Weaver ant queens (Oecophylla longinoda) sugar feeding after the claustral founding increases their colony size

Résumé

Oecophylla ants are currently used for biological control of many different insect pests in fruit plantations in Australia, Asia and Africa. The ants are also used for a commercial protein production in Asia. To further improve weaver ant technology and use it extensively on a large scale in a sustainable pest management, quickly and efficiently production of live colonies is desirable. Founding queens are central to the survival and claustral founding is common in Oecophylla ants with the first-generation workers invariably smaller than workers in a mature colony. The objective of the work was to test how sugar feeding influence newly mated Oecophylla longinoda queens and the claustral stages. Thirty mated queens were split into the two following treatments of 15 replicates: (i) queens in the claustral phase were given only water; (ii) queens were given both water and a drop of a sugar solution to feed on. During claustral founding, the resident queens intrinsic brood did not directly increase colony size in the colonies that received sugar and control. Oecophylla longinoda queens found new colonies consuming nutrients obtained entirely from their own storage tissues to rear the first generation of workers. The resident queens intrinsic broods, which they produced after the claustral phase, directly increased the size of the colony during the 60-day experiment. Weaver ant queens’ sugar feeding during the claustral founding do not increase ant colony size.