Ants are social insects. The so-called sociality is to have various characteristics similar to human society. In addition to ants, some bees such as bee wasps have them. The origin of ants is very early, the Cretaceous period, which is hundreds of millions of years old. When the dinosaurs went extinct, the ants did not go extinct, which shows the tenacity of their vitality. Except for Antarctica and some islands, ants are almost everywhere. So far we have found a total of 12,500 species of ants, and it is expected that there may be more than 20,000 species.
Social insects naturally have a division of labor. Without a division of labor, it cannot be called social. Both soldier ants and worker ants are females. Everyone knows this. But what you don't know is that there are still levels inside the Soldier Worker Ants. There are three main types of work, breeding larvae, resident ants and foraging ants. Low-level worker ants do the dirtiest and most tiring work, and the high-level ones just need to feed the baby. Of course, the queen has only one level. However, some ant species also have multiple queens in their nests, such as the black-brown lifting ant. The smallest nest also has four or five thousand ants, most of which are worker ants. There are 400,000 to 500,000 ants in the nests of the largest population, and more than 80% of the workers' ants are light. On average, there are also 50,000 ants in an ant nest.
The suitable temperature for ant reproduction is 25-40 degrees. Humans can't stand such a high temperature. Ants can mate all year round at a suitable temperature, but only breed in April-August if the temperature is insufficient. So usually except in winter, you can see flying ants near the ant nest.
Before the ants mate, a so-called "wedding flight" ceremony is held. In fact, ants, like mammals, are controlled by the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. In particular, follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone. Ordinary ants cannot fly, and only male and female ants with reproductive ability can fly. Some species of female ants mate with only one male ant, and some mate with more than a dozen males. Thousands of male ants fly out of a nest at the same time, but only a few hundred females. Male ants are more likely to be more because female ants can have multiple husband relationships. Even if only one female ant and one male ant will fly out, then there is no need to fight. Males will first fly out of an old ant nest en masse, find a suitable nesting site, and then release pheromones (or pheromones, exohormones) and summon females to snap. That means, hey, come on, I've found a good place, let's spend the night together! Female ants also release pheromones to seduce male ants. Sometimes the entire snapping process is protected by worker ants.
Female ants can store sperm in their bodies and selectively fertilize. These sperm can be stored in the queen's body for years to decades without being damaged. So it is enough for the queen to snap once in her life. Of course, there are also species such as the pseudo-black multi-thorn ant, where there are several ant kings living all year round. They don't do anything, they are responsible for providing sperm to the queen. Who has this kind of work? Give me one.
At first we thought it was the queen who was in control of the entire ant kingdom. But then we found out that this was not the case, but it seemed that the worker ants were using the queen as an egg-laying machine. After all, the queen needs to be fed by worker ants. But now we have found that it is actually the queen and the worker ants that jointly determine some things in the nest. And there seems to be a lot of conspiracy in it. For example, in the matter of choosing a husband for a new queen, the queen can only lay the eggs of male ants in a short period of time, and the worker ants cannot be found immediately, even if the eggs of the male ants are found and killed, they will eventually leave a lot of development. So the queen is not a puppet.
Queens can release prime rpheromones to stop the ovaries of other fertile females from developing and also prevent them from shedding their wings. So the queen still has a lot of power.
Fertilized eggs develop into females (diploids), and unfertilized eggs develop into males (haploids). Diploids are generally worker ants, but may later become new queens. And the haploid can only be the male pet of the queen. Queens sometimes mate with their sons and then give birth to worker ants. The queen was born to the previous generation of queens and her son, so although this male pet has a grandfather and grandmother, there is no father and no son. Since the new generation of queens can also produce queens, and queens also have new male pets, these male pets also have grandchildren and granddaughters. However, the incense of ants is always intermittent, and it can only be continued in the next generation.
This is not incest.
Ants also have a yarn lun? It's just a way of life.
Although the sex of haploid and diploid is different, in fact, sex is not determined by the number of chromosomes, but a genetic control. This gene is turned off in the queen's body, so the haploidy produced by the queen can only be male. The male pet's body is open to this gene, so the fertilized egg can develop into a female. Diploids are fertilized eggs.
Ant nests may be built in many places. Sometimes under the soil, sometimes in rotten wood, sometimes using caves left by other animals, sometimes directly on the trees.
Ants are fully metamorphosed insects that go through eggs, larvae, and pupae to become adults. Queen ants lay dozens of eggs at a time and can lay hundreds of eggs a day. The eggs are initially oval milky white and turn pink after a few days. The eggs of the bidonted spiny ants last about 10-13 days, the larval stage lasts for one month, and the pupae live for 7-10 days. Pupae are dark brown and are so solid that they sometimes need help from worker ants to bite through to drill out. After walking through the cutscenes, you can turn into an ant. Molting is done several times during the process. It doesn't seem easy. It takes 40-60 days in total. The new queen of the Japanese bow-backed ant takes about 37 days from the establishment of the nest to the birth of the first worker ants, which is much faster than usual. There are also studies that suggest it takes 46 days. Anyway, the first workers were very small. However, the lifespan of worker ants is only about 35 days.
The larvae are unable to feed on their own and need to be fed by worker ants, including liquid food, nutrient-rich eggs, food or seeds caught by worker ants. The nutrients and baby-preserving hormones obtained by the larvae determine the direction of development, and although both the female and the worker ants are female, they differ physiologically due to the different nutrient types and the content of the nutrient hormones in the two foods. The larvae molt into pupae and further develop into adults.
Juvenile hormones are a very important stimulant for ants. By treating colonies with sparing hormones, the larvae, eggs and pupae are directly unable to transform into adults or develop deformities. This is because baby-friendly hormones interfere with the normal development process. Juvenile conservation hormones can also induce worker ants to kill each other, and can also relieve the inhibition of post-pheromones on worker ants and female ants, inducing worker ants to transform into queens. Sparing hormones can also inhibit ovarian function in queens.
There is a certain degree of compatibility between different nests. This is mainly related to the distance and affinity between the two nests. The closer the kinship, the more similar the smell secreted by the body, the less likely it is to fight. Sometimes multiple nests merge when the queen dies or in some special cases. Nesting is conducive to restoring the vitality of the group in a short period of time, resisting unfavorable factors in nature, and being in an advantageous position in natural competition.
The same colony will also be grouped.
There are also some species of ants that have parthenogenesis. But extremely rare. Some believe that this will reduce the energy loss of reproductive male ants, but more people think that this will lose genetic diversity. Usually, this should be a no-brainer. I can't find a husband, heck, I gave birth to myself.