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Queen ants are the only members of a colony to lay eggs. After mating, they can produce thousands, sometimes millions, of eggs during their lifetime. A queen of Lasius niger was held in captivity by German entomologist Hermann Appel for 28 3 ⁄ 4 years; also a Pogonomyrmex owyheei has maximum estimated longevity of 30 years in the field. [2]
The queen usually nurses the first brood alone. After the first workers appear, the queen's role in the colony typically becomes one of exclusive (and generally continuous) egg-laying. For an example of a colony founding process, see Atta sexdens. Flying Ant from Calgary, Alberta Canada Aug 2018. The young queens have an extremely high failure ...
If successful with feeding the first generation of workers, the queen ant should continue laying eggs. Eventually (at about 25 worker ants), the colony should be moved into a larger housing such as a formicarium to allow continued growth of the colony. If you wish to put your ants into a setup before this 'worker limit', you may purchase a ...
Generally, a queen will begin to lay eggs immediately after the construction of the chamber, and the eggs will develop to imagines in 8–10 weeks. Until the eggs hatch and the larvae grow to maturity, a Lasius niger queen will not eat, relying on the protein of her wing muscles to be broken down and digested.
As ants grow older their jobs move them farther from the queen, or center of the colony. Younger ants work within the nest protecting the queen and young. Sometimes, a queen is not present and is replaced by egg-laying workers. These worker ants can only lay haploid eggs producing sterile offspring. [18]
In ant colonies using the gamergate system, where all workers have a spermatheca and thus the potential to become egg-laying individuals, conflicts are much more violent and are a regular part of colony management. [4] [8] Workers may engage in contests and confrontations to determine who will have the right or possibility to lay eggs. In these ...
A study of the carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus found a special surface hydrocarbon on queen-laid eggs. Workers in the colony with the queen's eggs refrained from egg-laying, whereas other groups that did not have queen-laid eggs showed worker reproduction. Thus, the hydrocarbon could act as a signal to alert workers to halt reproduction.
In experiments where T. sessile workers were confined in an area without a queen, egg-laying (by the workers) was observed, though the workers destroyed any prepupa that emerged from the eggs. [5] Odorous house ants have been observed collecting honeydew to feed on from aphids, scale insects, and membracids. [citation needed]
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