The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

We have been getting a lot of rain here and all the Sol. Inv. are moving nests from flooded areas. An entire field of nests re-located from a to across the street. Approximately 20-30 nests....guessing an average of 1000 ants each. 20,000+ ants on the move. All headed in the same direction! Uphill and across the sidewalk. Fresh nests everywhere!

Not at that location, in fact right in front of my house, I saw a trail of Sol. Inv. along the curb. Oddly, a queen was with them, but maybe not? It was headed in the same direction as the rest. Most of the ants were on top of the curb, however a few workers and the queen were at the base in the street. There were small and large workers around but nothing within 1-1.5 feet from the queen. She was exposed....on the move.....completely without any escort? Is this normal behavior?

The simplest explanation is I am being silly and its just a major, but I have verified 100% a queen.
Was the proximity of the migrating nest with the queen a coincidence?
Sol. Inv. are polygynous, so could this have been a minor queen?

Tethiner wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 07, 2018 9:08 am

Sol. Inv. are polygynous, so could this have been a minor queen?

Polygynous species don't have major and minor queens, only workers. They all come from the same queen.

actually they do have major and minor queens in a way. yes their is the worker cast but they have multiple queens. With these multiple queens usually there more dominate queens than the others this could be from fertility (workers will protect and care more for the dominate queens) and their are minor less dominate queens. Although it is the same appearance wise just like a king is a human but is still higher up than most people.

I appreciate the help, and the education. "minor Queen" was poor terminology. What I meant was exactly what antnest8 said.
I put her in a test tube and left her alone. I was worried that if she was from an established colony she may have exhausted her wing muscles and would need food. I put a small drop of honey in the tube and she completely ignored it.
She is currently happily laying eggs.