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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2012 21:00:23 GMT 1
I'm waiting for the nuptial flights to start another colony - my last was about 6 years ago! And just had a thought...
I don't think I'd do this because I wouldn't like doing it ethically... But what if, for example, 5 colonies were begun in test tubes and after all queens had laid eggs, all the eggs were moved from 4 colonies into 1 colony. Would the queen adopt the foreign eggs to get a boost to get her colony's numbers? Or would she (or other ants) just feed on them?
What about larva instead of eggs?
If this did work a slightly more ethical version would be to take only a few eggs/larva at a time, and probably only from the 2nd generation onwards.
Related question - what if the foreign eggs were a different species - e.g. 2 different Lasius species. I saw some inconclusive evidence through googling that the queen would adopt the foreign species and the colony could have multiple subspecies living within it?
Any thoughts? :-)
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2012 21:07:02 GMT 1
But then you are Using 4 queens to only get one nest and kind of stopping them creating a colony no matter how you do it A queen will accept brood from other queens eggs and larvae, be careful with cocoons, If you are going to brood boost take a small amount of brood from a wild nest at an appropriate time of year, it will probably work better
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2012 21:09:37 GMT 1
A queen will accept brood from a related species I.e Lasius niger taking L flavus brood I think
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2012 21:14:27 GMT 1
Great, thanks. Yeah, I won't do that, it was just out of interest really - I'll just let nature take its course. If I do find different species I might have to set up a cultural exchange programme though!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2012 1:20:31 GMT 1
You can't give her eggs, though, because she still has to feed and raise the larvae, which she only has enough resources to do for her own.
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