Over the last couple of months, my Prenolepis imparis (Winter ant) colony has changed significantly. Not long after the previous post on these ants, I found one of the queens dead. The cause is unknown, but many more workers emerged in the meantime. Despite only having one queen left, the colony is otherwise healthy, with many adult workers and some repletes.
While observing this colony earlier this week, I noticed a small clutch of eggs hidden amongst the workers. If these develop into workers, it would be highly unusual as this species normally produces brood over the summer when the colony resides completely underground, living off the reserves of the repletes.
