Hmm, how is this possible? (related to my fire ant queen) in Archived Keeping Ants #2 Forum

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Hmm, how is this possible? (related to my fire ant queen)

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Vendayn	Hmm, how is this possible? (related to my fire ant queen)		Lead	[-]
TAFAMF Addict Posts: 2798 09/19/2005 4:14 PM	I got one winged female, no other males. I had a fertile queen also and a bunch of workers and a few majors. Today I just looked and I see remains of a wing left, it wasn't a fly wing, it was to large...I've only put in small flies and none have flown in, I would have seen it when I put the lid on. It looks just like a wing from a queen. Its long, a little bit wide (more long so) and isn't from a fly. Now, if it was from my winged female I had. (I've had them for about a month now) How could it have got mated and shed its wings? Since its been about a month wouldn't the female have shed her wings by now? She was travelling on the trail I found the queen on (about same time) Or could another fire ant queen have flown into the nest? Its weird seeing the wing there when no males were around. I'm still not exactly sure what type of fire ant I have. I'll make another post about it in the anting/field forums.
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MrILoveTheAnts	Re: Hmm, how is this possible? (related to my fire ant queen	#1	[url]	[-]
TAFAMF Addict Posts: 4629 09/19/2005 4:33 PM	Sounds like mating season is over and an unfertilized queen would have only been a burden to the colony so the workers killed her.
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Vendayn	queen	#2	[url]	[-]
TAFAMF Addict Posts: 2798 09/19/2005 5:16 PM	I would have thought that, but I don't see any parts of what would be a queen anywhere or being carried. Or would they eat whatever was remaining?
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chazzbo77	Re: queen	#3	[url]	[-]
Henchant Posts: 1355 09/19/2005 5:48 PM	They've most likely eaten her entirely and left the wings. chazzbo77
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Reacker	queen	#4	[url]	[-]
Henchant Posts: 1839 09/19/2005 6:01 PM	I thought ants don't usually cannabalize other adult ants of the same colony? Maybe she just died of her own natural causes instead, though I am thinking she was probably killed by the workers.
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MrILoveTheAnts	Re: Hmm, how is this possible? (related to my fire ant queen	#5	[url]	[-]
TAFAMF Addict Posts: 4629 09/19/2005 7:13 PM	Well my when I boosted my Aphaenogaster colony I accidentally added males to their mix. I didn't get a chance to move their cage outside at all to let them fly away but now I don't see them in there. Not even the wings are left over.
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Reacker	Hmm, how is this possible? (related to my fire ant queen	#6	[url]	[-]
Henchant Posts: 1839 09/20/2005 5:46 PM	I have had the same thing happen to me when I boosted my honeypot ant colony and some of the pupa turned out to ge males. But vendayns virgin queen was from the same colony I think, so I wasn't sure if they would eat related members of the same colony.
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MrILoveTheAnts	Re: Hmm, how is this possible? (related to my fire ant queen	#7	[url]	[-]
TAFAMF Addict Posts: 4629 09/20/2005 8:11 PM	Regardless if they were tolerated or not the workers still encouraged them to fly away for a good month and a half. Once mating season was over they are eaten. When Tetramoriom queens found a nest they begin eating one another as food.
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Reacker	Hmm, how is this possible? (related to my fire ant queen	#8	[url]	[-]
Henchant Posts: 1839 09/21/2005 4:30 PM	Wierd, my tetramorium queens didn't seem to be eating each other. They workers just killed one of the two when they eclosed and left the corpse at the edge of the tube untouched(except for being dead). I have another colony of them that I started with about ten-20 queens, now they have approxametily 30 workers and they have only about six queens left. Though the workers are showing no aggresion to the excess queens and the queens themselfs are cooperating nicely. Can tetramorium queens cooperate if they are started in a big enough group? Or do I have the wrong identification wich is a thought that has been crossing my mind lately.
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Vendayn	fire ants	#9	[url]	[-]
TAFAMF Addict Posts: 2798 09/21/2005 5:46 PM	Okay, some of my fire ants have moved back into the old container. A few still explore in their old container, but I haven't seen them dig at all. I saw a major carrying a small pebble in the old container they used to be in. I see a lot less ants exploring lately, not sure why. The dirt is where I got from near the colony and the same dirt thats in the jar they are moving back into. The tank has plenty of moisture and dry areas, plants and enough food. Why would they suddenly move back? There is still a few in the tank, but I only see one or two exploring at a time now. (edit) Put a grasshopper into their ant farm and tons of ants are eating it. Argentine ants had it first (outside)but I stole it from them and gave it to my Fire ants. I of course froze it to kill any mites, doubt there was, it was in the hot sun. (edit) Also, I saw an ant carrying a small cluster of eggs...so I know my queen is still alive
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Vendayn	fire ant queen	#10	[url]	[-]
TAFAMF Addict Posts: 2798 10/03/2005 6:01 PM	Well, just making sure. I do leave the lid off almost all day most days. Could I still have two queens? Because some ants are nesting in the jar, while others are nesting in tank...both doing construction in each. (The jar is burried in the tank) Could it be very unlikely, but possible that I got two queens and they split into two different colonies?
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Hmm, how is this possible? (related to my fire ant queen)

Hmm, how is this possible? (related to my fire ant queen)