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Ants are insects whose social life is highly organized, comparable only to that of honey
bees or termites. Ants are considered social insects because they live in organized colonies and
form complex societies. They are generally composed of three castes: the queen, the drones and
the workers. Each caste has its own specific morphology and carries out specific tasks within
the community. Colony life has many advantages, one of the most important 17 increased
protection for the entire group.
Generally, each ant colony has only one queen. She spends her life laying eggs. There are
also female worker ants that do not reproduce, instead carrying out a number of other tasks:
foraging for food, caring for the queen and her brood, building galleries, maintaining the nest, and defending the anthill. The only purpose that drones serve is to fertilize queens, and drones
are only found inside the colony for short periods of time. Shortly after 18 , drones die.
Ants generally mate in the air. The queen’s abdomen contains a small spherical receptacle
called a spermatheca, which receives spermatozoa during conception. The spermatheca
produces nutrients that keep the semen alive for several years, allowing the queen to lay
thousands of eggs without mating with another 19 .
Once she is in her new home, the queen lays her first eggs. She cares for the first brood
herself, feeding them from her own reserves. The first adult workers are very small. This first
generation of workers, and all future generations, are in charge of all the work in the anthill.
Ants communicate with one another by brushing their antennae together, through sound
and especially through odorous chemical substances called pheromones. These chemical
particles, released by both workers and the queen, regulate sexual and social behaviour within
a species. In some species, if an old queen is sick, she releases 20 that cause workers to feed certain larvae in order to produce a new queen who will take over when the old queen dies.
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