1. Location (on a map) of collection: small town road in Newark, NJ
2. Date of collection: 6/28/18, early in the morning. Weather was overcast, with rain the night before.
3. Habitat of collection: parks and grassy/wooded areas nearby, along with a river, although the queen herself was collected a ways away from any of them.
4.Length (from head to gaster): Approximately 7mm for the queen. Her workers seem to be about 2.3-3mm.
5. Color, hue, pattern and texture: Shiny black most of the way down. Two dark yellowish bands around the end of her gaster.
6. Distinguishing characteristics: None that I could identify on the queen, and the workers, for the most part, although it looks as though the mandibles on the workers are somewhat larger than I would have expected.
7. Distinguishing behavior: No especially distinguishing behavior. Workers are highly active and regularly forage around in the provided outwork. There have been a couple of times when the queen and her brood had moved out of the test tube and near the provided water tower, but they then moved back into the test tube.
8. Nest description: As the queen was found on a paved road, it's hard to accurately give a nest description, although given the surrounding area, it seems a safe guess that she would nest in the soil or even beneath the pavement.
9. Nuptial flight time and date: Nuptial flight was likely the 27th or 28th of June, late at night/very early in the morning.
I'm unable to attach the photo files for whatever reason, so rather than try to sort that out, I'll post a link to a photo of the queen, as well as two photos of her workers. Apologies for the less-than stellar quality.
https://imgur.com/a/Dx7sd5T
