9 replies to this topic

[MegaMyrmex]

1- Are the driver ants Dorylus somehow closely related to the ponerine ants? If you look at the worker's gaster and the male ants you will see what I mean.
2- Aphaenogaster use the social bucket method. They trap a liquid in between their mandibles with aurface tension and present it to other members of the colony. This is a very common behavior and many ponerines, if not all. This inclides odontomachus, pachycondyla, ectatomma, and so on.
Are these theoriea true? Have rhey already been evaluated by myrmecologists?

[Connectimyrmex]

1. I stand corrected. They aren't.

 

2. No. They use sand grains, sticks, dirt pieces, and other absorbent materials to transport liquids.

Edited by Connectimyrmex, October 11 2017 - 2:11 AM.

[Batspiderfish]

Not sure about the second part, but Ponerinae diverged from the "non-ponerine" formicoid subfamilies some time ago; Dorylus is in its own subfamily, Dorylinae, more closely related to the likes of Dolichoderinae, Myrmicinae, Formicinae, etc.

[T.C.]

I'm confused with all these posts. I deleted one of the two identical posts. Now there is this one. Not the same though.

Kind of hard to read, are you on mobile?

Edited by T.C., October 10 2017 - 9:41 PM.

[MegaMyrmex]

I'm confused with all these posts. I deleted one of the two identical posts. Now there is this one. Not the same though.

Kind of hard to read, are you on mobile?

Yeah I'm on mobile, whenever I try to post it takes extreme lag and a lot of time.
But when I looknat the gaster, the gaster structure is the same, and I could have sworn that the aphaenogasyer workers were carrying droplets stuck between their mandibles. They were open in a v shape and the workers had a drop of honey in each one. I'll try to upload a video of it when I have time.

[Connectimyrmex]

Sometimes my Aphaenogaster picea workers do that when they're in a rush (they drink as they walk)

[Mettcollsuss]

1. I stand corrected. They aren't.

 

2. No. They use sand grains, sticks, dirt pieces, and other absorbent materials to transport liquids.

I have a small 5 worker Aphaenogaster sp. colony. I heard that they don't have social stomachs, so I was wondering how they got food to their brood, nestmates, and queen. That makes sense now.

[Connectimyrmex]

 

1. I stand corrected. They aren't.

 

2. No. They use sand grains, sticks, dirt pieces, and other absorbent materials to transport liquids.

I have a small 5 worker Aphaenogaster sp. colony. I heard that they don't have social stomachs, so I was wondering how they got food to their brood, nestmates, and queen. That makes sense now.

 

Yup. In woodlands, sugars can be pretty rare, so Aphaenogaster didn't really need a social stomach.

[Batspiderfish]

Aphaenogaster DO have social stomachs, but they're so much smaller than average that they prefer to soak liquid foods in pieces of debris and transport it to the nest that way.

[Connectimyrmex]

Oh. That's pretty cool!