On the morning of July 7 I caught this P. tysoni queen at my blacklight. Apart from 2 P. dentata males, she was the only Pheidole to show up at the blacklight that morning. I was positive that she was infertile, as she was still winged and showed no signs of wanting to shed them. However, a glimmer of hope came as she laid her first eggs within only a few hours of being put in a test tube setup, the fastest of any queen caught during our trip.
I didn't get any pictures of her until around July 10, by which point she had amassed a pretty sizable egg pile.
At that point I still wasn't convinced that she was fertile, especially after getting 13 infertile P. dentata queens just two mornings later, although I was still trying to be optimistic.
Much to my surprise, after around a week I checked on her again, and she had a few sizable larvae! While this picture was from a few days ago, the status of her brood hasn't changed too much (apart from some of the smaller larvae growing a bit). I'm hoping to see pupae within a few days now, since some of the P. bicarinata queens I caught at the same time are starting to get pupae.
I've made the mistake of not starting a journal for cool species I've caught early into their development, so I'm not making that mistake again! I'll aim to update this when she get pupae or workers. I'm hoping that she ends up being successful, as she was the only P. tysoni queen to come to the blacklight in 3 days. Fingers crossed!
Edited by CheetoLord02, September 30 2020 - 12:38 AM.
, Ponera pennsylvanica, and Pheidole morrisi! 
