Mated queens

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Dearth335

Mated queens

Post: # 31649Post Dearth335
Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:35 pm

Hi, has anyone here ever got queens to mate in captivity. Because I believe I might have. Here's the story, I was walking in a more southern part of CO springs. And i had a shovel with me. After walking up a path and accidentally stepping in poison ivy, i found an anthill. it was very close to nuptial flight so all the elates were at the top of the nest. i decided to dig up the anthill and found two Lasius queens. which i assumed weren't mated because they had wings and were in a nest with ants. since I have never seen a polygynous Lasius[i/] colonies. and when i put two of the queens in the same test tube because they were from the same colony (turned out to be a bad decision. after the fact.). I also found a male ant (which i assumed to be a Lasius[i/] male. I was right) i then put the male in and it died a day later. And 2 weeks after that i found one of the queens dead with both of it's wings on and the other with no wings. now, a week later the queen has eggs and larvae which are incredibly small so i assume they are worker's larvae. So now i believe that I have mated a queen in captivity. otherwise, what else could have happened. :D

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idahoantgirl
Posts: 1521
Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2015 11:52 am
Location: Idaho, USA

Re: Mated queens

Post: # 32244Post idahoantgirl
Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:00 pm

Dearth335 wrote:
Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:35 pm
Hi, has anyone here ever got queens to mate in captivity. Because I believe I might have. Here's the story, I was walking in a more southern part of CO springs. And i had a shovel with me. After walking up a path and accidentally stepping in poison ivy, i found an anthill. it was very close to nuptial flight so all the elates were at the top of the nest. i decided to dig up the anthill and found two Lasius queens. which i assumed weren't mated because they had wings and were in a nest with ants. since I have never seen a polygynous Lasius[i/] colonies. and when i put two of the queens in the same test tube because they were from the same colony (turned out to be a bad decision. after the fact.). I also found a male ant (which i assumed to be a Lasius[i/] male. I was right) i then put the male in and it died a day later. And 2 weeks after that i found one of the queens dead with both of it's wings on and the other with no wings. now, a week later the queen has eggs and larvae which are incredibly small so i assume they are worker's larvae. So now i believe that I have mated a queen in captivity. otherwise, what else could have happened. :D


Well, Sometimes infertile queens will still lay eggs (like chickens) except for the eggs do hatch-- Into useless male drones. So that could be what happened.
Proverbs 6:6-8

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

Keeping Tetramorium immigrans, Tapinoma Sessile

Dearth335

Re: Mated queens

Post: # 32317Post Dearth335
Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:08 pm

no, she has workers now

AntsDakota
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Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 4:22 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Mated queens

Post: # 40871Post AntsDakota
Thu Jul 12, 2018 4:53 pm

I've gotten them to mate in a container.
"God made every kind of wild beasts and every kind of livestock and every kind of creeping things;" (including ants) "and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:25

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antnest8
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Location: Detroit, MI

Re: Mated queens

Post: # 40964Post antnest8
Fri Jul 13, 2018 10:27 am

this has been done before but it is rare and hard to do.
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antsRlife
Posts: 140
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2017 7:27 am
Location: melbourn, victoria

Re: Mated queens

Post: # 47697Post antsRlife
Thu Aug 16, 2018 9:20 pm

ive gotten them to mate when a male was trying to climb onto the queen :lol:
Queens only:
Myrmecia Pilosula (6 larvae, 1 pupae)

Early Stage Nests:
x1 Anonychromyrma (15-20 workers)

Hunter36o
Posts: 376
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 9:57 am
Location: Dublin, Ireland

Re: Mated queens

Post: # 49381Post Hunter36o
Tue Sep 04, 2018 8:59 am

And this has now become the perfect place for my question. Except it's for Myrmica. But okay so as we know Myrmica Rubra are very happy if having tones of queen's per nest. However I recently read due to this they actually do not live that long at all. 2 - 4 years :( now I have 2 Myrmica with a small change one is actually ruginodis and nor Rubra so I was wondering would it be possible as a new an ant keeper in my country who has Myrmica Rubra, if I knew another, could we be creative and make a mating dome?

The idea for this and I have no idea if so wine has tried this before but if I were you make a mini super dome roughly 3ft in diameter with 2 connect points, one for each keepers colony. Could we, during their flight season induce a mating frenzy between the two colonies?

Now a lot of serious design will have to go I to this to stop the workers from mixing and ensuring the alates only make it there yada yada. Would the concept work? So they have biology telling them it's that time of the year as it does with captive conies but they lack the pheromone scents to go fly. What if this dome I mentioned allowed these scents to pass from one colony to the other leading them to the "mating dome"

I would like to hear people's thoughts on this as it is something I am always thinking about as I think not only would it benefit the colonies but it could also open up a hole new door for ant keeps particularly those with multi queen species???
Research is important before during and even after you have established a colony. There is always time to learn and to listen to others experiences. Live by this and your ants will thrive. Fail to do so and your experience may be brief.

AntsDakota
Posts: 1283
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 4:22 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Mated queens

Post: # 49441Post AntsDakota
Tue Sep 04, 2018 5:50 pm

They will mate in a container if it's in nuptial flight only. Almost no exceptions. So if you catch queens and males that are boiling out of different nests and put them in a container, there's a much better chance they'll mate than if you catch them before nuptial flight.
"God made every kind of wild beasts and every kind of livestock and every kind of creeping things;" (including ants) "and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:25

AntsDakota
Posts: 1283
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 4:22 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Mated queens

Post: # 52041Post AntsDakota
Sun Oct 07, 2018 2:07 pm

Make that before and after nuptial flight.
"God made every kind of wild beasts and every kind of livestock and every kind of creeping things;" (including ants) "and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:25

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