The day after original Tetramorium queen post:

I initially planned on checking on the queen tomorrow, but my father had a family emergency and had to take a last-minute flight to England via Reykjavík on Iceland Air, so I wanted to show him her progress before he left. She was alive and eggs were present, which was good. She was rearranging them. Good.

The only thing that did not seem quite right was that the eggs were a bit… yellowish, like a light banana color, since on the July 1, they were white. Also, there were no larvae yet, which is what I expected: only eggs.

There was one fact that I ignored the entire time since I caught her: she was alone. None of the local Tetramorium colonies were having nuptial flights at that point, one of which was having a war. (Currently, I have a video on the right panel showing this video.)

Maybe she is infertile? I have heard that occasionally reproductives leave the nests before nuptial flights, and the virgin queens search for males, but the give up as if they were fertilized: take off their wings, and try to find a nest. What’s more, is that I have heard yellow eggs may point to infertility. Is this true?

Please comment ant tell me what this means, I will be giving you updates within a week when I next check on her!