Asking for a friend who does not have a profile on this site:
His Tetramorium immigrans queen apparently killed [or it looked this way to him] all of the workers (under 20), ate the brood, and is now wandering the outworld.
He provides the ants with water, sugar water, and dead fish as a protein source.
They were hibernated successfully this past winter and were awoken a few weeks ago.
He lives in Pennsylvania.
Any idea why a queen would behave this way? Has anyone else witnessed this phenomenon?
(I tried searching the forums for this issue, but was unsure what terms to use; I found many ant keeping journals but no tags on "queen killing" "eating brood" etc.)
Thank you in advance to anyone who responds.