Maybe odd camponotus queen behavior

[Ayrnas]

Whenever I look at my queen (in a test tube with one nanatic and brood), she periodically does this jump twitch. The best I can describe it is that it looks like she is jumping from being startled. Is this a sign of anything or possibly normal?

[Jadeninja9]

My small colony does that too. The workers twitch a lot when their exposed to light. It doesn't appear to be a problem though.

[Serafine]

It's called stridulation and is a form of sound communication (the ants chirp like crickets by rubbing their thorax and gaster parts together).

[Ayrnas]

It's called stridulation and is a form of sound communication

Thanks! It seems that's exactly what it is. I looked up some examples of stridulation and saw on ant doing just that.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/m1vk7uOY2BY?t=23s[/youtube]

It's interesting seeing the queen doing that. I guess alarming from my presence.