3 replies to this topic

[Zmagz]

So I have a Crematogaster cerasi/lineolata colony with about 12 or so workers and I have them in a test tube setup. The cotton that they drank water from was very very moldy so I decided to move them into another tube. I did the usual attach another tube and expose light on the tube they are in and keep the other one dark. Then I went to do homework and a minute later I look back over to see the queen fighting a worker and she killed it. I'm not sure if it was the light or what so I decided to keep the lamp on and examine the queen's behavior. The queen would open her mandibles in aggression to some of her workers and she started taking the brood from the main pile and making a new pile. Then she grabbed a worker in her mandibles and I was really really confused. I tapped on the tube because I didn't want another one to killed. When I tapped on the tube she dropped the worker. I immediately turned off the lamp. It has now been a few days and she hasn't killed any more workers except the one. I don't know if this is a common thing for crematogaster or not? Does anyone know why she might do this or what caused this weird behavior to happen?

[YsTheAnt]

The worker might have been defective, or may have posed a threat to the queen. Maybe the queen got stressed and killed it. There are a variety of reasons why this may have happened.

[LC3]

It’s possible that it was stressed out prompting a defensive response (chemical excretion) which might have confused one of the ants to the point of trying to kill each other.

[YsTheAnt]

It’s possible that it was stressed out prompting a defensive response (chemical excretion) which might have confused one of the ants to the point of trying to kill each other.

 

Adding on to this, the queen may have felt defensive due to the worker possibly trying to move the queen into the other tube forcefully. In larger colonies, this is not dangerous to any participants, but it is possible that small colonies' queens, such as yours, may get stressed out faster and therefore may harm her own colony members.