The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

What the heck. Those are my only words.

Last night the Formica subsericea colonies in my yard had a nuptial flight as it had been very humid the past couple of days. I already have two founding queens of Formica subsericea each with 5-6 workers, but I thought what the heck, catching queens is fun! So I went to a ant colony that had 4 queens walking around and about 8 males. Then all of a sudden, catching my attention, was one of the males mating with one of the queens. What the heck! It was like in nest breeding! I am sure they were from the same colony! I doesn’t even make sense. The only ant species I know of that can do this in nest breeding are black crazy ants. Does anyone know why this would happen?



Now, there are also some explanations for what I saw,

1- the area where the colony was, is also just a breeding ground that the male and soon to be queens and they go there every year to mate. (Probably not)

2- the queens were giving off a sent attracting males from different colonies. They then mated and headed back into there birth nest where they layer eggs with there mother for the rest of there life. (makes more sense)

To back number two up, I have read multiple times that in Formica subsericea, they will sometimes allow mated females back into the nest.

What I’m really asking is, what do you guys think was happening? Do you think it was number 1, number 2, “in nest breeding” or something completely different? I greatly appreciate any response

Thanks In advance!

Formica subsericea are polygynos. It is not uncommon for polygynos ants to mate near or in the nest.

Oh ok cool! That makes a lot of sense, like what I said in number two kind of?

AntsInMB wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 10, 2022 3:20 pm

Oh ok cool! That makes a lot of sense, like what I said in number two kind of?

Either could work, they would probably be pulled to the nest, and infertile ones be killed.

Wow