Everything about Queen Ant totally explained
A
queen ant is an adult, mated female
ant in an
ant colony; generally the mother of all the other ants in that colony. They develop from
larvae specially fed in order to become
sexually mature. Depending on the species, there can be anywhere between one and ten adult, mated queens in a established colony.
Anatomy
The anatomy of a queen ant is very similar to other ants of that particular species, however, they're noticeably larger than the rest of the ants in the colony. Like other
ants, queens have a hard outer covering called the
exoskeleton, and their bodies are divided into three main sections: the head,
thorax, and
abdomen. They have a pair of jointed
antennae that can be extended forward when investigating an object. Unlike other ants, however, young queens possess a pair of wings. These are only used for the
nuptial flight, and are later detached either by the queen herself or chewed off by her worker ants.
Life cycle
Development
Ants go through 4 stages of development:
egg,
larva,
pupa (sometimes
cocoon, depending on the species) and adult. The larvae have no legs but are capable of some minor movement, such as bending their head toward a food source when fed. During this stage, the level of care and nourishment the larvae receive will determine their eventual adult form. When resources are low, all larvae will develop into female worker ants; however, if the parent colony has a plentiful supply of food, some of the larvae will receive better nourishment than others, and develop into winged,
sexually mature female ants destined to leave the colony.
Early life
When conditions are hot and humid after rain and wind is minimal, masses of winged ants or "
flying ants" will leave their parent nest and take flight . The mating flights occur simultaneously in all ant nests of the particular species. The female "queen" ants will fly a long distance, during which that'll mate with at least one winged male from another nest. He transfers
sperm to the seminal receptacle of the queen and then dies. Once mated, the "queen" will attempt to find a suitable area to start a colony and, once found, detach her wings.
A new colony
Once the queen has found a suitable nesting site, she'll urgently dig herself a tunnel ending in a small chamber . She will seal herself within the chamber and, unless forced to, never emerge into the
sunlight again, becoming acutely
photophobic.
The queen will usually lay
eggs immediately, though some might wait until the spring. When she begins to lay eggs, she'll lay about one per day. It will develop into a larva within about 25 days, and then produce threads by itself and, after about 10 days, form a small white cocoon. If conditions are favorable, the eggs will hatch within several weeks. The queen will neither eat nor drink until the eggs have hatched into worker ants; she'll survive off the now defunct wing muscles in her
thorax, and she may consume some of her eggs.
About 60 days after the first eggs are lain, a worker is born. Its body is black and very small due to lack of nutrition. However, it emerges from the cocoon and immediately begins to forage for food. Eventually, the number of workers increases to around 10. The queen now receives food from the workers and they take care of her and the new larvae. In the second year, the number of workers increases to between 30 and 100.
An established colony
The term "queen" is often deceptive, as the queen ant has very little control over the colony as a whole. She has no known authority or decision making control; instead her sole function is to
reproduce. Therefore the queen is best understood as the reproductive element of a colony rather than a leader. Once a colony is established, the worker ants meet the queen's needs such as giving her food and disposing of her waste. Because ant social structure is very complex and individual ants are relatively simple, an ant colony can be thought of as a single organism, and the individual ants as cells or limbs of the organism, as the individuals can rarely survive on their own.
Reproduction
Once the colony has established itself, the queen ant will continuously lay eggs. At the time of egg-laying, the queen may choose to fertilize eggs at will by using the sperm cells retained from the
nuptial flight, which will create female worker ants instead of males. If the fertilized eggs and pupae are well-nurtured, they could potentially become queens as well.
Further Information
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