted by any workers either. It seemed strange and didn't fit the bill for budding. I captured four of them, so I'm going to see if they're fertile. Is this normal for Tetramorium or any other species? I can't really think of a good explanation for it.

[Martialis]

Sounds like budding to me.

[VoidElecent]

I know some other specialized species like Tapinoma sessile, Limethipema humile and Crematogaster spp. do this as well.

[BMM]

I thought budding in ant colonies usually involved some portion of the workers and brood being carried off as well. I've seen Tapinoma sessile do that for example.

[cpman]

Some species mate in the nest at least occasionally. (At least around me, I know that polygyne S. invicta does, as do Limethipema humile, Leptogenys elongata, Monomorium pharonis, and Pachycondyla harpax) They may not do it consistently, but it does occur sometimes. The queens either fly or walk to disperse, sometimes accompanied by workers.

 

It's possible that T. tsushmiae does as well.

Edited by cpman, July 9 2017 - 10:14 AM.

[BMM]

Of the five dealate queens I caught while observing this behavior, none have laid eggs. I've not sure what to make of this.

 

My first conclusion is that these queens are infertile and may have been acting as workers. As I've reported before, I can almost always lift up a stone and find several of these queens mixed in with the workers and brood. I assumed this was just a high degree of polygyny, but perhaps they were just infertile queens. However, I've read that infertile queens don't live very long. I've seen these multiple queens situations as early as February and as late as November, which is well outside the nuptial flight period. I've also never seen any queens outside the nest with the workers, save for the behavior I'm seeing now during nuptial flights. This leads me to believe that they aren't just acting as workers.

 

The next conclusion is that they are fertile but unable to start a colony without workers and/or brood. Perhaps budding is necessary for some of these queens to start a colony. I also have reasons to believe that's unlikely though. These queens were wandering outside the nest without an escort of workers, so they didn't appear to be budding. I've also never witnessed any of these colonies splitting off, despite having several to observe and checking on them often. So I think I can discard budding as an explanation.

 

At this point, I'm not sure what exactly is going on. Perhaps these are infertile queens that are preparing for a nuptial flight but have shed their wings for some reason. I know that queens will occasionally remove their wings without mating, although the number I've found seems to indicate a pattern rather than a rare exception. Is it possible that some of these queens try to mate on the ground rather than fly? I'm not sure that I've heard of that before.