Ants are social creatures. They live in large cooperative groups called colonies. Each and every ant colony is divided into three casts: – queen, males and workers. Every cast performs its own particular task. Queens and males are the most important members of a colony as they are reproductive casts.
Without reproduction a colony can easily dwindle and then disappear. In other words, a queen ant can be defined as an adult reproducing female of a particular colony.
Fun Facts about Queen Ant: –
- Species that have one queen in their nest are known as monogyne and species that have more than one queen in their nest are known as polygyne.
- Queen ants have thicker bodies compared to other ants that makes it easily distinguishable.
- Two or more generations can overlap in a colony.
- In some species, the queen ant can live more than a decade.
- If a queen ant produces a larger brood then it leaves her with less fighting power for her defence against worker ants.
- Queen ants have a larger abdomen compared to other ants and they have wing muscles as well.
- A queen will produce fewer workers if she is sharing the colony with other queens.
- The queen ant has very little control over the colony as it has no known authority or decision making power.
- In some ant species, queen ants can lay thousands of eggs in one single day.
- Once mated, a queen can stay fertilized for many years and can lay millions of egg.
- Fertilized eggs produce female worker ants and unfertilized eggs produce males. If these fertilized eggs and pupa are well nurtured then they could become queens as well.
- Queen ants can fly during their adult life as they are born with wings.
