Queen identification please - suspect Solenopsis

[Zacas1]

6 total queens, appear the same though one was caught before other 5... and posting is rather late as I just got registered to forum to post. I suspect a type of Solenopsis given how fire ants are so prevalent around Texas and that'd be my luck to find stinging ones lol

Size: Approx. 6mm
When: First one - 5/10/2023 around 3pm, the others were 5/14/2023 one around 3:30pm, the others closer to 7pm

Where: Austin area of Texas... First was found in the outside portion of the lawn and garden center of a walmart, others were behind my workplace about 10-15 miles away from where I found the original.
Appearance: First one initially had wings when found. All appear mostly brown from head through thorax with a splotch on the top of gaster, with rest of the gaster being darker (Hard to see on pictures)
Behaviour: The first one proceeded to attack the cotton plugging the entrance to the test tube for the first day or so as far as I noticed, the others just roamed around the open section of their tubes (one is in an old fashioned ant farm as I ran out of tubes but she mostly explored then stuck around the wet cotton ball). First one proceeded to lay first eggs after other test tubes were filled, with the rest gradually over the following days except the one in the ant farm, which appears to have finally laid her batch within the last 5 days or so.
Picture(s):





Additionally: If it matters, the first Queen appears to have at least twice if not thrice the number of eggs in her clutch compared to the other 5, hard to tell with how tiny but i'd be guessing over 20 (maybe towards 50?) at this point (Last picture shows clutch... bout as zoomed as I could get with my phone)

Thanks all

[antperson24]

6 total queens, appear the same though one was caught before other 5... and posting is rather late as I just got registered to forum to post. I suspect a type of Solenopsis given how fire ants are so prevalent around Texas and that'd be my luck to find stinging ones lol

Size: Approx. 6mm
When: First one - 5/10/2023 around 3pm, the others were 5/14/2023 one around 3:30pm, the others closer to 7pm

Where: Austin area of Texas... First was found in the outside portion of the lawn and garden center of a walmart, others were behind my workplace about 10-15 miles away from where I found the original.
Appearance: First one initially had wings when found. All appear mostly brown from head through thorax with a splotch on the top of gaster, with rest of the gaster being darker (Hard to see on pictures)
Behaviour: The first one proceeded to attack the cotton plugging the entrance to the test tube for the first day or so as far as I noticed, the others just roamed around the open section of their tubes (one is in an old fashioned ant farm as I ran out of tubes but she mostly explored then stuck around the wet cotton ball). First one proceeded to lay first eggs after other test tubes were filled, with the rest gradually over the following days except the one in the ant farm, which appears to have finally laid her batch within the last 5 days or so.
Picture(s):





Additionally: If it matters, the first Queen appears to have at least twice if not thrice the number of eggs in her clutch compared to the other 5, hard to tell with how tiny but i'd be guessing over 20 (maybe towards 50?) at this point (Last picture shows clutch... bout as zoomed as I could get with my phone)

Thanks all

They are likely Solenopsis invicta.

[Zacas1]

Thanks for the reply. This was sort of my fear was to have the imported fire ants... especially having found 6 of them. My guess was based on some general image searching and the part that at least the one has produced what seemed a rather large clutch of eggs at this point.

Sort of uncertain whether to try and proceed with them as I do have a hybrid nest and outworld, and already got some of the Fluon stuff to try and keep things contained, though I think I recall hearing how difficult to keep these ants contained can still be x.x
Let alone whether to see if they won't combine into one colony, or to release the excess back out since they're already native invasive species x.x

Decisions Decisions...

[antperson24]

Thanks for the reply. This was sort of my fear was to have the imported fire ants... especially having found 6 of them. My guess was based on some general image searching and the part that at least the one has produced what seemed a rather large clutch of eggs at this point.

Sort of uncertain whether to try and proceed with them as I do have a hybrid nest and outworld, and already got some of the Fluon stuff to try and keep things contained, though I think I recall hearing how difficult to keep these ants contained can still be x.x
Let alone whether to see if they won't combine into one colony, or to release the excess back out since they're already native invasive species x.x

Decisions Decisions...

Don't release them, if you don't want them you should freeze them. Also, they are not polygynous.

[Zacas1]

Ah thanks. Hadn't thought about doing that as a humane alternative instead of risking several new nests popping up.

[SolenopsisKeeper]

Thanks for the reply. This was sort of my fear was to have the imported fire ants... especially having found 6 of them. My guess was based on some general image searching and the part that at least the one has produced what seemed a rather large clutch of eggs at this point.

Sort of uncertain whether to try and proceed with them as I do have a hybrid nest and outworld, and already got some of the Fluon stuff to try and keep things contained, though I think I recall hearing how difficult to keep these ants contained can still be x.x
Let alone whether to see if they won't combine into one colony, or to release the excess back out since they're already native invasive species x.x

Decisions Decisions...

