Leaf Cutting Ant Forum

Hello all I had a recent trip to texas and came back with some queens with fungus and a small atta cephalotes fungus garden with workers.... I am looking for a confirmed id on the queens as they all look exactly alike except for slight color differences. 2 of the queens in the round containers have texana fungus. One is growing ok the other is not. They were collected from the texas houstin area. And "given" to me so I am fairly certain they are texana.





The other queens in the square containers are currently using cephalotes fungus untill I can get enough texana fungus thay I can share with them. I was told that they would consume the fungus but would not tend it.... well so far they are all tenting the cephalotes fungus!! I am fairly certain I read that this was not possible but they have had the cephalotes fungus gardens for three days now and it is growing strong. The two queens that are in the same togeather have gotten two of the larve that they came with to turn into pupae over the last 24 hours. Also the queens in the square containers were all collected from the southern texas mexico border. They could be mexicana texana or cephalotes.... I figured cephalotes was ruled out due to the fact there not common to occur that far north however I found a report with photos of a few sephalotes getting into a store after a swarm during the night in the houstin are and were id'd as cephalotes. As well as the fact that they are tending the fungus woth good success.







My questions for you all are.
1. What do you believe the id of these queens are?
2. If they are all texana can they really live and thrive with cephalotes fungus???
3. Ive been offering them leaves in wich they have been cutring up and moving onto the cotton ball or "trash dump" that I cange out every two days... should I continue offering new leaves even tho they dont have workers yet. I assume I should since they need somthing to grow fungus on.
4. Shouod i keep the two queens togeather or seperate them. They seem to be doing good but one has a deffinite bigger abdomen and I dont want to have them fight and loose one or both. Every time ive had a 2 queen starter colony with a mono species it ends badly....

Thank you all for your help.

Can't help you at all with anything here but well done on getting them. I would love to get some at this stage. Envious. I would be inclined to keep them separate though.

Great photos and very interesting post! Again I can't help with the identification etc. If the two queens where found together I'd keep them together as its very rare but if you put them together then one is likely to be killed in time from what I remember Andrew saying on the topic.

Thanks you guys... hopefully someone can chime in with an id. As for the two in togeather. Im thinking about removing the smaller queen once the two workers hatch. I believe for now she is helping tend the fungus and once the two workers come they can help the bigger queen manage things and i can allow the smaller one a new container with her own fungus to help my suvcess rates hopefully.... as for finding them. Im extreemely extited as well if it wasnt for my friends i had made it texas it wouldnt have been possible. I am planning snother trip farther south into texas this year in hopes to collect small collonies !!

Anither photo to help

Hi, the species is Atta texana. There are no Atta cephalotes in texas I think.
The two queens together is a bad idea. They will kill each other. Its a good idea with Acromyrmex because they forage and feed their fungus with leaves but Atta do not so more queens is more drain on resources. Were there any workers with these or none. If there were none then these are very early founded colonies, you will do well to get them to survive. Really really important is to keep your humidity absolutely up over 90% where the fungus is sitting. Also I would recommend that you soak some cottonwool in honey water, about 5% strength, and place it where the queen can drink. Your problem is that with this amount of fungus there should also be eggs present. If there are no eggs you may have missed them and it is unlikely that she will lay more.If there are eggs there then as long as you can keep the fungus good you have a chance.
Well done though.

Thanks for the reply and id. They have lots of eggs and some larve. They were started this year from nuptal flights i will sperate the two atta that are in togeather immediately... do you have any insight on them raising the atta cephalotes fungus? I was given a small atta cephalotes fungus garden with workers to maintain it to feed to the queens to keep them alive untill i can get them there own texans fungus from another colony or if i get mine going.... however. The 2 that are in togeather and the other one in the square contsainer are actually maintaining it and it seems that have added to it a little bit. Is it possible for texana to raise ceohalotes fungus?? The fungus that the texanas in the square containers are raising is actually healthier and doing better than the texana queens in the roung contsainers with texana fungus!!

Dont see an issue with the cephalotes fungus. The texana should do ok with that. The worker cephalotes ants are unlikely to be tolerated by the texana queen and vice versa. I would be surprised if the ants interacted with the queen. Only chance for that to happen is if they had hatched out in that nest. Queens should be able to maintain the fungus if the humidity is high enough.

They seem to be doing very good with the cephalotes fungus. This is extreemely exciting to hesr thsnk you so much for your reply. Maybe i shall start a journal on them!!

Ieatflys wrote:They seem to be doing very good with the cephalotes fungus. This is extreemely exciting to hesr thsnk you so much for your reply. Maybe i shall start a journal on them!!

Definitely start a journal. That would be fantastic.