Queen ID please

[invjang]

I've caught this queen last year from my friend's garden in late August in west suburb of Chicago, Illinois, USA.
The queen was found near the fireplace where woods and ashes are around. The size of queen is about 1 cm and the color is black. The queen now have 4 nanitics. They bring foods into the test tube and do not remove after finishing eating. So the leftover foods got rotten but ants do not remove them. So I have to replace the test tube multiple times so far. Here are some pictures:

[BleedingRaindrops]

Looks like Formica to me but I can't narrow down the species.

[Batspiderfish]

Hello! This fusca-group Formica colony is dark in coloration. What would help in identifying them is a slightly over-exposed (bright) photograph showing off the shininess/fine silvery hairs on the gaster. In addition, a photograph of the front of the head, displaying the length of the antennal scapes (the long, first segment of the antennae).