When we analyze a community of ants we must know that one of the fundamental pillars is the Queen ant. It is about that ant that dominates the entire colony and that is the one that maintains stability. There are some colonies of ants that have more than one queen and are called Polygyny. There are numerous curious facts about queen ants.
Therefore, we are going to dedicate this article to tell you all the characteristics, how to recognize and the importance of the queen ant.
Characteristics of the queen ant
Surely you have ever seen a documentary where the life of ants is shown. It is here where an attempt is made to reflect the importance of the queen ant for the entire colony. And it is that there are colonies with several queen ants which are called Polygynous. There are some families such as carpenter ants that only have one queen ant. However, there are other types of colonies such as the Argentine pharaoh waves that can have up to thousands of them.
Each type of colony has its own characteristics and social organization. Some of the queens have been calculated to live for at least 15 years. This makes them very long-lived animals. During all this time they are capable of continuing to lay large numbers of eggs in order to enlarge the anthill. The more queen ants or longevity they have within a colony, the more resilient it can be. Resilience is the ability of the colony to face environmental changes and adaptations to them. The more queen is has, the greater adaptation capacity the entire community will have.
Let's use an example to explain this better. Let's imagine that a colony of ants is attacked by a storm foreign to them. The storm with intense rainfall ends up destroying half of the anthill. The most normal thing is that it also ends the life of numerous worker ants. If the colony is able to regenerate the number of individuals in order to work better, they will be able to regain stability throughout the anthill. This is achieved with a long-lived queen ant or with numerous queen ants.
On the other hand, if the colony has only one queen ant and she dies, there is no chance that another ant could take her place. That's when the entire community, no matter how big it is, will eventually disappear. These are what makes the queen ant an important element for the hive.
Identification and habitat
One of the curiosities that can be observed of the ants is that the workers can be the cause of the death of the queen. This happens because some worker ants notice the high number of queen ants and they start killing them searching so you only have one to rule them. It must be borne in mind that with this kind of revelation they can condemn the entire nest to death. The most normal thing is that there are other individuals who try to protect the queen since without any of them they could die.
Among the characteristics that help us identify the queen ant, we see that it is quite simple. The first thing is that the queen ant is larger in size than the rest. It usually has a narrower waist and longer antennae. They are also usually born with wings. Some of them shed their wings at certain times or cycles and it can be noticed since you can see the small lumps right in the center of their body. When these lumps are noticed, it is that they will soon produce new ones.
The perfect habitat for queen ants are those humid places and where they easily find wood. The queen ant is in charge of reproducing together with the male in order to form the nest and guarantee its growth. It can be said that it is the only function they have since the workers are in charge of collecting food. The reproduction of this insect depends on each species. The males usually go outside before the females to make the so-called nuptial flight.
The males use certain visual signals that serve to find the perfect mating site. In this place, other males normally gather where they secrete large amounts of pheromones so that the females come to these places. Most hatchlings are born wingless and are asexual in type. Some of these hatchlings become workers. After mating, the king usually dies. Therefore, the real main one is the queen ant. When the young enter the adult stage, they must fulfill certain tasks, such as looking for food for everyone. After the mating of the male and the queen female, it can also lose its wings with the desire to make more colonies.
the anthill they are easy to find as you can see small holes in the dirt, sand, leaves and even clay. It is here where they spend most of their lives and establish where to look for food is not too difficult.
Anthill and queen ant
The ants can make a mixture of different substances in order to form the underground nests. Although the queen ant has an important function for the entire community, the workers are in charge of building the nest. They are in charge of providing the pieces of materials to form the cavities. The organization of the ants is usually through matriarchy. That is, the mother is the leader of the group.
The behaviors of these insects are similar to those of the human family. They organize and establish a society to develop a way of working. And it is that each one has an important task to develop in the nest. The youngest are the ones who stay to take care of the interior, transforming it while the older ones are the ones who come out to receive food.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about the queen ant and the importance it has for anthills.