Socially Parasitic Queens 6/18/2018
To the naked eye, the humble ant doesn't seem like much. It simply goes about it's business, foraging for little bits of food for the colony. But, as you might have learnt from previous posts, ants can be extremely sophisticated in their ways of life. A prime example of this is found in the behaviors of socially parasitic ants, or more importantly, their queen.
What is a Social Parasite in the Ant World?
A socially parasitic queen ant is one of the more cunning and fierce queens out there. She will fly away from her nest, and mate similarly to any other ant colony's mating flight (more on mating flights here). But instead of going down the semi-claustral, or fully-claustral path to colony founding, this queen takes a much more sinister path, the path of a social parasite.
Colony Founding for Socially Parasitic Queens
The first step towards beginning a successful colony for a parasitic queen is to find a host colony to infiltrate. The queen will locate one such colony, and make her way to the nest. From there, multiple scenarios can play out.
The queen will almost always first kill one of the workers she finds, and cover herself in it's pheromones. This new scent will help the queen be recognized as one of the colony, and allow her to pass by the bustling nest entrance's guards. She will then try to release her pheromones to convert the colony against their biological queen. If successful, the parasitic queen will have a good sized workforce and brood to start her colony in, and will begin laying eggs that the host workers will take care of.
Sometimes, the queen will be killed before she can even try to begin infiltration. Other times, the queen will simply go up to the nest entrance and release her own pheromones, to convert the workers in the surrounding region. These converted workers will regard the social parasite as their new queen, and will go on to try and kill their old queen. The parasitic queen continues to release her dominance pheromones, in order to attempt to suppress the host colony's queen's pheromones. Similarly to the first scenario, if successful, the social parasite will be strong enough to convince the host workers to kill their biological queen. She will then begin to lay her eggs into the host colony, which will care for them until their entire workforce dies off, and what is left are the children of the social parasite.
Other times, the queen's scent will not be strong enough, and the host workers will kill her partway through the process.
Parasites of the Genus Formica
Certain parasitic queens of the genus Formica have been known to infiltrate a colony, but rather than kill off the queen and take host workers, she will simply steal a few pupae from the host colony, to raise as her own. These pupae will hatch into new worker ants, that will care for the queen. The queen will then begin to lay her own eggs, and will start her colony from there.
Other queens of the genus Formica are slave-raiders, and will continue to raid colonies of the same genus for pupae, larvae, and eggs. These developing ants will hatch to become the slaves of the colony that stole them.
Keeping Socially Parasitic Ants
Keeping socially parasitic ants is a fun challenge multiple experienced ant keepers attempt. Most people who do decide to keep these fascinating ants keep either a social parasite from the genus Lasius, or a social parasite from the genus Formica.
I currently have a colony of Formica aserva, which is a parasitic, slave-raiding species. I obtained it in a trade with another ant-keeper. Parasites from this genus only require some host pupae to get themselves started, as they can care for them until they become workers.
On the other hand, Lasius social parasites, actually require host workers. This makes them a bit difficult to raise in comparison to Formica social parasites, but people have founded colonies of them with success. Most of the time, the keeper of the social parasite takes a host of workers (usually 10-30), and refrigerates them, along with the Lasius social parasite. Refrigeration does not harm the ants (unless temperatures are sub-zero, and they are left for over a few days), and in this case is done for only around 10 minutes. This calms the ants down, and makes them more accepting of new colony members. From here, the keeper canchoose to introduce the workers one at a time, or all at once.
Sometimes, if workers are introduced one at a time, the Lasius social parasite will kill the first worker, and rub its scent on her body. This will make other workers from the same colony more accepting of her. The next workers will usually be accepted as new colony members by the queen, if all goes well. Once workers are introduced, brood (ant young) is also typically given to the colony, so that the host workers can be replaced in case they die off. The queen will then start to lay eggs of her own, given some time.
As you might be able to tell, socially-parasitic ants can be fascinating and intriguing to learn about, and maybe even keep. I hope you learnt something new, and enjoyed reading this post!
What is a Social Parasite in the Ant World?
A socially parasitic queen ant is one of the more cunning and fierce queens out there. She will fly away from her nest, and mate similarly to any other ant colony's mating flight (more on mating flights here). But instead of going down the semi-claustral, or fully-claustral path to colony founding, this queen takes a much more sinister path, the path of a social parasite.
Colony Founding for Socially Parasitic Queens
The first step towards beginning a successful colony for a parasitic queen is to find a host colony to infiltrate. The queen will locate one such colony, and make her way to the nest. From there, multiple scenarios can play out.
The queen will almost always first kill one of the workers she finds, and cover herself in it's pheromones. This new scent will help the queen be recognized as one of the colony, and allow her to pass by the bustling nest entrance's guards. She will then try to release her pheromones to convert the colony against their biological queen. If successful, the parasitic queen will have a good sized workforce and brood to start her colony in, and will begin laying eggs that the host workers will take care of.
Sometimes, the queen will be killed before she can even try to begin infiltration. Other times, the queen will simply go up to the nest entrance and release her own pheromones, to convert the workers in the surrounding region. These converted workers will regard the social parasite as their new queen, and will go on to try and kill their old queen. The parasitic queen continues to release her dominance pheromones, in order to attempt to suppress the host colony's queen's pheromones. Similarly to the first scenario, if successful, the social parasite will be strong enough to convince the host workers to kill their biological queen. She will then begin to lay her eggs into the host colony, which will care for them until their entire workforce dies off, and what is left are the children of the social parasite.
Other times, the queen's scent will not be strong enough, and the host workers will kill her partway through the process.
Parasites of the Genus Formica
Certain parasitic queens of the genus Formica have been known to infiltrate a colony, but rather than kill off the queen and take host workers, she will simply steal a few pupae from the host colony, to raise as her own. These pupae will hatch into new worker ants, that will care for the queen. The queen will then begin to lay her own eggs, and will start her colony from there.
Other queens of the genus Formica are slave-raiders, and will continue to raid colonies of the same genus for pupae, larvae, and eggs. These developing ants will hatch to become the slaves of the colony that stole them.
Keeping Socially Parasitic Ants
Keeping socially parasitic ants is a fun challenge multiple experienced ant keepers attempt. Most people who do decide to keep these fascinating ants keep either a social parasite from the genus Lasius, or a social parasite from the genus Formica.
I currently have a colony of Formica aserva, which is a parasitic, slave-raiding species. I obtained it in a trade with another ant-keeper. Parasites from this genus only require some host pupae to get themselves started, as they can care for them until they become workers.
On the other hand, Lasius social parasites, actually require host workers. This makes them a bit difficult to raise in comparison to Formica social parasites, but people have founded colonies of them with success. Most of the time, the keeper of the social parasite takes a host of workers (usually 10-30), and refrigerates them, along with the Lasius social parasite. Refrigeration does not harm the ants (unless temperatures are sub-zero, and they are left for over a few days), and in this case is done for only around 10 minutes. This calms the ants down, and makes them more accepting of new colony members. From here, the keeper canchoose to introduce the workers one at a time, or all at once.
Sometimes, if workers are introduced one at a time, the Lasius social parasite will kill the first worker, and rub its scent on her body. This will make other workers from the same colony more accepting of her. The next workers will usually be accepted as new colony members by the queen, if all goes well. Once workers are introduced, brood (ant young) is also typically given to the colony, so that the host workers can be replaced in case they die off. The queen will then start to lay eggs of her own, given some time.
As you might be able to tell, socially-parasitic ants can be fascinating and intriguing to learn about, and maybe even keep. I hope you learnt something new, and enjoyed reading this post!
Comments
Post a Comment