Basically, is C. lineolata polygynous? like, officially? I recently captured a fairly large Crematogaster lineolata colony (1.5-2k workers), and to my surprise they have 3 queens! Granted, one is dead, but 2 are very much alive and being cared for by the workers. If I had to guess the 3rd queen either died in hibernation or from a Crematogaster mimic spider that I found in the colony (and promptly killed).
I thought up until this point that C. lineolata was comfirmed to be polygynous, but their antwiki page says that all colonies found were small and monogynous: "Fourteen colonies of Crematogaster lineolata were found, with 198 workers, 184 workers, 136 workers, 116 workers, 85 workers and 1 queen, 80 workers, 79 workers, 72 workers and 1 queen, 57 workers and 1 queen, 46 workers, 24 workers, 13 workers, 5 workers and 1 queen and 4 workers. This suggests that colonies are relatively small (less than a few hundred workers), polydomous (because most nuts lacked queens) and monogynous (because only a single queen was present in each nest)"
I was wondering if this colony that I found was just a strange outlier, or if others have found something similar, or if I mis-identified these and there is some other polygynous Crematogaster species in IL, Because like I said I thought that C. lineolata was confirmed to be polygynous up until this point based on this myrmecos article: http://www.myrmecos....ter-photograph/
Really interested to see if anyone has any input on this situation because it has definitely peaked my interest.
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