Queen or male?

[ThePoolGuy]

Hey everyone
I am new to ant keeping and found this swimming in a pool while I was at work. Found it on March 1st. It is just under a 1/2 inch long.
A tiny bit smaller than the carpenter ant workers I have outside. So Could it be a carpenter ant male? or a queen of a smaller species of ant? I am in Southern California
https://imgur.com/a/VIAEQng

[ThePoolGuy]

I think it’s about 9.5mm

[harvesterant]

Males do not have much food with them during nuptial flights, while queens have more, so a sign of a queen is that they would be able to survive for a long time after nuptial flights, while the males die quite soon. If you have already had this ant for a few days, it would probably be a queen rather than a male.
The ant looks more like a queen to me, but I am not very good at identifying ant castes.

[ThePoolGuy]

Thank you for the reply! I’ve only had it for a day now so I guess I’ll find out in a few days.
I know the pictures aren’t the best but any idea what species it is?

[harvesterant]

Sorry, I'm not good at identifying species. I think that if it was a male, it would have died by now, so I think it is a queen.

[ThePoolGuy]

All good. It was alive yesterday but I’m trying to leave it alone so it doesn’t get stressed out.

I’ve been doing some research and I believe it is a Solenopsis xyloni queen. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong

[AntLove]

All good. It was alive yesterday but I’m trying to leave it alone so it doesn’t get stressed out.

I’ve been doing some research and I believe it is a Solenopsis xyloni queen. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong

I think it might be a Lasius niger queen, but im not sure.

PS: sry if im posting this wrong somehow, im new to this forum.

[UnrealSparks]

All good. It was alive yesterday but I’m trying to leave it alone so it doesn’t get stressed out.

I’ve been doing some research and I believe it is a Solenopsis xyloni queen. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong

I'm not an expert in IDing, but:
1) That surely is a queen (males usually have a pointy abdomen, smaller size and smaller heads)
2) That looks indeed like a Solenopsis queen to me, but not sure about the group (it could be xyloni)

Did she lay any eggs in the last month? because if so I'd wait for the workers to hatch to have additional info to later identify the group.

[UnrealSparks]

I think it might be a Lasius niger queen, but im not sure.

PS: sry if im posting this wrong somehow, im new to this forum.

Don't worry, you posted correctly. Oh, and welcome to the forum!
But be careful, Lasius Niger is more of a european species, and the queens look like this