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Forming an ant nest
Science World, Sept 13, 2002
1 Arrival of the Queen
After mating with a male ant, the queen ant sheds her wings and digs a cavity in soil or wood to lay eggs. She will never mate again; her body can store enough sperm (male sex cells to fertilize her eggs for a lifetime.
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2 Making the Nest
The queen single-handedly gathers food, and maintains and defends her nest from predators like beetles, and centipedes.
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3 Laying Eggs
The Queen lays hundreds of eggs and tends them over a period of weeks or months. Fertilized eggs produce female ants: unfertilized eggs produce male ants.
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4 Caring for Larvae
The wormlike larvae (stage of development between egg and adult) hatch. They eat constantly, so the queen feeds them insects, or her own vomit if necessary.
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5 Metamorphosis
Each larva spins a silk cocoon around itself and becomes a pupa; after a few weeks, t metamorphoses (changes) into an adult.
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6 Birth of Workers
All but a few pupae hatch into wingless sterile (unable to reproduce) females known as ants. The largest workers are soldiers. They care for the queen, whose sole task now is egg-laying.
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7 Males and Females Emerge
At least once a year, swarms of virgin queens and males emerge from the nest in search mates.
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8 Queen Dies
The queen of a successful colony can live more than 20 years. After her death, the colony often dies off since sterile workers can't reproduce.
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COPYRIGHT 2002 Scholastic, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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