I decided to make a new journal for one of my newest colonies. Here it is!
About two weeks ago I found a confused Lasius umbratus queen sprinting across a tennis court amongst hundreds of dead males of the same species. She had a Tetramorium nanitic attached to her antennae. After removing the little worker, the queen calmed down very fast. I put her in a tube after tennis practice with a drop of honey, which she happily devoured. She stayed in that tube for four days, patiently waiting for her first host workers. After flipping hundreds of rocks and logs, I gave up on searching for the correct host species. I gently removed her from the little burrow she excavated in the cotton and placed her in a Lasius nearcticus tube with seven brood boosted callow workers and an artificially inseminated queen. After a few minutes, I realized that I had completely forgot to remove the AI queen! Surprisingly, rather than seeing corpses in the little tube, I found the Lasius umbratus queen snuggled up under the Lasius nearcticus queen (I've observed this behavior with L. murphyi, which tends to be one of the more docile species) . Both queens lived together for a day, until I removed the nearcticus queen. The L. umbratus queen, which laid one egg yesterday, is being constantly tended by her seven workers.
I will (try to) update this journal as much as possible!
Also, do you think that I should find more Lasius callows/pupae to put in the tube?
