Last week, on February 23, I saw a Camponotus decipiens queen floating in the pool. She still had her wings, but I put her in a Tar Heel Ants Atom C formicarium. All she did was walk around, not seeming to settle down and she was not taking her wings off. So, after only about 2 days I began to think she was infertile. I still wanted to keep her for while since I really like her colors and she is also the largest queen I've seen, at about 11-12mm. A few days passed by, and then she took off her wings. This made me start to question whether she was actually infertile, so I decided to wait a few days without checking on her at all, to see if she would lay eggs.
Sure enough, after waiting a few days without disturbing her, she has now laid a small pile of eggs and is caring for them. Amazingly, even after showing definite behavior of an infertile queen, I am now very sure that she is fertile, and I can't wait to see how this queen does.
Here is a photo I took on the day I caught her, when she still had her wings.
Here she is now, with her small stack of eggs. These aren't good photos because they are just screenshots from a video. Here is the video: https://www.youtube....h?v=dABKF_-etiE
Edited by Aaron567, April 18 2021 - 12:34 PM.
