I have been successful in observing Myrmecia pavida mating in captivity.


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[font=Times New Roman]@ AntsNational,[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]Sorry, but what you are depicting as yet isn’t more than mounting behaviour, a mating attempt. In another species with intermorphic, wingless queens, mounting looks like that: [/font]
[font=Times New Roman]http://www.ameisenwiki.de/index.php/Datei:Harpagoxenus4.jpg[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]Unless you see a true coupling of the two specimens, you cannot be sure that any sperm transfer has taken place. Successful mating looks like that:[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]http://www.ameisenwiki.de/index.php/Datei:Harpagoxenus5.jpg[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]or, in a sequence with another species with alate gynes:[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]http://www.ameisenwiki.de/index.php/Datei:LpacisKopSeq.jpg[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]Regards,[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Merkur[/font]

Hello, I have witnessed the mounting and coupling. They were attached for approximately 5-6 minutes, sitting there. I will get better angles when it happens again.

Regards,
AntsNational

Hello,

If it was a really successful mating with sperm transference, the queen should throw down her wings and try to found a new colony. Or do I think wrong (@Merkur)?

[font=Times New Roman]@ AntsNational,[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]I have written explicitly “[/font][font=Times New Roman]Sorry, but what you are depicting as yet…”, because I cannot know what you perhaps have seen, and did not show in pictures. In the courtship positions that you have shown the ant sexuals often may rest for some time, without a real copulation. If you didn’t see something similar to the photos in my links, you cannot be sure that sperm transfer has occurred. [/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Here is another link to a successful mating, this time with an ergatoid (workerlike) male and an alate gyne of Formicoxenus nitidulus: [/font][font=Times New Roman][color=#0000ff]http://www.ameisenwiki.de/index.php/Datei:Fx_nit._Kopula_Feb_08.JPG[/font][/color]
[font=Times New Roman]Or take this one of Alex Wild, with a dwarf male, genus Brachymyrmex:[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]http://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Taxonomic-List-of-Ant-Genera/Brachymyrmex/9271048_qWk3hw#!i=619345455&k=pWtBHXG&lb=1&s=A[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]@ DieGroßeKleine:[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]You are right. In most instances the mated gyne will shed wings soon after. Exceptions may be observed when the mating couple has been disturbed, or when not enough sperm has been transferred, or when the gynes need several matings for completely filling up the receptacle, as is usual in polyandrous species.[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]Regards,[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Merkur [/font]

Great insight guys, thanks! Well I have an update; one of the males is now dead. Three of the 6 queens are currently without wings, I cannot be certain if they mated until either males or workers hatch. For one month I will be placing all of the eggs they lay into my queenless colony, the workers there have been accepting their eggs. Hopefully in the meantime they mate with the males I continue to add in the breeding tank. If I start to see new workers in the queenless colony, I will then separate the queens into different founding set-ups and see what their offspring are. If the offspring are male, I will place the queens back into the breeding tank. If the offspring are female, I will be happy!:fettgrins:

It will take time...

Here is a better angle.




Merry Christmas everyone

Now the time comes to see if these eggs will turn into workers. The males have all died now.