3 replies to this topic

[Russell]

Hi All 

 

   We found a Formica ravida queen. She is temporarily parasitic so I need to give her pupa is my understanding but some articles say give these queen pupa, same say workers and pupa as she can not care for pupa and eggs?.

    Can people who know this species clarify?. 

    I did set her up with Formica pupa and cocooned eggs that are close to hatching. At first she seemed to ignore the pupa and try to escape but it looks like she might be caring for them now but hard to tell. 

    Should I give her workers?. Is so how best?. 

 

Thank You

Russell 

[AntsMaryland]

You do not have to give her workers. Give her some pupae and she'll know how to care for them.

[Russell]

Update; This is my second Formica ravida I found. The first after i tried giving it brood dies shortly after and it never seemed to take to the brood(i.e. never stood over them or carried for them).

    So this second queen we gave some brood at several different stages of development. First few days did not care for brood at all(same as original queen) then started standing over however but not really taking care of brood.  This lack of care for the first few days might have led to the few brood not developing so we tried giving her formica workers( to help with brood care) by cooling both queen and workers down then introducing. Queen(likely)  killed workers over a day or so:(

   So I picked brood very close to hatching from cocoons and placed them in tube with her. Surprise she cared for them and two workers hatched and are doing well and caring for rest of brood. I was close to giving up. So if everything stays as it is we should have a successful temp parasitic queen colony. 

   

[Batspiderfish]

There are lots of Formica social parasites other than Formica ravida, just so you know. You might want to try to have them identified, if you can get good pictures.

 

Anywaaays, not all social parasites are the same; Lasius social parasites are almost never capable of caring for brood, whilst Formica social parasites can do this pretty competently. Some species of Formica can sway host workers over to the queen's side, but they are more likely to kill or scare away all the adult members of the nest and simply raise the abandoned brood as her own. Formica social parasites have also been observed walking out of the nest with pupae, perhaps stashing them at her own nest site.