Early October southern Germany catches

Help with identifying the species your ants

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Serafine

Re: Early October southern Germany catches

Post: # 13657Post Serafine
Wed Oct 12, 2016 9:02 am

The rear thorax spine seems to be very tiny but not sure if that's any help.

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Batspiderfish
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Re: Early October southern Germany catches

Post: # 13661Post Batspiderfish
Wed Oct 12, 2016 9:46 am

Thanks for the pictures! I'm sticking with Tetramorium.
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.

Serafine

Re: Early October southern Germany catches

Post: # 13666Post Serafine
Wed Oct 12, 2016 12:32 pm

Hm, someone in another forum threw Solenopsis fugax into the ring. I must admit the similarities are extremely remarkable.
Image
Image

If this turns out true does that mean I have an exploding Solenopsis colony at my hand or do they not multiply with the same ridiculous rate of other Solenopsis (like RIFA and RTFA)?

They also are polygynous during the founding stage, does that mean I can put my four queens together in one setup and let the workers duke out which queen they want to keep? (and more important would this actually be beneficial or cause more harm than good)

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Batspiderfish
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Re: Early October southern Germany catches

Post: # 13673Post Batspiderfish
Wed Oct 12, 2016 2:43 pm

Except that Solenopsis fugax cannot be 1cm in length.
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.

Theantguy13

Re: Early October southern Germany catches

Post: # 13700Post Theantguy13
Thu Oct 13, 2016 12:19 am

If you let the workers decide which queen they want, it could cause unwanted injury in the surviving queen, possibly leading to death. Some of the workers could also die in the proccess

Serafine

Re: Early October southern Germany catches

Post: # 13707Post Serafine
Thu Oct 13, 2016 2:43 am

Since they're more likely to be Tetramorium anyway I'll keep them separate. I guess we'll only truly know what they are when the workers arrive which may take a few months (one of them has already gone into hibernation, the others should most likely follow soon).

Question is if some of the queens are still active in like a week or two should I feed them a bit (tiny drop of honey) or better not disturb them?

Serafine

Re: Early October southern Germany catches

Post: # 13709Post Serafine
Thu Oct 13, 2016 12:04 pm

Just remeasured them (wasn't easy, 3 have gone into hibernation thus are unavailable for measurement and the 4th was walking around all the time), the one that's still active is 0.6-0.8mm long making Solenopsis fugax possible. Two people from a UK ant forum also went for Solenopsis (one even with a "definitely").

I guess in either case (Solenopsis or Tetramorium) the Tetramorium hybrid nest and a rather scarce desert-like outworld with a bit of sand for nest optimization would be the way to go (as it is intended for very small ants)?

If they turn out to be Solenopsis I think I have to seal the entire setup with silicon as they're super tiny (1-1.5, majors up to 3mm)? I've also read Solenopsis fugax grows super fast and can have massive colonies (multiple 100.000 workers with multiple queens) but then they're tiny - how fast can I expect them to grow out of a hybrid nest if they develop well?

MCWren

Re: Early October southern Germany catches

Post: # 13712Post MCWren
Thu Oct 13, 2016 1:46 pm

idahoantgirl wrote:
Serafine wrote:Thank you a lot! That's actually what I hoped for :D
ummmm. no. not at all. no way. I don't know what it is, but it's 100 percent not tetramorium. the gaster is too large and the head and thorax too small to be tetramorium.
They live in Germany, so the Tetramorium they have isn't the sp. W that you're used to.

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idahoantgirl
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Re: Early October southern Germany catches

Post: # 13719Post idahoantgirl
Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:15 pm

MCWren wrote:
idahoantgirl wrote:
Serafine wrote:Thank you a lot! That's actually what I hoped for :D
ummmm. no. not at all. no way. I don't know what it is, but it's 100 percent not tetramorium. the gaster is too large and the head and thorax too small to be tetramorium.
They live in Germany, so the Tetramorium they have isn't the sp. W that you're used to.
well, because of their EXTREME similarities scientists have not been able to tell if they are the same species or different. that's how close they are. When you look up pictures they look exactly the same as tetramorium species e.
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

Serafine

Re: Early October southern Germany catches

Post: # 13721Post Serafine
Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:57 pm

Actually there's seven species of Tetramorium in Europe (generally called the Tetramorium caespitum-impurum complex) but most of them can only be distinguished via male genital extensions or DNA analysis, so nothing a normal antkeeper can do...

But I also have the feeling that they look a lot more like Solenopsis fugax than like Tetramorium sp.
Something I'm a bit concerned now is whether the bottom mesh of the Tetramorium hybrid nest is actually small enough to keep the S. fugax nanatics contained, cause I've recently seen them outside and they are ULTRA tiny (less than a millimeter).

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