All About Ants (almost)

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is manifested in the claim that at any time there are at least 1
quadrillion living ants on earth(Groliers �93).

All species of ants are social. They live in organized communities or colonies,
which may contain anywhere from a few hundred to more than 20 million
individuals. These are organized into a complex system which may contain two or
more castes and sub castes which can be roughly organized into three groups.
Queens, males and workers.

The queen is much larger than the other ants, and has wings until mating. Her
primary task is to lay eggs for the colony. Some colonies have one queen;
others have up to 5000. Queens develop from fertilized ordinary eggs, nobody
is exactly certain what causes these to develop into queens but it is generally
thought that the process comes from an altered diet in the pupae and larvae
stages and as a pheremone response, which will later be discussed. Queens have
an extended life span of up to 25 years and can lay millions of eggs in ...

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source of great excitement. Well rested and cared for young alates begin to
make for the escapes and exits from deep within the colony. Large soldiers
guard the door as the young winged members are escorted to the open by hordes of
workers. Suddenly, yet unbeknownst to man nature gives a signal. Soldiers
retreat, and workers make space and assemble on the ground as the males and
queens are hustled to the sky. Hastening into the air they often meet with
winged's from other colonies with the same objective. For the first and only
time in their lives they will mate, often in mid-air or settling on leaves and
branches. Now the queen is equipped with a lifetime supply of sperm. ...

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