A Large Colony of Leaf Cutting Ants from nothing!
- Acromyrmexbob
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A Large Colony of Leaf Cutting Ants from nothing!
So an ongoing problem I have had in my ants room is that often a bridge will form across the moat and ants will stream across and sometimes start to carry fungus and brood to try and move nests before I catch them and stop them. When I destroy the bridge the ants and brood etc are trapped away from the colony and lost. So what I have started to do recently is place a box on a shelf and put a small amount of fungus in their. What happens now is astonishing! Any stray ants, and there are dozens each day when I remove food with ants on it or clean the lids, find their way to this 'colony' and join it. Over the past 3 weeks this 'colony' has exploded. The ants from lots of different colonies are working really hard to build the fungus up and now it is bigger than a tennis ball. Any time ants escape, sometimes with brood, they eventually end up there. I have taken some pictures .....
In a week or two I will use a small Atta and add this plus the queen to this 'colony' and out of nothing I will have a new, large colony with unrelated ants and a very young queen. Then I will start again with another empty tub. Prior to this these stray ants just died.
In a week or two I will use a small Atta and add this plus the queen to this 'colony' and out of nothing I will have a new, large colony with unrelated ants and a very young queen. Then I will start again with another empty tub. Prior to this these stray ants just died.
- Deansie26
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Re: A Large Colony of Leaf Cutting Ants from nothing!
That's unbelievable, makes me think how much do we really know about there creatures.
- Bitterlime
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Re: A Large Colony of Leaf Cutting Ants from nothing!
That's incredible!
- Acromyrmexbob
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Re: A Large Colony of Leaf Cutting Ants from nothing!
Also if I get a colony where the queen has died, which happens in around 5% of the colonies I bring back, I place the tub, without the queen, beside this box and the orphaned colony will raid it and bring back the brood and ants and fungus to their own nest. Because there is always fresh brood arriving they seem to continue working as if there is a queen present.
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- Larva
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Re: A Large Colony of Leaf Cutting Ants from nothing!
Very nice. Will this mix of ants from different colonies have an affect on the "new" colony in the long run ?
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- Larva
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Re: A Large Colony of Leaf Cutting Ants from nothing!
Just want to expand on that a little... in work so was a quick replyIrish wrote:Very nice. Will this mix of ants from different colonies have an affect on the "new" colony in the long run ?
I.e Would they remain in there own groups within the colony and when the new queen gets added what are the chance that some ant’s reject her while others may accept her?
- Acromyrmexbob
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Re: A Large Colony of Leaf Cutting Ants from nothing!
Interesting question. I personally think that the clock only needs to tick for a couple of months until the nest is populated by her true offspring. Leaf Cutters live in a nest where they are not all related to each other to the same extent anyway. Many of them share different fathers because the queen mates with several males. I guess the ants will lose their sense of separate identity within a short space of time as the hydrocarbons on their exoskeleton become indistinguishable from the others in their new nest. It is actually an advantage for a colony of ants to adopt stragglers, especially when they are small. It saves both the lives of the stragglers and enhances the survivability of the colony by adding greater numbers. But in reality only time will tell. Great question.