Will infertile queen Solenopsis Invicta lay eggs?

[Carlevan2840]

I caught a queen Solenopsis Invicta about 2 weeks ago. Her wings were already missing and she was walking around on the sidewalk appearing to be looking to start a nest. I put her in a test tube and she began laying eggs the next day. Now, about 2 weeks later, there appears to be maybe 30 eggs or so in there, although they don't APPEAR to be hatching into larvae (maybe they don't look as much like a grub as I think they should?). My question is: will a queen ant, without being mated, still drop their wings and lay infertile eggs? Thanks!

[ClashOwenBash]

Potentially an infertile queen can lay eggs which will develop into male alates (ant genetics are different from ours, as it is the amount of genes which determines the ants gender/class). However I wouldn't worry it's a really slim chance and your queen's sound fine!

[antnest8]

Queens do produce tropic eggs which they eat to stay alive but your eggs seem to be fine (because they aren't eaten). Some times it takes longer for eggs to develop than we expect.

[Carlevan2840]

Now it appears that she's eating ALL the eggs. At first I thought a few may have been eaten or hidden on the cotton from her moving them. I thought at first it seemed like she'd lay some eggs, eat some, lay more, eat some, but I wasn't certain. I know for sure now there were 30 eggs at one time. I looked this morning and there are 2. Is this normal? Why wouldn't she leave a few alone to develop?

[cheetawolf]

its cause you keep looking at her and disturbing her, she gets anxious and eats her eggs. stop looking at her and only do small checks every few weeks

[Carlevan2840]

Thanks. I'll try that. I do have another species of queen ant (I'm not exactly sure what....It's maybe only 3mm-4mm long, caught in North East Florida and either black or dark brown to the point where it appears black with a yellow color between the abdominal segments. Any idea what species ?) whose eggs have obviously hatched....as a backup.

[antnest8]

Pictures are usually necessary for identification

[Carlevan2840]

Yeah...I tried doing that and it kept saying "file too big".

[MadVampy]

Yeah...I tried doing that and it kept saying "file too big".

Take a look at this posting and video on how to post pictures on the AntsCanada ANts Forums. WE don't host pictures here due to the amount and sizes, we would run out of server space in one day.

https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=162

[Carlevan2840]

Thank you! I'm not the most computer literate person.