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A queen ant (formally known as a gyne) is an adult, reproducing female ant in an ant colony; she is usually the mother of all the other ants in that colony. Some female ants, such as the Cataglyphis , do not need to mate to produce offspring, reproducing through asexual parthenogenesis or cloning , and all of those offspring will be female. [ 1 ]
The reason for this behavior is the fact that army ants do not have a physical nest. The queens are thus absolutely dependent on workers to protect them. Another variation is found in species with multi-queen colonies, such as Solenopsis invicta. The males and virgin queens mate and the queens then often return to the parent colony, where they ...
The queen is the reproductive member of the colony. Some ant species will only have one queen, while others will form polygynous colonies of multiple queens, such as Argentine ants Linepithema humile. [2] The workers are responsible for supporting the queen, maintenance, and foraging. Unlike queens and drones, workers are born wingless.
The pavement ant is dark brown to blackish, and 2.5–4 millimeters (0.10–0.16 in) long. A colony is composed of workers, alates, and a queen. Workers do have a small stinger, which can cause mild discomfort in humans but is essentially harmless. Alates, or new queen ants and drones, have wings, and are at least twice as large as the workers ...
The female worker ants do not have wings and reproductive females lose their wings after their mating flights in order to begin their colonies. Therefore, unlike their wasp ancestors, most ants travel by walking. Some species are capable of leaping.
In entomology, "alate" usually refers to the winged form of a social insect, especially ants [2]: 209 or termites, [3] though it can also be applied to aphids [4] and some thrips. [5] Alate females are referred to as gynes, and are typically those destined to become queens. [6] A "dealate" is an adult insect that shed or lost its wings ...
Termites have four wings that are the same size, translucent and stacked on top of each other. Flying ants have a pinched, small waist; whereas termites have a thick waist.
Fire ant queens may live up to seven years and can produce up to 1,600 eggs per day, and colonies will have as many as 250,000 workers. [12] [18] The estimated potential life span is around 5 years and 10 months to 6 years and 9 months. [19] Young, virgin fire ant queens have wings (as do male fire ants), but they often cut them off after mating.