On March 31st 2014, I found six Veromessor pergandei dealates digging their founding chambers along the side of a dirt road in Phelan, California. jimbodw07 lives very close to this area, and was the one who first discovered the founding chambers, but says he never witnessed any nuptial flights. The dealates all over this area had been out every night for the past couple weeks digging founding chambers while temperatures were in the high 40's to low 50's.
Since they supposedly can be polygyne, I placed two of the dealates together in one test tube, while all the rest are alone. The two dealates put together showed no aggression toward each other. All six dealates started laying eggs the night I found them.
I also sold one more, leaving me with only two colonies now.
