Inside an Ant Nest
Inside an Ant Nest
Ants live in large groups called "colonies." Each colony has a single queen ant, which is cared for by thousands of worker ants. The queen's job is to lay eggs. The queen ant has wings, and leaves the nest to mate with males who have wings. When she has mated, then she finds somewhere new to start a new nest. The males die after mating. Of a thousand fertilized queens, only a few will survive to start a new nest. The others will die from hunger, or being eaten by birds or other insects.
WORKER ANTS
The worker ants do many jobs like collecting food to share with the colony. Other workers care for the eggs by licking them so that mould doesn't grow on the eggs. Still other worker ants act like soldiers and defend the colony from enemies. These soldier ants have sharp jaws to attack the enemies.
Ants begin their lives as eggs and hatch into small grubs, which are fed by worker ants. The grubs then pupate or enters a pupae stage, which takes the form of a small, oval cocoon.
In time they emerge as a small ant that looks like the adult ant. The pale ant below has just been born.
