Polyergus sp

[vstrelow]

Hey all,

New to the hobby and I'm working on founding several species with varied levels of success. Today I found some very interesting red ants I thought were moving a nest, but after aome research I've identified them as a Polyergus sp and they were on a raid. I didn't know this at the time and captured several of the workers carrying pupae as well as a few winged elates, though wings appeared damaged on two of them. I don't expect the gynes to be fertile, and some reading leads me to believe this could be a very difficult species to attempt to keep... My question is simply if anyone here has done it with any level of success? I have several Formica queens founding, of the same species that I saw being raided. I also have a test tube style formicarium I was saving for a parasitic lasius colony, but I'm not sure if they will found or not. My thinking is that I could move one of the formica colonies to the test tube setup and occasionally offer a tube full of brood to the Polyergus sp. I don't know if this would would work, or how many Formica colonies would be needed to support one Polyergus colony, but I am curious enough to try, if it can be done. These Polyergus are some really neat looking ants and the behavior is pretty unique, would love to give it a shot, if its possible.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

[Batspiderfish]

From what I can tell, the founding process is a lot like Lasius social parasites rather than Formica, since Polyergus are completely incapable of caring brood or doing anything else for that matter. People have kept them before, but describe the situation as more like having a queenless Formica colony. I wouldn't consider them suitable for captivity unless you just like how they look and are prepared to tirelessly provide for them.