2 replies to this topic

[FelixTheAnter]

Is it normal for a young queen to become physogastric? This queen is about 1 year old, and has the biggest abdomen of all of my Lasius Niger. Even my queen with about 1,000 workers isn't physogastric like this. I'm curious what causes this?

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[futurebird]

Sometimes when a colony is young the workers will use the queen like a replete and stuff her with food if they find an excess of food.
I have seen people post about having Lasius queens like this early on. I don't know what happened later.
There is a slim chance it's a parasite. But don't freak out about this too much. 

If she lays a massive batch of eggs you'll know! Nice queen! Interesting that she has her wings still. 

My lasius queen is an egg machine. I catch her in the middle of laying almost every day. But she's always had a small gaster... makes me wonder if it always matters much. My camponotus queen, however got like this early this spring and that colony has been booming I feel like I need to get them a bigger nest every week... And they are eating me out of house and home. 

[RushmoreAnts]

This is completely normal for Lasius. I’ve had founding queens with bigger gasters than that.