One day, I decided to look at this Formica subsericea queen that I have, who used to have a cocoon. A little while ago, the cocoon disappeared, and in its place was a nanitic! This outcome was surprising because the queen never had much brood, and I suspected that she wasn’t fertile, but I kept her anyway. Now that she has a nanitic, her odds of founding a massive colony have improved slightly, but remain unlikely. See you all next week!