Don't release them, if you don't want them you should freeze them. Also, they are not polygynous.

Debatable

They CAN be polygonous but only a specific variant with smaller queens. If the measurements and ID are correct than it is possible this is the poly variant

[antperson24]

Thanks for the reply. This was sort of my fear was to have the imported fire ants... especially having found 6 of them. My guess was based on some general image searching and the part that at least the one has produced what seemed a rather large clutch of eggs at this point.

Sort of uncertain whether to try and proceed with them as I do have a hybrid nest and outworld, and already got some of the Fluon stuff to try and keep things contained, though I think I recall hearing how difficult to keep these ants contained can still be x.x
Let alone whether to see if they won't combine into one colony, or to release the excess back out since they're already native invasive species x.x

Decisions Decisions...

Don't release them, if you don't want them you should freeze them. Also, they are not polygynous.

Debatable

They CAN be polygonous but only a specific variant with smaller queens. If the measurements and ID are correct than it is possible this is the poly variant

Hmm, good to know.

[Zacas1]

Was curious about such as some info I was seeing said it was possible though it's more common in South-eastern and south-central states to be Monogynous. So far I've continued to let the 6 queens progress... and I've noticed the first pupa in the last couple days, primarily in the first queen's testtube but gradually in the other 4 (can't see the one in the old-fashioned antfarm as she finally moved her brood down into a chamber she dug at the bottom).

So then the question would be on testing things... could rig up a couple of the portals together to link the 5 tubes together at some point to see how things react...
Still curious if they weren't poly, if one queen would take on the other eggs/larvae/pupae, or if she'd eat them to support her own clutch.

Since there are 6, all with their own developing brood... still pondering to freeze the excess (or at least isolate the queens to freeze and maybe see if they might be eaten later) and see if putting the brood of those into the tube portal might lead to 'adopting' of those somehow... doubt it, but who knows >.>

[antperson24]

Was curious about such as some info I was seeing said it was possible though it's more common in South-eastern and south-central states to be Monogynous. So far I've continued to let the 6 queens progress... and I've noticed the first pupa in the last couple days, primarily in the first queen's testtube but gradually in the other 4 (can't see the one in the old-fashioned antfarm as she finally moved her clutch down into a chamber she dug at the bottom).

So then the question would be on testing things... could rig up a couple of the portals together to link the 5 tubes together at some point to see how things react...
Still curious if they weren't poly, if one queen would take on the other eggs/larvae/pupae, or if she'd eat them to support her own clutch.

Since there are 6, all with their own developing brood... still pondering to freeze the excess (or at least isolate the queens to freeze and maybe see if they might be eaten later) and see if putting the brood of those into the tube portal might lead to 'adopting' of those somehow... doubt it, but who knows >.>

If you don't want some, you might as well try polygene if your just going to freeze them anyway.

[Zacas1]

That was the initial thought... but then remembering the one AntsCanada video where he tried such and it ended in disaster even for a species known to be Polygyne...
So far I have 4 of the tube portals, got 3 of each style of the open/close valve connectors, one hybrid nest, one overworld, various other connectors that came with the equipment starter kit... though I haven't fully set anything up as I was waiting on the development. So been debating whether to try and link 2 portals together with a T-connector or a 4-way connector (with one opening blocked til ready to connect to the overworld or hybrid nest)...
Had thought to put 2 portals side by side, with a 4-way connecter linked to the inner-sides of the 2 portals with the other two inner-side holes getting plugged and the unused opening of the 4-way connector also plugged til I'd be ready to link to the overworld or hybrid nest. Put one queen tube to the remaining opening of the 4-way connector, and 2 queen tubes each to the outter-side openings of the two tube portals... and see how things went.

My only concept of freezing the other queens would be the risk of them all fighting and killing each other... to where I was pondering the idea of removing the other 4 tubed queens, see if I can't combine the broods somehow by trying to tilt the other tubes and tapping to get the brood to spill into a tube portal and connecting the one queen's tube and see if the one would 'adopt' the rest or if she'd just eat them for her own brood.
Never had so many queens to handle in the past as I only ever tried to keep those that I found (usually roaming my household in the middle of the night)... and those past experiences I never knew of AntsCanada though I had thoughts of trying to find similar connectors as the site offers with the idea of connecting various ant farms together if I ever had any that amounted to anything. By the time I found AntsCanada I didn't really have the funds to be getting the kits that were available at that time. And then I splurged when I found a queen back in like March, but she didn't make it (which is a shame as she was a slightly larger species, red head/thorax and black gaster that I think might've been the species I tend to see on my driveway often enough). As is I have some coworkers that're a little excited for the adventure at this point when I show any pics of progress I can get... cause I can't bring myself to not peek in on the tubes from time to time x.x