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Post by Wood~Ant on Jun 10, 2011 7:53:36 GMT
I noticed in your Ripley colony that they are not eating a wasp! You will find Spikie that insects with a very hard chitin exoskeleton may need cracking open. Some ants jaws cannot penetrate very hard body armour, but it may be that the workers have sucked out some of the wasps body fluids  |
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Post by Zarbi on Jun 10, 2011 9:42:03 GMT
You might find that wasps, beetles, bees or anything harder than a fly will need breaking open first. I have found ants have no problem eating softer insects, but hard ones needs to be bitten into with strong jaws such as those on a big Formica rufa major caste worker.
Smaller ants like Lasius or Myrmica will eat wasps if the dead insect is made accessable by cracking it open first, but ants don't eat the hard bits so you will find the body parts are left in the ants midden.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jun 10, 2011 10:18:09 GMT
The same goes for crickets, larger ones may need partial dismemberment.
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Post by spikie on Jun 10, 2011 19:49:50 GMT
Ahhhhh, that makes sense, thanks. The wasp is looking a bit... crispy now, so I am going to bin it. But anything chitinous I put in in future I will weaken or open beforehand, thanks for the advice  |
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