What do I do if I've found a new species?

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What should we name this dual species colony?

The REAL Biggie Smalls
10
43%
Freezer Ants (they must survive minus 50C winter)
11
48%
Orwell Ants
1
4%
ProlitariaANTs
1
4%
 
Total votes: 23

YukonAntMan

What do I do if I've found a new species?

Post: # 23924Post YukonAntMan
Mon Jul 03, 2017 5:40 am

Okay, so first off I live in the Yukon Territory of Canada.
I was taking a walk with my girlfriend trying to find a queen ant, and we found a log with a few holes in it and we thought it might be a queen chamber .... we were kind of right.
the thing is we found two species of ants living together, in the same chamber. There is a large major species with many queens and a smaller species with it's own queen ant.
At first we thought they were just itty bitty tiny hatch-lings until we made a really cool discovery, the smaller ants had their own queen!!! with her own smaller brood.
so long story short.... we kinda sorta stole the ant colonies from their log in the name of science and antlove.

The larger queens (all bloody 4 of them!) are supporting a small amount of brood of the larger species and there is one smaller queen.
I've been feeding them honey and bacon. Our initial observations showed that the larger species eat the food and then feed the smaller ones.
I still don't fully understand what the larger ants are gaining from the smaller ones but these ants are TINY, like smaller than thief ants and I thought that was the smallest ant on earth, the only one I could measure was just over 1 mm. My suspicions are that this kind of behavior is like when ants farm aphids for honeydew, but is there any other record other than ants farming another species of ant?
The larger ant species is much larger, probably about 10 to 15 times larger than the sub species and they seem to be doing well in captivity.

So aside from you guys, who do I tell to find out what kind of ant species these are and why are they in the yukon where we get -50C weather.

These are NOT normal in the yukon, we barely have ants at all, when I got my friend at Yukon College to check the biological index it only shows 3 ant species living here and that cannot be right. i know most ants here die quickly when winter comes but i KNOW there are more than 3 species here.

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Batspiderfish
Posts: 3315
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:47 pm
Location: Maine

Re: What do I do if I've found a new species?

Post: # 23927Post Batspiderfish
Mon Jul 03, 2017 8:32 am

The actual number of species is probably closer to around 20. You could always take pictures. I'm guessing the smaller species is Leptothorax while the larger one is Camponotus herculeanus or Formica. Many species of ant are able to live near or within the nest of another species by being too small to notice or having adapted to make themselves chemically "invisible".

The ants which live that far north have adapted to survive very cold winters, mostly with the help of the natural antifreeze, glycerol. They only produce this during the approach of winter, so don't go sticking them in the freezer.

Bacon is a fairly unsuitable food for them. They might like the fat, but they will need protein from insects.
If you enjoy my expertise and identifications, please do not put wild populations at risk of disease by releasing pet colonies. We are responsible to give our pets the best care we can manage for the rest of their lives.

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FarrAnts
Posts: 259
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2017 11:20 am
Location: Minot Air Force Base North Dakota

Re: What do I do if I've found a new species?

Post: # 23950Post FarrAnts
Mon Jul 03, 2017 3:27 pm

YukonAntMan wrote:
Mon Jul 03, 2017 5:40 am
Okay, so first off I live in the Yukon Territory of Canada.
I was taking a walk with my girlfriend trying to find a queen ant, and we found a log with a few holes in it and we thought it might be a queen chamber .... we were kind of right.
the thing is we found two species of ants living together, in the same chamber. There is a large major species with many queens and a smaller species with it's own queen ant.
At first we thought they were just itty bitty tiny hatch-lings until we made a really cool discovery, the smaller ants had their own queen!!! with her own smaller brood.
so long story short.... we kinda sorta stole the ant colonies from their log in the name of science and antlove.

The larger queens (all bloody 4 of them!) are supporting a small amount of brood of the larger species and there is one smaller queen.
I've been feeding them honey and bacon. Our initial observations showed that the larger species eat the food and then feed the smaller ones.
I still don't fully understand what the larger ants are gaining from the smaller ones but these ants are TINY, like smaller than thief ants and I thought that was the smallest ant on earth, the only one I could measure was just over 1 mm. My suspicions are that this kind of behavior is like when ants farm aphids for honeydew, but is there any other record other than ants farming another species of ant?
The larger ant species is much larger, probably about 10 to 15 times larger than the sub species and they seem to be doing well in captivity.

So aside from you guys, who do I tell to find out what kind of ant species these are and why are they in the yukon where we get -50C weather.

These are NOT normal in the yukon, we barely have ants at all, when I got my friend at Yukon College to check the biological index it only shows 3 ant species living here and that cannot be right. i know most ants here die quickly when winter comes but i KNOW there are more than 3 species here.
Provide some pictures? They sound really cool.
Ball is life... Ants included.

Idahoantguy
Posts: 136
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:48 am
Location: Idaho

Re: What do I do if I've found a new species?

Post: # 24116Post Idahoantguy
Fri Jul 07, 2017 7:07 pm

YukonAntMan wrote:
Mon Jul 03, 2017 5:40 am
Okay, so first off I live in the Yukon Territory of Canada.
I was taking a walk with my girlfriend trying to find a queen ant, and we found a log with a few holes in it and we thought it might be a queen chamber .... we were kind of right.
the thing is we found two species of ants living together, in the same chamber. There is a large major species with many queens and a smaller species with it's own queen ant.
At first we thought they were just itty bitty tiny hatch-lings until we made a really cool discovery, the smaller ants had their own queen!!! with her own smaller brood.
so long story short.... we kinda sorta stole the ant colonies from their log in the name of science and antlove.

The larger queens (all bloody 4 of them!) are supporting a small amount of brood of the larger species and there is one smaller queen.
I've been feeding them honey and bacon. Our initial observations showed that the larger species eat the food and then feed the smaller ones.
I still don't fully understand what the larger ants are gaining from the smaller ones but these ants are TINY, like smaller than thief ants and I thought that was the smallest ant on earth, the only one I could measure was just over 1 mm. My suspicions are that this kind of behavior is like when ants farm aphids for honeydew, but is there any other record other than ants farming another species of ant?
The larger ant species is much larger, probably about 10 to 15 times larger than the sub species and they seem to be doing well in captivity.

So aside from you guys, who do I tell to find out what kind of ant species these are and why are they in the yukon where we get -50C weather.

These are NOT normal in the yukon, we barely have ants at all, when I got my friend at Yukon College to check the biological index it only shows 3 ant species living here and that cannot be right. i know most ants here die quickly when winter comes but i KNOW there are more than 3 species here.
That's pretty crazy... (and cool)
Keeping:
Tetramorium immigrans x2

Anything but tetramorium please :cry:

NMantLover

Re: What do I do if I've found a new species?

Post: # 25483Post NMantLover
Tue Jul 18, 2017 3:22 pm

PICTURES PLEASE! This sounds really cool. Better yet, do a YouTube vid and post the link here!

ANTphibian

Re: What do I do if I've found a new species?

Post: # 26004Post ANTphibian
Fri Jul 21, 2017 3:05 pm

This is awesome. I would of thought it's some sort of different type of parasitic ant, but I'm not an expert or anything. Please provide pictures.

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