Queen ant

  The 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 colony.

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Anatomy

The anatomy of a queen ant is very similar to that of the other ants of that particular species. However, they are noticeably larger than the rest of the ants in a 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, young queens possess a pair of wings. These are only used for the nuptial flight and later detached by the queen herself or chewed off by her worker ants.

Life cycle

Development

Ants go through 4 stages of development before reaching adulthood: egg, larva, pupa (sometimes cocoon, depending on the species) and adult.^[1] 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;^[2] 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^[3]. The mating flights occur simultaneously in all ant nests of the particular species. The female "queen" ants will fly a long distance, during which they will 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.^[4]

A new colony

Once the queen has found a suitable nesting site, she will urgently dig herself a tunnel ending in a small chamber.^[3] 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 will lay about one per day.^[5] 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 or drink until the eggs have hatched into worker ants; she will 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 queen has very little control over the colony and the term queen is often deceptive. She has no known authority or decision making control over the colony, 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 in an established colony the worker ants meet the queens needs such as giving her food and disposing of her waste. Because ant social structure is very complex and individual ants 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 they 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,^[6] 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.

References

1. ^ The Life Cycle of the Ant. Retrieved on 2007-07-24.
2. ^ ANTS. Retrieved on 2007-07-24.
3. ^ ^{a b} How Does An Ant Colony Start. Retrieved on 2007-07-13.
4. ^ Preparation for the mating flight. Retrieved on 2007-07-24.
5. ^ Ant's egg, larva and pupa. Retrieved on 2007-07-24.
6. ^ Can a queen lay eggs of certain types of ants at will?. Retrieved on 2007-07-13.

See also

• Ant
• Eusociality
• ant colony
• Nuptial flight
• Flying ant day
• Queen bee

External links

• How an Ant Colony starts
• antbase.org Information on ant species
• Detailed information on ants