Maintaining and Breeding Clonal Ants

Stock colonies of clonal line B O. biroi ants, a lineage originally collected in Jolly Hill, St. Croix (Kronauer et al. 2012 (link)), were maintained in the laboratory at 25 °C in Tupperware containers with a plaster of Paris floor. O. biroi colonies are phasic and alternate between reproductive and brood care phases. As described previously (Trible et al. 2017 (link)), during the brood care phase, stock colonies were fed with frozen Solenopsis invicta brood. For each round of experiments, 12–15 colonies of mixed age ants were established without brood from a single stock colony while the ants were in brood care phase.