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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2011 18:51:18 GMT 1
Hi I know nothing lasts forever but something I have been wondering for a while and have not yet came across is what happens to a colony once the queen dies? I think having a colony for years and then the queen dying through old age or whatever is a big shame and from what I have read so far this scenario is unrecoverable. Does anyone have a story of the colony somehow going on after the queen dying. I know in most cases the colony seems to just give up.
Id like the species with any story please ^_^
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2011 19:41:08 GMT 1
There are some extremely exotic ants who use worker ants to take up the role as the queen. Some species have multiple queens (i.e:Myrmica Rubra) so you have a couple of chances but generally if you lose your only queen it's over.
LaSiUs
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2011 19:54:22 GMT 1
Thanks. Workers taking over would be ideal wouldn't it. Unfortunately the ones I ordered wont be doing that lol (L.Niger)
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2011 21:15:04 GMT 1
Hello seany and welcome to the forum, For the L. niger species if the queen dies then the colony will continue to function until the workers die. The only difference is that there will eventually not be any brood and therefore less foraging. It might appear to us that the workers are just giving up because they are not doing anything. However you will notice that even with a queen in a mature colony most workers are not active unless the nest was attacked. I have read that some colonies of L. niger that have had their queen die will "accept" a newly mated queen. The queen is really not "accepted", more of a captive to produce eggs to ensure the colony continues on. There is a greater chance of this happening if the species is polygyne (the species allows more than one egg laying queen in the colony). This has never happened to myself so I cannot confirm whether or not these stories are true. They were from reputable websites though. Lasius is correct in stating that some exotic species (generally tropical) have workers that can produce fertile eggs. In theory all of the workers of the colony could potentially lay eggs, the colony just allows one (or in some cases more) of the workers to be the egg layer. I apoligize for not knowing the term for this queen/worker. If I find it than I will be sure to post the term for you. Flavus
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2011 21:47:57 GMT 1
Thanks alot guys. Wow I wonder if a new queen came in and was taken captive would the ants she gives birth to be accepted etc etc etc. Although this has answered my question its lead me to think about more lol.
On the surface it seems as if the queen is the be all and end all of a colony and thats true in a sense but the workers really do have the power or at least equal power in the success (or failure) of a colony.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2011 22:03:28 GMT 1
I've made orphan workers accept a queen in the past, although this has been only a few workers at most. It would be a lot more difficult for a large orphaned colony, I reckon. Just throwing a new queen in would almost certainly result in the queen being killed.
Perhaps a Ghost Ant Queen (Lasius Umbratus) could take over. Naturally, a queen Ghost Ant starts a colony by locating an existing colony of the lasius genus (niger, flavus etc) where it finds and kills a worker. It takes the worker's scent so it can enter the nest without being attacked. Eventually, the pheremones of this intruder cause the workers to eventually turn on their own queen and accept her as queen instead. Maybe you could do this with an orphaned L.Niger colony, so no healthy queen needs to die (only a worker). Would be interesting to find out.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2011 22:36:54 GMT 1
Really? Thats very interesting Gareth and would be a worth while experiment if a single queen did die. Especially since they are different species with new ants being born. Although a problem with this is that the two species have different habits such as diet and habitat but perhaps not so different to cause many problems.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2011 2:20:58 GMT 1
I don't think L.Umbratus behaves a lot different from most other lasius genuses. If there was a massive difference in life style, the ghost ant wouldn't have evolved the way it has. As far as I'm aware, the new ants just take over as more are born and the older ants of the original queen die off. During the inbetween period, the ants still just act as if they're all sisters, even then ghost ants are a very different colour to the garden ant.
I think Myrm currently owns a colony of this species.
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