The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

I caught a P. imparis back on 4/26.

How long should I wait before deeming her infertile?

how often have you been checking on her?

where did you catch her?

What is her setup?

Maybe once a week, I'd say every 6-12 days. (only three times since capture)

Northern Massachusetts. Walking across my picnic table one evening.

Standard test tube setup - wrapped in foil to block the light - in a small cardboard box that holds my test tube setups, in my media cabinet to provide heat.

Try not to get swept up in the concept of fertility. "Fertility" is the catchall word that ant keepers often use when their queen fails, but no hobbyist has ever investigated if this. A queen may be sick, maybe the temperature or humidity isn't right, maybe she wasn't fed well enough or didn't develop properly, maybe she just isn't ready yet -- if we've done everything by the book, there's little we can do about it but wait.

Also, as an unrelated PSA, "infertile" does not mean the same thing as "unfertilized". Infertile means an organism is incapable of reproducing, while unfertilized means that an organism can reproduce, but never mated. Ants still reproduce without the act of mating, although the eggs are haploid (meaning, in this case, that there is no father DNA, just one unpaired copy of the mother's DNA where there would otherwise be two copies pared together). Males are the result of haploid eggs -- even workers can sometimes lay these.

Valid points on all accounts.

You are correct I was overly lax with my fertile prefixes. I will endeavor to prevent such future errors.

However, as I am new to the hobby, assuming optimal (stress free, clean, warm, moist, dark) test tube setup - how long would you keep a fully alate specimen of the fully claustral species P. Imparis?

Until she lays eggs or dies. She doesn't have much of a chance, regardless, if she missed the flights.