Cohabitating 3 ant species together..
Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2019 2:16 am
Hello, I'm from BC canada.. and I am new to this hobby. This study.. this interest. I was actually I aspired by AntsCanada on youtube... I clicked for the beetles but then watched hours of ants..
In my research to find what ant species I want to start with for my son and I, i of course wanted a really cool and unique species of ant, but quickly discovered it is both legal and most wise to raise ant colonies that are indigenous to your area..
So then I was looking up ant species local to BC canada, but the list i found in an article from University of BC, lists them all as their latin name...and most of them I dont recognize..
However I found it interesting that the Polyergus Breviceps are unable to properly forage and sustain their colonies so they enslave formica species, out here is seems often its formica neorufibarbis..
So then I thought how cool would it be if I could have 2 out worlds and 2 nests hooked to eachother and have a symbiotic relationship between these 2 species. Is this possible? Will the polygerus allow the formica to continue to reproduce so they can in turn continue to take slaves?
Since I'm a beginner, I figure I'll start out with just 1 of the ant species.. and then introduce the other.. I also assume that since formica will be enslaved, they should probably be the 1st and strongest colony right?
Now here is the interesting part...
+ solenopsis molesta
I read solenopsis will make tunnels to other colonies so they can continue to nurture their own colonies by stealing pupae and such..
Will solenopsis just kill out the entire other colony? Or will they allow the other colony to survive for their own self benefit?
If they will allow a colony to survive...
Would it be possible to have all 3 of these species living near eachother? With maybe 2 large out worlds for them?
I was thinking if the formica colony was raised to be the biggest, assuming theyre the main slaves and nourishment for the other 2 colonies... I then introduce the solenopsis into the same out world as the formica, and give them time to make their supply routes to the formica colony.
Then I would have the polygerus in it's own out world, and I would hook the 2 out worlds together and hopefully the polygerus will find the formica colony. And hopefully the solenopsis wont expand to the polygerus of they already have a bunch of implemented supply routes?
Anyways.. I know it was a big big post, please let me know what you think about this idea? Is it even possible?
In my research to find what ant species I want to start with for my son and I, i of course wanted a really cool and unique species of ant, but quickly discovered it is both legal and most wise to raise ant colonies that are indigenous to your area..
So then I was looking up ant species local to BC canada, but the list i found in an article from University of BC, lists them all as their latin name...and most of them I dont recognize..
However I found it interesting that the Polyergus Breviceps are unable to properly forage and sustain their colonies so they enslave formica species, out here is seems often its formica neorufibarbis..
So then I thought how cool would it be if I could have 2 out worlds and 2 nests hooked to eachother and have a symbiotic relationship between these 2 species. Is this possible? Will the polygerus allow the formica to continue to reproduce so they can in turn continue to take slaves?
Since I'm a beginner, I figure I'll start out with just 1 of the ant species.. and then introduce the other.. I also assume that since formica will be enslaved, they should probably be the 1st and strongest colony right?
Now here is the interesting part...
+ solenopsis molesta
I read solenopsis will make tunnels to other colonies so they can continue to nurture their own colonies by stealing pupae and such..
Will solenopsis just kill out the entire other colony? Or will they allow the other colony to survive for their own self benefit?
If they will allow a colony to survive...
Would it be possible to have all 3 of these species living near eachother? With maybe 2 large out worlds for them?
I was thinking if the formica colony was raised to be the biggest, assuming theyre the main slaves and nourishment for the other 2 colonies... I then introduce the solenopsis into the same out world as the formica, and give them time to make their supply routes to the formica colony.
Then I would have the polygerus in it's own out world, and I would hook the 2 out worlds together and hopefully the polygerus will find the formica colony. And hopefully the solenopsis wont expand to the polygerus of they already have a bunch of implemented supply routes?
Anyways.. I know it was a big big post, please let me know what you think about this idea? Is it even possible?