Forming an ant nest

Science World, Sept 13, 2002

1 Arrival of the Queen

After mating with a male ant, the queen ant sheds her wings and digs a cavity in soil or wood to lay eggs. She will never mate again; her body can store enough sperm (male sex cells to fertilize her eggs for a lifetime.

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2 Making the Nest

The queen single-handedly gathers food, and maintains and defends her nest from predators like beetles, and centipedes.

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3 Laying Eggs

The Queen lays hundreds of eggs and tends them over a period of weeks or months. Fertilized eggs produce female ants: unfertilized eggs produce male ants.

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4 Caring for Larvae

The wormlike larvae (stage of development between egg and adult) hatch. They eat constantly, so the queen feeds them insects, or her own vomit if necessary.

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5 Metamorphosis

Each larva spins a silk cocoon around itself and becomes a pupa; after a few weeks, t metamorphoses (changes) into an adult.

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6 Birth of Workers

All but a few pupae hatch into wingless sterile (unable to reproduce) females known as ants. The largest workers are soldiers. They care for the queen, whose sole task now is egg-laying.

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7 Males and Females Emerge

At least once a year, swarms of virgin queens and males emerge from the nest in search mates.

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8 Queen Dies

The queen of a successful colony can live more than 20 years. After her death, the colony often dies off since sterile workers can't reproduce.

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