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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s been a while since we visited the ants. They\u2019ve had supporting roles in a number of BOTWs and starred in others, beginning with Ants (101)<\/a> in 2008, then Western Thatch Ants<\/a> and then an episode about the mound building The Ants of CESA<\/a>. As charter BugFans may recall, the BugLady has had her moments with ants, and she is sure that somewhere in the mind of the Collective, they remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ants (family Formicidae) are social insects that live in colonies made up mostly of sterile, female workers (sometimes many thousands of them) that do different jobs that support the community. A worker may rotate through a number of tasks in her life; she starts “inside,\u201d doing digging\/maintenance or caring for the nursery or garden or queen, but when she’s reaching the end of her life span (which could be as long as one to three years), she is more likely to be \u201cassigned\u201d a more dangerous “outside” job like soldier or forager. Why? Because, actuarially speaking, she\u2019s considered more expendable as younger ants join the workforce. No sentiment in an ant hill!<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also a queen (or queens\u2014see the thatch ant episode above), and, once a year, drones (fertile males) and virgin queens. Royal ants are not produced until the colony reaches a certain level of maturity\/stability\/population density, and then they are produced (usually) annually. In many (but not all) species, the queen is the only one who can lay eggs. In some species, she may live for 20 or more years, but generally, unless there are multiple queens, the colony dies when the queen dies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why do some ants get to fly but others don\u2019t?<\/strong> Do ant-flies have a special job in their family?<\/strong> Are their classmates jealous of their wings?<\/strong> Do they get to have the wings their whole life or do they have to give them back?<\/strong> Do all ants have ant-flies as part of their family?<\/strong> So, what signals ants to, as one author puts it, \u201cerupt from the ground?\u201d Phenology, for one thing\u2014species fly at distinct points in the summer\/fall and at different times of day; each species\u2019 schedule separates them from other species and helps to prevent males from wasting energy chasing an unsuitable bride. Weather, for another\u2014many species wait for a warm, calm, humid day, preferably after rain. They fly better in damp air, and wet soil is easier to excavate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Females fly away from their natal hill, and they fly fast, and they don\u2019t release their \u201ccome hither\u201d pheromones until they\u2019ve put some distance between themselves and home (and the princelings that they share a gene pool with).<\/p>\n\n\n\n It didn\u2019t take much poking around on the internet to discover that \u201cFlying Ant Day\u201d is an internationally noted phenomenon (Googling \u201cant nuptial flight\u201d will result in a fascinating list of \u201crelated searches\u201d at the bottom of the page, too). Find out about the UK\u2019s National Flying Ant Day<\/a> here, (cookie alert) including information and a podcast about The Royal Society of Biology\u2019s citizen science Flying Ant Survey and a bit about drunken \u201cseagulls\u201d (apologies to birders everywhere) that apparently find ants delicious and are \u201cstupefied\u201d by the ants\u2019 formic acid content (imagine living in a country that takes a national interest in such things).<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the young queen lands, she has probably mated with several males (ensuring some genetic diversity for her offspring) and she will store and use the sperm for the rest of her life, fertilizing hundreds of thousands\/millions of eggs. She digs an initial tunnel, makes a chamber, lays her first eggs, and cares for them herself. Because she tends this first brood alone and her foraging may be limited, the workers she rears are smaller and weaker than future workers will be. When they emerge, they take over all the chores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mortality rate for young queens is huge, due to predators that are attracted to the nuptial flight, weather, failure of the first brood, marauding rival ants, etc. Several sources said that maybe a single one of the potential queens a colony produces in its lifetime might survive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Side note\u2014No matter how cleverly you word your Google search about ants, a myriad of exterminator sites pop up, giving you interesting details and fun facts about ants right before making their big, chemical pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, there are some really committed groups of ant fans out there, and lots of instructions for starting your own ant farm. Some people track Flying Ant Day in order to take home a young queen and start an ant farm. Remember, depending on species, ant hills in the wild have populations from the hundreds to many-thousands. And nuptial flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA little about life in an ant colony:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWithout further ado, here are Jolene\u2019s questions:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\nMost of the ants in an anthill do not have wings and will never have wings and will never leave home except to look for food nearby. But, once a year, the nursery ants feed some of the young ants some special, extra food that lets them grow wings. They get to fly far from home and start new anthills so there are more ants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAll the other ants in the anthill have jobs, but the ants with wings (usually) don\u2019t work\u2014the worker ants take care of them and feed them. The ant flies\u2019 special job is to be a royal ant \u201cprince\u201d or \u201cprincess.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAnts know what to do without thinking\u2014they have amazing instincts\u2014and they can even learn from other ants (and, as BugFan Linda points out, \u201cEvery animal knows more than you do,\u201d a Koyukon Indian proverb from northern Alaska). Ants do their jobs and don\u2019t make a fuss about it and (probably) don\u2019t get jealous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nRoyal ants just have wings from the time they come out of their cocoon in the ant hill until the time they fly into the air on \u201cFlying Ant Day\u201d (more about that in a sec). They mate in the air and then the females start looking for a good spot to start digging their own anthill. It\u2019s pretty tough to tunnel into the dirt with a big set of wings dragging behind, and the wings would get shredded, and she doesn\u2019t need them anymore, so before she starts digging, the young queen will break or chew her wings off and never have wings again. The males die and don\u2019t help with the new anthill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/ants-royal-pair16-7rz.jpg\")
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\nThe BugLady isn\u2019t sure. There are some kinds of ants where the workers can lay eggs. Sometimes they live in colonies that have queens, but sometimes their colonies don\u2019t even have queens. Maybe if there\u2019s a queen, there are princes and princesses, but if there\u2019s no queen, there aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFlying Ant Day:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/ants-royal-pair16-4rz.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAnd a little more about life in an ant colony:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n