5 replies to this topic

[Shaye]

I haven't ever heard of this species having multiple queens, but the other day I caught a colony of about 60 workers and 2 queens which I assumed was just me being faulty in identifying which was the queen. Today I caught, on the same branch, a queen and 20 workers. They have absolutely no quarrel with eachother when introduced, and all three queens were carried into the nest I made for them immediately. They seemed to be entirely on the same page, as if they were all from the same colony.

Edited by Shaye, July 30 2017 - 12:36 AM.

[Shaye]

I know that the queen of this species is hard to identify, but after all of the freshly mated queens I have captured of this species I am positive about the ID.

Edited by Shaye, July 29 2017 - 11:04 PM.

[yen_saw]

It's not uncommon, i have collected colony with multiple queens before with this species, sometimes as many as dozen of queens in the same colony.

[Connectimyrmex]

Polygyny is rare with this species. Chances are that one of those queens is actually infertile and is serving as a worker.

[Shaye]

They groomed, and surrounded, all three queens.. Also, the queens did not show any average worker behavior. Scattering at the first sight of my featherweight forceps movement, while the workers defended by biting the tweezers and attempting to sting them. All three were also the first to be carried into the nest along with the large egg/larvae/pupae pile.

It just does not seem like a sterile-queen type of scenario.

Edited by Shaye, July 30 2017 - 12:13 PM.

[Connectimyrmex]

Hmm, it seems like you do in fact have a polygynous colony.