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chances
Nov 22, 2011 21:43:12 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2011 21:43:12 GMT 1
iH.
I was wondering as queens (l.niger for example). As they must wait till the first workers hatch before eating, what are their chances of making a succesful colony? And some hibernate before laying as well.
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chances
Nov 22, 2011 21:52:50 GMT 1
Post by Myrm on Nov 22, 2011 21:52:50 GMT 1
iH. I was wondering as queens (l.niger for example). As they must wait till the first workers hatch before eating, what are their chances of making a succesful colony? And some hibernate before laying as well. Ants can go a vary long time without food, especially newly fertilised queens. Months at a time. So the chances, once a queen has run the gauntlet of flying and predators and created a little burrow, are pretty good.
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chances
Nov 22, 2011 21:55:47 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2011 21:55:47 GMT 1
Predators such as birds and wasps? But they have a family to feed as well i guees
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chances
Nov 22, 2011 21:58:11 GMT 1
Post by Myrm on Nov 22, 2011 21:58:11 GMT 1
Predators such as birds and wasps? Yes, and from other ants too. In fact I believe that predatory ants is the biggest factor of new queen losses.
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chances
Nov 22, 2011 22:01:53 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2011 22:01:53 GMT 1
Oh. Maybe thats why i saw a worker attached to a queen
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chances
Nov 22, 2011 22:10:03 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2011 22:10:03 GMT 1
Oh. Maybe thats why i saw a worker attached to a queen Sorry to intrude... When you mentioned this you reminded me of something v ary strange I found this year in the mating flights... I caught 11 L.Niger queens - most looked healthy. But one was missing a leg. Exept instead of her leg was a worker ant She walked without trouble using the ant as another leg! I named her Senza Gambe (Italian for legless) she lived 5 months and helped raise 6 workers with another queen. She unfortunatly died because she was weak and fungus attacked her wound.
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chances
Nov 22, 2011 22:12:42 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2011 22:12:42 GMT 1
Weird... Did u ever take a pic of here? Myrm can u exlsin this?
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chances
Nov 22, 2011 22:17:31 GMT 1
Post by Myrm on Nov 22, 2011 22:17:31 GMT 1
I have seen ants with another ant's head attached to their leg or antennae. Things like this generally happen when an ant is being attacked. Ants will often grab an enemy ant's leg or antennae when fighting and they grab hold so tightly that if they are killed the ant finds it almost impossible to get the dead ant's jaws off of it's leg/antennae. The ant normally manages to bite away at the body so that the dead ant's head is still attached. Evenutally it will fall off or be bitten off by the ant or its nest mates.
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chances
Nov 22, 2011 22:26:20 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2011 22:26:20 GMT 1
I didn't think to take a picture... They were kept in a cricket tub (all 11 queens) and made 3 different groups! They were very peaceful even when the workers hatched. I released them into my back garden after they had 20 workers -fraggs
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chances
Nov 22, 2011 22:27:43 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2011 22:27:43 GMT 1
Wow all 11!
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chances
Nov 22, 2011 22:28:49 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2011 22:28:49 GMT 1
Well 10 queens i released because Senza died
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2011 0:43:56 GMT 1
More than 99% of alate queens die within their first year. After the second year, only about 5% of the surviving queens will perish. (It depends on the species, really. Some reproductive strategies have very high survival rates.) Granted, this is regarding wild ants. Captured queens and colonies are very likely to survive, depending on the species of course.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2011 8:04:49 GMT 1
Exalt.
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Post by Myrm on Nov 23, 2011 9:01:38 GMT 1
Yes, once they have their first generation of workers then their chances of survival improve greatly, but it's a long and lonely existence until then.
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