Hello,
Just joined a couple of days ago.
Trying to get used to this forum as I am familiar with others, this one seems a bit different.
Anyhow, I love that this forum exists 
!
Currently have 30 queens in test tubes!
Some species are unidentified, but 2 Camponotus sp. (pennsylvanica I believe), 4 Formica fusca, 3 other formica sp (yellow field ant, not sure of sp yet), 5 rifa/bifa, 5 asian needle ant, 1 lasius sp, 1 tapinoma sessile, 2 what i think are linepithema humile, and 7 unidentified.
One of the main reason I joined however was to inquire about a Camponotus sp. I obtained from and eaten up birdhouse. I have played around with ants my entire life and I am very familiar with what a queen looks like especially carpenter ants as my profession of home repair has me running into them constantly much to many home owners chagrin. I do not have a queen in the colony I obtained from the wild. They are now around 2 months old. I only kept them to see if the eggs would in fact mature to alates, which i do have a drone that hatched out just yesterday.
However, after about 5 weeks (3 weeks ago), my queenless colony started producing eggs? There were no alates at all when this occurred and no drone to speak of nor any that had hatched out that would have led up to gamergate fertilization. I didn't think carpenter ant worker could become gamergates though? To my understanding once a carpenter ant queen dies the colony will rear what brood is left and die out? I guess this is no longer the case?
I have some picture below. Forgive me for the lack of information. This is my work season, with 12-14 hours a day going to work, my time is very limited and only have the time for this post since July 4th is approaching.
I think they might be Camponotus americanus. Not positive, but they are a small-medium species of carpenter ant with striped abdomen much like a bee.
Any enlightenment on this colony would be appreciated.
Let me know what information I will need to get and I will do my best to answer your questions. All I ask is to be patient with me, as this time of year I practically run on fumes and have very little free time.
Thanks!
