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[Yalle]

Hello!

 

This June, I found a new queen of Formica sanguinea. I placed her in a test tube with 20 or so pupae of Formica fusca. After a month, the pupae hatched, and I placed them all into a formicarium. Everything went smoothly, and I decided to brood boost with some more fusca pupae I stumbled upon while doing field work. My colony accepted the new pupae, and they quickly started hatching. But, out of them came not fusca, but Formica rufa workes! The fusca nest I collected them from must have been infiltrated by a rufa queen this spring or summer.

 

I was really excited about the opportunity to study the interactions between the three species, but unfortunately, the sanguinea queen seemed to produce no eggs. I thought she might have become stressed during the move from test tube to formicarium, until this evening when I was observing the colony. She laid two eggs within few minutes, and they were instantly taken by the rufa workes. After walking around seemingly aimlessly for a few minutes, the workes consumed both eggs. I even saw a fusca worker gently holding the end of one of the eggs, while a rufa worker was gnawing at the other end. Furthermore, I have on more than one occasion seen the rufa workers pulling the sanguinea queens’ legs, as if they were subduing a prey insect. The queen is usually indifferent to this treatment, until today where she briefly attacked a provocative worker. I have observed trophallaxis between all three species, although fusca seems to be more willing to feed the queen.

 

My theory is that this has been happening the last few weeks without me noticing. Maybe some pheromone-communication-stuff is going wrong between sanguinea and rufa, leading to these strange interactions. They are well-fed, so I don’t think this could be due to malnutrition. Does anyone have experience with something similar?  

 

I look forward to your replies!

Edited by Yalle, September 10 2018 - 1:56 PM.