I want to tell you about a very strange phenomenon, and i would know if this phenomenon has been observed by anyone.
A my friend tried into an experiment and he fused two different Lasius niger colony.
The colony A had a queen, a small brood composed by eggs and small larvae, and few workers (about 20). The colony B had no queen, approximately 50 workers and a large brood composed by larvae and pupae. My friend collected the colony B from a bigger colony found in nature (he didn't find the queen).
My friend put the colonies into the fridge, where there was a temperature of 3-5°C.
Then, my friend took the queen from the colony A and he put her into the colony B. As naturally, the colony B adopted the queen from the colony A. Two days later, my friend took the queen from the colony B and put her into the colony A. As naturally, workers accepted her mother.
Two colonies were still into the fridge. Two days later, my friend put both colonies into a container, into the fridge. The workers from different colonies were very aggressive, but while workers fought, the queen was indifferent to the situation. Later, workers miraculously stopped to fight (only two workers died into the fight) and the broods from two colonies has been grouped together. Workers were friendly with the ones from different colony.
Now, a month later the fusion, the colony is fine.
Two colonies were completely unrelated (the queen, that found the colony A, comes from Switzerland, while the colony B was collected in Italy...).
Excuse for my bad english, I hope that someone understand
