New Formica lemani Colony

[deansyme]

As a keeper of this species for many years I decided today to set up a new colony from scratch.

I had 6 queens and one worker in 3 different test tubes which I had caught last year after flights.
The good thing about f. Lemani is that young queens will band together to start nests, this gives them the best chance of survival. even the worker accepted the other 5 queens ok. once the colonies get more established, one queen will be come the dominant queen and may drive or kill the lesser ones ( sometimes the workers will do this too. I have kept colonies for years starting with 5+ queens and over the years they reduce the queens as they grow, this also happens in the wild a lot with this species however more slowly if lesser queens given more room. In the end, no matter what you do after 3-5 years only one queen will be left, sounds harsh? This technique is used by many ants all over the world from Formica, to acres, to myrmica, its a proven evolutional trait that works. 5 queens have a better chance of survival than 1.

Anyway, after leaving the 6 queens and 1 worker for 3 days in a testube I transferred them today to an 'ant world' ( I usually use more professional set ups, but had this spare and works just as well).

Al;l the queens have settled in together and the worker is exploring so all is good.

I will update this on a regular basis to keep you all informed of progress.

Please feel free to comment or ask any questions.



( formally Abaddon )

[deansyme]

A couple of the queens seem to have 'moved in together' in another part of the ant world. Going to give them aboost tomorrow all going well.
The lone worker is nowhere to be seen, so hope she is with the other 4 queens out of view.

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[Black Ant]

Wood loves this species, so I hope you do well with your colony.

[deansyme]

there is a good chance that mine are related to woods lemani colony as they came from the same area that I c ollected his from.

They are a great species being much larger than Lasius niger and seem to be easy to keep so fingers crossed

[deansyme]

I have had to remove 2 of the queens as they quite clearly were ousted from the the main group of 4, cannot see many eggs but they may remain hidden at present.

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[deansyme]

The 4 queens seem very happy together having dug a chamber and all the eggs/ larvae are together: fed them a chopped mealworm and one of the queens ate a good lot of it, then fed the other queens in the chamber via the 'kiss' so all is good.

All my other lemani in the test tubes are also eating and looking after brood well:
Has to be my fave native species.

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[deansyme]

I have changed my set ups and colonies of lemani.

I currently keep 3 colonies of Formica lemani.
Colony 1 consists of 2 queens, 10+ workers and brood.
They are housed in a small uncle miltons with a small foraging area which will be expanded as the grow.

Colonny 2 consists of 1 queen, 6 workers and lots of brood.
They are housed in a home made comcrete nest ( similar to ytong set up )

Colony 3 consists of 3 queens, and pupae.
They are still in the test tube until the first workers arrive.

I will keep up to date with this.

[deansyme]

Yet another change as I was lucky enough to obtain a colony containing 22 queens and a few workers.
Wood recieved 8 queens and some workers to start whats now his Formica lemani 2 colony and you can follow their journey in a journal of their own.

The remaining 14 queens I placed in a ytong set up. I boosted them with approx 200 lemani pupae from a wild colony and now approx 50 workers.

[deansyme]

By far my favorite native species, I could sit for hours watching them in the ytong.
New workers enclosing every time I look in.
There are still around 15 larvae but no eggs. I am hoping the queens will start to lay once most of the cocoon pupae have enclosed.

[deansyme]

Still plenty cocoons to enclose as the worker numbers keeps rising. All 14 - 15 queens are fine and they love the ytong.
I doubt they will lay anymore this season or they are waiting until the cocooms have enclosed.
Being in the ytong makes this my fave colony as observing them is great.