Jackie62 photos/videos of our A. octospinosus colony

[Formica123]

But surely lone wueens should be fine? Padded envelopes are how most queen ants are sent

[Acromyrmexbob]

At this time of year I am struggling to receive crickets by post, let alone queen Acros. I would never send livestock of any description without a heat pack just now.

[Formica123]

Ah yeah I forgot that they need a heat pack.

[Britishants.com]

We'd all love some free Queens but I'd be more concerned about these being sold on in test tubes! The industry if full of people selling Queen Ants to make a quick buck with little thought to the ants, customers and the damage caused to the trade!

[Formica123]

They are lone queens, a boiling tube would be fine for them. But as Andrew said they need heat packs etc.

[Acromyrmexbob]

Actually I agree with Sean (Britishants) regarding the risk of them being sold as either fertile queens or even as colonies with some fungus. Might not be such a good idea Jackie. Shame though.

[Formica123]

Ooh were on about selling them? I was on the wrong side of the board lol I thought we were talking about the queen thing Andrew said about on the last forum. My mistake. Yes a pot would be best thing to send them in

[Deansie26]

It seems these lone queens are not as unusual as we first thought
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... 1844,d.ZWU

[Acromyrmexbob]

Okay this is interesting with regards to our conversation for two main reasons.
Firstly I think Adam suggested that this behavior would be aberrant and found only in captivity. But this research indicates that wild colonies of Acromyrmex echinatior display this behavior commonly and also that it would be expected because Acromyrmex gynes are semiclaustral (forage and defend when colony founding) following mating so the colony recoups the energy spent on producing the queens who fail to participate in the nuptial flight by harnessing their working to benefit the colony. Further though, the authors theorize, but do not test, that the colony should take advantage only of the energy the queen has stored in the form of carbohydrates in order to recoup their losses which means they should not feed her at all and she should die after a period. I would be interested in Jackies colony in Cambridge and seeing if this is borne out in practice. So we are looking to see if the queens survive beyond the period where their body reserves should last. Do the workers feed the queens. Maybe the queens are feeding from plant sap when cutting leaves. Something which should become clearer over the next few months. Interesting stuff!

[Jackie62]

Hello all, sorry been out of touch with other matters....but Happy New Year!

OK.....some new changes in our colony. We now have a higher number of the large workers appearing, but the young queens continue to work too. I'm monitoring this behaviour and will be cleaning the colony out next week, so I'll get a better idea of what's going on; dead males continue to appear. Leaves are not being cut so frequently (that I've noticed), but then I'm not there all the time but leaves seem to be in the feed tanks for longer. Could this be down to leaf quality at this time of year? The colony are going mad for red grapes and the young queens in particular are on them.
I'll be taking some photos of some dead males next week and will post in appropriate place. Question: can anyone advise me where i can purchase a decent quality video camera for setting up in the tank? I want to start a video diary, thanks.

I've been given the go ahead from our Biological Safety Officer to let some young queens go out to those who wish to see if they start new colonies, but the Dean hasn't said yes yet, so just waiting on that.
Andrew, I've been asked to set in place some appropriate paperwork which covers allocating out the young queens, would you be able to advise me on this please? I will not be posting them, so they will have to be collected by the interested parties. I've been thinking that it may be a good time to introduce a new queen, but I'll PM you Andrew about this.

And on a funny note, as I sat at my desk at work last week, a large worker ant came walking up my arm....this happens on occasion. I've even had colleagues tell me when an ant is walking across my back! Guess I'm lucky they're Acros!