New antkeeper asking for help identifying ant queen species

[MartinDejanovic]

Hello! I have recently caught my 3rd ant queen, but I have trouble identifying it. She had thrown her wings away so I assumed she was fertile. I placed her in a classic test tube setup but after a week when I checked on her she had almost picked apart all the cotton and was trying to escape. I did some research but couldn't determine her species so I relocated her into a clean test tube and fed her some honey water, her gaster was very large after that. The last time I checked on her (yesterday) she had picked only a little cotton and had stopped trying to escape, but her gaster seems very small in comparison to what it had been after I fed her. Today I saw a youtube video that had a picture of an ant queen that looked very similar to mine, the video was talking about social parasitic queens. The picture attached was taken right after I fed her a week ago. https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ey3MJmHDUpmijxiZ8

[AM1C39]

Most lasius species will look the same for a newbie so your ant is most likely not parasitic most likely just a different type of lasius. If you could post some photos it would help us identifie it more easily.

[MartinDejanovic]

Thank you for your reply, I will put up more pictures. I also noticed she had a rectangular bump in her gaster, is that normal? I also noticed that her thorax seems a little bit small in comparison to her gaster. Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ey3MJmHDUpmijxiZ8

[AM1C39]

That is most certainly not lasius but it is camponotus.

[MartinDejanovic]

Thank you! I successfully identified it as a Camponotus fallax, but what could be the reason for her pulling the cotton out? Is she claustral or semi-claustral, from what I have gathered no camponotus is semi-claustral, in other words they are all claustral. Is that true?

[AM1C39]

All camponotus species are fully claustral and almost all the time queens try to escape by pulling at the cotton.

[MartinDejanovic]

Why are they trying to escape?

[AM1C39]

If you where stuffed in a small tube would you want to escape?

[MartinDejanovic]

That's a good point, I expanded her tube and she is fine now, just had her first batch of eggs