Ant Farm Update #4: The New Class
August 4th, 2008
After a disastrous first attempt at colonising my blue gel formicary, I decided I needed to re-think my plan. A lot of people suggested I needed a queen ant to reign over the tiny gel-filled kingdom, and to stimulate the other ants into a working colony. Now that summer is here, the air is swarming with winged ants – juvenile queens in search of mates.
I’m a little rusty on my entomology, but as I remember, honeybees only mate once in their life, and even then only the queens and a few lucky males. The workers are destined from birth to never reproduce. Honeybee queens will mate with several males, a process that results in the death of the male. The queen will draw upon the sperm delivered by these males for the rest of her life.
The eureka moment came when my flatmate observed wingless ants with fat abdomens crawling along the ground. Could these be mated queens, having shed their wings, looking for a new home to start a colony? I hoped so.
I scooped up a fat-bellied ant, along with five workers, and dropped them into my ant farm. Immediately, two ants set about trying to kill the queen!
Ant carnage! I appear to have accidentally included two ants from a rival colony in my catch. After entertaining me for a while, the two regicidal ants seemed to be getting the upper hand, so I attacked them with pair of fine-point forceps (use #481 for a dissection kit). Me and the queen succeeded in killing both of the attackers, but one determined ant left her severed head to fight on, jaws still clamped around the queen’s leg. It’s still there, four days on. You see parents: an ant farm can teach your child about determination.
Here you can see the corpse of Attack Ant #1 on the left, while Attack Ant #2 is firmly attached to the queen’s leg. The battle is taking place on a lump of cotton wool that has been soaked in honey and water (last time the ants were too stupid/lazy to eat the nutritional blue gel, or didn’t like the taste of it. Either way I was hoping they’d like eating that better, instead of using it to stage epic ant-on-ant battles).
In short, the queen won, is not being attacked by the remaining ants, and is crouched in the hole I poked in the blue gel. This could be the start of something wonderful…
Entry Filed under: General
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13 Comments
1. coracle | August 4th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Best wishes for the proud matriarch-to-be!
2. Chapstick | August 4th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Nice one. Hope it works out this time.
3. Robert | August 5th, 2008 at 2:58 am
I truly feel that the ant colony epic could be its own blog. Captivating!
4. spayced | August 5th, 2008 at 7:12 am
I’m with Robert, i love this ant drama.
5. Ian | August 5th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
3rded. The ant stuff makes for great reading.
6. Anoop | August 5th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
@Ian Shouldn’t some one HAVE to say “I second” or “seconded” to use “3rded” : )
But I do agree this ant on ant action is most excellent!
Coming soon….BB-ant-cam!?
7. Ian | August 5th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Spayced’s response was close enough to a second for me.
8. Ian | August 6th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Looking good now then. Hopefully the queen will dish out some workers and it’ll all come to life. I reckon you need to get #2 ant carcass off the leg though, and perhaps dispose of the bodies/evidence.
9. Audrey | August 10th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Queens have wings and mate with a male (also has wings). THey mate during a brief flight, often in spring. The males die quickly (alas) and the mated queen crawls away to start a colony. Her wings will fall off. She begins to lay eggs and voila! So begins a new colony. Most ants are females. They do all the work, including fighting, tending young, digging, etc. Which brings us to the sad part…
It is unlikely that your “queen” has actually mated with a male. She will probably not lay any eggs, but will die like all other ants, in about 1 to 3 months. So sorry to burst your blue gel bubble.
10. Frank the SciencePunk | August 10th, 2008 at 1:24 am
Thanks for the info Audrey – sounds like ants are similar to bees. But I’m interested to know why you think my queen hasn’t mated? Her wings had fallen off already when I caught her…
11. didilydumm | August 14th, 2008 at 12:56 am
I beg to differ, i think this queen’s fertile. Lasius niger queens shed their wings after mating. BTW Honeybees mate during spring, but Lasius niger (the common garden black ants) mate between July and August in ‘nuptual flights’ with winged queens forced out of their original colonies and clumsily flying around (and being a general nuisance) during a really hot day in the summer.
Frank, have you tried poking a hole through the gel for the queen to reside in? These gels look fairly viscous and hard, perhaps she can do with a helping hand? I know some people keep their queen in a cotton wool sealed test tube, and water is provided by keeping the cotton wool moist? Queens have enough food resources to last them through hibernation in the winter and into spring, so there’s no real need to feed them.
I yapped on abit too much, i hope this helps :)
12. Frank the SciencePunk | August 15th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I have indeed poked a little den for her, which she likes hiding in, pictures to follow…
13. hm8 | August 18th, 2008 at 3:57 am
Haha, the severed head is still attached to the queen’s leg. Funny stuff.
I hope this time it turns out as a success!
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