Queenless Ants?

As we all know, ants in a group is called a colony. A colony mainly consists of broods(eggs), workers, and a queen ant. But what if, there's no queen in the colony?

First, let us discuss what the queen looks like and what she does in a colony. For most specie, the queen is basically about 3 or 4 times larger compared to regular workers. They lay eggs for their entire life and are responsible for keeping the colony large and powerful.

But what if, there's no queen? What if the queen dies? Once the queen in a colony dies, there will be no egg lays, no workers produced, dead colony.

However, there is a certain specie that doesn't have queens in their colony because everyone has the ability to lay eggs. This is more like democracy.

Photo by: Jarell Musngi

These ants are called Diacamma Rugosum. They're a queenless colony. Well how do they reproduce? First, there is a leader in the colony that is considered to be the queen. She is called a "GAMERGATE". This gamergate is a worker that lays egg. A gamergate though is not immortal. There will come a time that they'll also die. What happens once they die then? Someone in the colony releases a scent that attracts males to mate with them. Once they are mated, they assume the position to being the gamergate. Thus making this colony immortal! These are awesome ants to keep as pets as they are not picky on food and they don't grow to a large colony.

Thinking of getting one as a pet? Check out some sites that sell ant colonies, ant farms and guides on how to keep ants. Some sites that I'd recommend would be www.antscanada.com or www.tarheelants.com . They ship worldwide so wherever you are in the globe, you can be an ant keeper!

That's it for now. I hope you learned something. And if you have anymore questions, let me know!