The queen ant – facts and trivia

Undeniably, it is the queen ant who is the number one ant in every colony (although, as you will learn later in this article, sometimes the crown can be worn by more than one). And, in our humble opinion, it is worth finding out more about her, which will give you a different perspective on the colony itself and the lives of all the ants living in the nest. Sit back and find out the answers to the most frequently asked questions about the queen ant.

Is there always one queen in an anthill?

This is a question that many people would probably answer in the affirmative. Meanwhile, some ant species can smoothly establish colonies with more than one queen.

Such a phenomenon is referred to as polygyny. When ants form their nest, they live with two or more queens, who are handled by them with the same care – the worker ants feed them, look after their cleanliness and the eggs laid by the queens (later, of course, overseeing every further stage of the ants’ development cycle). In some situations, in the wild, we have facultative polygyny, which occurs when the nest is threatened. In that case, the introduction of another colony with its own fertilised queen gives it a better chance of survival.

Another interesting phenomenon is pleometrosis, in which several queens simultaneously establish a single, shared nest. However, once the nest starts to function properly and stably and the first reared offspring join the colony, there are mutual ‘assaults’ between the queens until, eventually, only one queen is left to continue managing her subordinates.

An example of ants that can tolerate more than one queen in a colony created by home breeding is the species Camponotus nicobarensis.

How is the queen ant created?

Where do queen ants come from? As it turns out, this is a fairly random question, depending to some extent on the welfare of the colony. If, during the development of successive generations of ants, the worker ants provide the larvae with plenty of good-quality food, some of the growing females will develop into adult ants with wings – these are sometimes called ‘princesses’ and will eventually leave their natal nest to establish a new colony.

At this point, then, we can answer another question – do queen ants have wings? Yes, but only during the fertilisation stage. Once it is finished, it lands in the place where it will establish its own nest. Here she also sheds her wings, which do not grow back.

Does the queen ant leave the nest? Unfortunately, once the queen ant has established her own colony, she never leaves her settlement again.

What does the queen ant look like?

The queen ant is usually two to three times larger than her worker ants. In addition to its size, it is also distinguished by its much wider abdomen, in which it stores both sperm and essential nutrients. It can also have much longer legs, which is generally due to its larger body size.

However, as the largest individual in the colony, does the queen actually rule the nest? Here it is impossible to answer directly – because the overall control of the nest life is, in fact, exercised by the worker bees, who communicate with each other on matters of food gathering or nest expansion. It is also the workers who ‘plan’ the care of the queen, whose only activity is, de facto, the laying of fertilised eggs, as is the case, for example, among our domestic Lasius flavus ants.

So, as you can see, the queen ant is not exactly the manager of the nest, but the survival of the nest depends on her. In addition, she can, by means of pheromones, influence the remaining females in the colony so as to inhibit their sexual development and prevent them from developing wings and being able to lay eggs in the future.

How do queen ants reproduce?

The mating period of ants (swarming) is the most difficult time of their lives, which can quickly come to an end on this occasion. The young, winged ‘princess’ ants have to go on their own, without any protection or assistance, and leave the mother nest. And what awaits them outside?

Here, they must immediately find their way through new atmospheric conditions such as intense sunlight or heavy rain. On top of this, predators – spiders, birds and other creatures – are lurking at every turn. After facing so much adversity, only a few per cent of future queen ants survive until fertilisation.

The queen ant participates in the mating act only once. Most often she copulates with several males (this is the phenomenon of polyandry), less often with only one (monandry). The queen gathers sperm in the spermatheca, a small area of her body, from where she ‘collects’ future sperm for egg fertilisation.

How long does the queen ant live?

For relatively small insects, queen ants can live an astonishingly long time. The average lifespan of a queen ant ranges from a few to several, even twenty years.

However, the real record-holder is the queen ant species Lasius niger. Under good conditions, it can live as long as twenty-five or almost thirty years (in domestic breeding).

What happens when the queen ant dies?

The death of a queen ant is immediately noted by the entire colony. This situation is, of course, troublesome, as it risks the gradual extinction of the nest. Do ants have any ways to, despite the death of the ant queen, preserve their large family?

There may be several solutions, but their application depends on the conditions in which the ants live – the insects will behave differently in the wild and in a domestic formicarium.

If no new queen emerges, the colony will start to die out. Yes, the younger generation, born from the last eggs, will maintain the nest for a while, but as the older ants die out, it will have no chance of survival.

Occasionally, one of the worker ants, in the event of the death of the queen, may take over her functions, concentrating solely on laying eggs. However, as they will not be fertilised by sperm, asexual reproduction (parthenogenesis) will occur. As a result, only females will be born, and they will not be able to develop into future queens (they will only be workers).

The most effective solution may be the introduction of a new queen – for example, by the fusion of a stranded colony with one in which the queen is alive and functioning normally. The condition for success is that the process is carried out within ants of the same species!

Queen ants – how to find one?

From a breeder’s point of view, this may be the most important question. How and where do you get queen ants? Is it possible to catch one yourself?

If you are brave and patient enough, there is nothing stopping you from trying to obtain a queen on your own. You only have the opportunity to do so during the mating season, which lasts from mid-spring to early autumn. During this time, you may observe quite large ants, which may have remnants of wings on their abdomen, which, after being gently caught (they are fast, we warn you), must be placed in a tube of cotton wool.

This method is certainly interesting and provides an adrenaline rush, but it is not necessarily effective. In addition, the stress that a queen mother caught in this way will face may end in her death before she even sets up a nest in your home culture, even if you provide her with the best conditions and ant accessories.

Can the Queen relinquish her role?

At the very end, a question that we hope has surprised you a little. The answer is also a little shocking – well, the queens of some species (the fungus ant – Acromyrmex echinator – is a good example), if they are not fertilised during the swarming period, return to their mother colony and, quite simply, turn into workers.

We hope that these few questions and answers about queen ants will make you fall even more in love with these remarkable insects and will also encourage you to expand your home breeding!