Are dorylus queen fully claustrial?

[AntsSA]

Just the title really.

[Batspiderfish]

No they are not claustral nor semi-claustral. Dorylus reproduce by budding, where the old queen takes half the colony and the new queens take the other half (all but one will be killed off). One colony may only produce one viable queen every 1-2 years. This is why it is not ecologically sound for hobbyists to keep army ants from Dorylinae. On top of that, army ants have never been able to adapt to captivity.

[AntsSA]

Ok I was just wondering

[xTNxANTMANx]

No they are not claustral nor semi-claustral. Dorylus reproduce by budding, where the old queen takes half the colony and the new queens take the other half (all but one will be killed off). One colony may only produce one viable queen every 1-2 years. This is why it is not ecologically sound for hobbyists to keep army ants from Dorylinae. On top of that, army ants have never been able to adapt to captivity.

That's amazing. I've never heard of ants "budding" to reproduce. But the way you described it I could see where the term budding is used LOL. Pretty cool how they split the colony in half in order to reproduce. I would have never thought that. Just goes to show you learn something new every day. Do they just separate into two colonies or do they separate into multiple? I see where you said the NEW Queens will take a half but do they just keep splitting from there or do they eventually just keep killing the Queen's until one is left to run that half of the colony? You said all but one will be killed off...the newer queens Im assumeing

[Batspiderfish]

Only one of the new queens which branch away from the old queen will survive to continue the colony. I'm pretty sure they only split that one time.