Feeding insect eggs to ants

Posts and questions relating to ant diet & nutrition. Let us know what you’re feeding your ants.

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What will happen to the eggs?

Poll ended at Sun May 27, 2018 5:55 pm

Hatch but the stick insects will be devoured.
1
11%
Hatch and the stick insects will escape, as they've evolved for a 'hot' birth.
4
44%
Not hatch because the conditions in an ant nest are not correct for the incubation of the eggs.
2
22%
Not hatch because the eggs will be eaten when the nest gets hungry.
2
22%
Something else (Leave a reply!)
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 9

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Yui907
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon May 22, 2017 12:55 pm
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
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Feeding insect eggs to ants

Post: # 21869Post Yui907
Sat May 27, 2017 5:55 pm

So recently (I lie, actually a month ago now), I found out that some kinds of seed-collecting ants also mistakenly collect certain insect eggs, which have evolved specifically to be collected by ants so that the eggs are in a 'protected' nest. This interested me, as surely the moment the insect hatches, the ants would devour the (high-protien) newborns, right?

Anyway, being the inquisitive mind I am, I went and acquired some Indian Stick Insect eggs and put them into my outworld. They ignored them at first but after a few hours they started to drag the eggs in and, once in the granary, they started to rub their mouths against a notch on the egg.
Image

Image


Anyway, does anyone want to predict or vote on what will happen to the stick insects?
Is this experiment unethical?
Is there a glaring problem with my setup that I've not noticed?
What is the top speed of an SR-71 Blackbird?

Have a good day,
Yui907

(Wish we could strikethrough.)
Nests:
Messor barbarus - 1 Year, population: ~150 (27/05/2017)

Equipment:
Omninest Vertical Small
http://www.AntsCanada.com/shop/omni-nest-vertical-small/

My journal:
http://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=3374

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ScaryBuh
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2016 10:04 am
Location: Portugal
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Re: Feeding insect eggs to ants

Post: # 22195Post ScaryBuh
Thu Jun 01, 2017 7:41 pm

What do you mean? African or european SR-71 Blackbird ?

Anyway, I think that is a nice experiment, keep going, post results.
Remember we still know very little from these crazy insect world.

Martialis
Posts: 1576
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2016 5:30 pm
Location: Indiana

Re: Feeding insect eggs to ants

Post: # 22201Post Martialis
Fri Jun 02, 2017 12:00 am

Interesting, I would like to see how this plays out. There are certain genera that evolved to eat arthropod eggs, such as Proceratium.

I wouldn't say it's unethical, unless the stick insects weren't myrmecophilous.

Mach 2.85.
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