At the beginning of March, it reached about 58 degrees Fahrenheit in Wisconsin. I found a lone Lasius parasitic queen wandering the leaf litter. If these ants are unable to find a host colony before winter, they hibernate and keep looking in the spring.
I then kept the queen for a few days, after feeding her some sugar water. I then noticed my strange Lasius cf. alienus colony had a nanitic. (I say strange because I'm unsure exactly what to call them.) Here was their Identification thread.
I got this nanitic to crawl on a pencil tip and put it in its own test tube. I then put both the social parasite, and the nanitic in the fridge. I intended to take them out in 30 minutes, but, I forgot. I took them out the next morning and put them together. I never expected it to work, but I came back to see the worker grooming the queen.
It's kind of hard to see the callow, but here are some pictures.
Edited by AnthonyP163, May 1 2020 - 2:26 PM.