In most species, ants are born as queens, rather than being chosen. A queen is the only female within her nest that can reproduce. In some species, ordinary worker ants can change into queens when the queen dies. What do…
The majority of ant drones and queens have wings during their initial reproductive phase. They leave their nests to mate, and then the female goes on to ground a new colony. The male will not survive long after mating, and…
Many ants practice necrophoresis, which is where they remove the dead from their nest in order to avoid the spread of disease within the colony. Do ants bury their dead? Within an ant colony, workers have a set of different…
Ants do sleep, though it’s not quite in the same way we do. They take short power naps throughout the day at regular intervals. How long they sleep depends on the species and the type of ant. What is sleep?…
Ants do have brains, though they are very different from a human brain. As well as a brain within their heads, they have a series of ganglia running down their bodies that help control particular limbs. What is a brain?…
Ants do have eyes, however the number and their uses vary both between species and even between different individuals within a colony. Most species have a pair of compound eyes, while some species have additional simple eyes in the centre…
