A queen has hatched from my Myrmica colony

[jennifer]

A new queen has hatched from my small myrmica colony, the original queen is still there but there is another virgin winged queen newly hatched..
And there are a few larger ants ready to be born a few of them could be new queens as well from the size of them. 
Any advice or has anyone else had this happen?

I've taken a picture

[jennifer]

The plot thickens ... they have just butchered her or are very vigourisly cleaning her.. but my instinct says they are killing her... They are doing this as I type
You can see her here in blue under the workers who are chewing her wings off...and the original queen in Red...



Quick update.. there are two new winged queens that seem to be healthy but quite a few workers carrying chopped off wings around....
I know this species have more than one queen usualy.. but do they breed their own queens with alates.. that's very unusual no?
 

[deansyme]

Hi Jennifer
Captive colonies will often produce young males and queens, and on very rare occasions if you have the right conditions, will mate. However more often than not, especially if it is a you colony they will kill them.

Keep us posted on developments!
Dean

[Deleted]

I've got a number of alates, male and female in my rubra colony and on the whole they seem to be left alone. Although from time to time I find wings in their midden pile. I suspect that some of them are being killed....

[jennifer]

Yes they are males. I checked a few times and asked a few people I know. There are bout 10 of them, just sitting in the nest. Sometimes they get a bit excited and try to mate with a worker but they put up a fight and get beaten off.
Not sure if they will ever try to fly our though.

[TenebrousNova]

Interesting development Jennifer. Are there any more alates?