One day this past week, I peeked into this Lasius queen’s nest, and saw a nanitic! She currently has two nanitics, with loads more on the way. My other two Lasius queens also have nanitics, including The Proliferator! These Lasius queens were all caught last year, so they had to brumate before they could have brood.
In the above image is a close-up of a Lasius neoniger nanitic. The nanitics of this species are tiny in comparison to the queens, which are up to eight millimeters long. The nanitics are probably two millimeters long, meaning that to equal the length of a queen, you would need four nanitics.
That same week, I peeked into this Brachymyrmex depilis queen’s test tube, and she had a nanitic! Now, she has two nanitics, but the second one is hard to see, but you can see one of them. They are so tiny that focusing on them for photos is quite tough, but possible. The real reason for the terrible quality of this photo is the test tube, which for some reason is tougher than usual to focus on.
