The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

*video is still being processed*
This is a simple experiment done to see if a parasite queen can live with and raise a colony with False honeypot ants. This video is raw footage using a webcam. The footage starts about 2 minutes after taken out of a freezer.
Steps of the experiment:
caught the queen in tube A
caught the workers from a thriving colony in tube B
Placed both tubes together in a freezer for 3 minutes
prepared tube C for a founding chamber, complete with water
Took both tubes out of freezer and then put queen, then workers in tube C
Left them alone for an hour. (note i messed up and put a lid on tube C instead of cotton and had to replace during the video. i also rotated the tube a couple times to record more of the queen.)
After roughly an hour, i then attached tube C to a nest. the nest has a drop of pure honey in the nest.
recording is stopped due to me leaving for work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN2bQja ... e=youtu.be

These look like Lasius workers to me. The queen is Lasius umbratus. It looks like things are going well, as long as those one or two hostile workers calm down or are killed by the queen. It is rarely a good idea to put any insects you don't intend to kill into the freezer.

you've never chilled ants before? its a great way to move ants without worry. AntsCanada uses it aswell. you just need to do it carefully.

and they are false honeypots, its just that they are so small and the camera zoomed in

as for the queen its very hard to tell, but i think you are right about her being Lasius umbratus

I have chilled ants in the freezer, and have lost some because of it. If you use the fridge, it takes longer, but it will not harm them.

What characteristics identified them as Prenolepis to you?

i do what AC said, which is 3 minutes in the coldest part.. aka freezer

and going off of what others said and this is what they look like http://www.schoolofants.org/species/96i only know of campo so im only going off of what others have said. also in my area the parasite colonies i've found seem to all have the orange-yellow color to them. not these though

I'm not convinced they are Prenolepis.

I'm not sure which members of the colony you are describing as being orange-yellow. The queens of these ants are usually much darker or brown.

sorry let me try to clear things up.

the colonies i've seen around my house and are parasites, the workers are very orange. i've seen large brooding chambers but no parasite queens that have an established colony.

here's a couple more clear pics. do these help?

http://imgur.com/a/gxIBo

Ahh, I see. These workers may well be from Acanthomyops subgenus. Lasius umbratus, from Chthonolasius, can be found in many of the same habitats.

well in any case, its still amazing that they are working together. i know the queen is trying to hibernate but the workers keep switching form hyper active to just relaxing near the queen