Red/Black Queen Ant ID

[Thaddaeus]

I was at work yesterday and noticed this queen wandering around inside of my wheelbarrow. I had picked up a bunch of gravel off the pavement.

I was thinking Solenopsis but the imported fire ants don't generally do their flights in July, and being I'm in Ohio it wouldn't make much sense for there to be southern fire ants. (Unless one miraculously made it's way up here)

She also occasionally walks around the test tube pulling at cotton.

Very amazing queen, and I've never seen one like her around my area so I'm kind of confused as to what species she is. I'm in the southern Ohio region.

[Thaddaeus]

Images:

(Sorry couldn't get them to work earlier)

https://imgur.com/X69p9ao

https://imgur.com/1OGJPX5

https://imgur.com/1F3Ozkf

[Batspiderfish]

A Formica social parasite. She will need 6-10 Formica worker pupae to start a colony.

[Batspiderfish]

Actually, she may just be from the pallidefulva group, but it's somewhat hard to see her in the pictures.

[Thaddaeus]

Apologies for the bad quality pictures, my phone is terrible. I'll give it a few days to see if she does any egg laying. In the mean time I'll see if I can find some Formica pupae. Thanks for your help!

[Thaddaeus]

Higher quality pictures taken from a better phone:

https://imgur.com/JbIBx0l

https://imgur.com/S78zPRs

https://imgur.com/ha90quR

The social parasite theory makes sense and would explain why she would be consistently moving about the tube instead of staying in place.