yes. please, everyone, finding these queens are hard for me as well, as they live more to the west. some people find them easily and some can't. that is way too much money to spend on a colony, though. imagine if it dies or is not mated.
I want a queen since I have a queen less colony
You know queenless colonies can produce males, which can mate with the workers and the workers become reproductive? It's actually a really interesting process if you want to research it.
I thought that’s only if they are ergatoid
"Queen number can vary by colony and season. New colonies are founded by pleoemetrosis and new queens are likely adopted into existing nests. The latter is evident from the presence within populations of both monogynous and polygonous nests. Reproductive queens contain 8 ovarioles.
Worker reproduction does occur with some male production possible from worker derived eggs. Reproductive workers contain 2 ovarioles.
New queens are produced in some queenless nests. These are presumed to be nests that are separated from a queenright nests or from a nest that had earlier lost its queen(s).
Kannowski (1959) noted the following concerning Temnothorax ambiguus reproduction in southeastern Michigan: "Alates were found in nests in bog communities from July 7 to August 6. In upland forest communities on the George Reserve, where curvispinosus is common, Talbot (1957, p. 451) found that alates were present in nests from late June to early August." (AntWiki, Temnothorax curvispinosus)
