A few days ago, I discovered that this Lasius neoniger queen ant had her first nanitic. This nanitic’s exoskeleton is currently in the process of hardening, after which I can feed this colony. While there is only one nanitic present, many more will emerge soon as the soon-to-be pupae eclose into adult ants.
The queen was caught in August 2021, so I have had her for several months. She laid a bunch of eggs a few weeks later, which gradually developed over the following months from eggs to larvae, and then pupae. The brood pile is bigger than it appears, but some of it is hidden behind the visible section of the pile.
One more interesting thing is how she shaped the cotton. While observing this colony, I noticed that the queen had pulled a small section of thread, then carefully shaped it to form a brilliantly made scaffold that larvae can use to spin their cocoons. Evidence for the usage is that although hidden by the queen, there is a newly-spun cocoon in the scaffold. That is quite clever of her to use cotton like that.
