A pile of raised ants
A pile of raised ants

Introduction

After the wedding ceremony, some queen ants will "team up" to build up a nest together, which will greatly increase the survival rate and the success rate of colony building.

However, every queen's inner calculation is how to maintain his superiority and get the most benefits.

In this case, the queen ants are partners but competitors at the same time, and the result of losing the race is death.

Is there a benefit to building a nest together?

The ultimate goal of all organisms is to reproduce; to perpetuate the species, and if conditions permit, it would be nice to distribute their genes as much as possible (of course, today's humans don't necessarily have that goal in mind).

This is true for animals and ants as well. If they want to spread their genes, the first and foremost requirement is to survive, and to achieve this, the queen ants have tried every possible way.

IMG 7436

More ants result in more egg production up to Positive correlation between the number of worker ants and the adaptability of the community

Under these two premises, after the first batch of worker ants has hatched, the demographic advantage of a nest developed by multiple queen ants will be far greater than that of a nest developed by a single queen ant.

Each queen carries a certain amount of nutrients to feed her young. Therefore, the nests developed by multiple queen ants are less vulnerable to food deprivation, and they can concentrate on raising their young in the safety of their nests without having to take great risks in searching for food outside.

More ants, more eggs.
More ants, more eggs.

Struggle between ants

When there are enough eggs, larvae and cocoons in the nest, a healthy queen will try to"Murder."Those who are weaker than her queen ants may be murdered by individuals who are weak, sickly, stunted, or have broken limbs.

By doing this, the fit queen can ensure that she is always in an advantageous position. The reason why this happens at this stage is that all the queen ants have already used up their energy for egg laying and rearing their young, and even if most of the queen ants die, the impact on the whole colony will not be significant because the queen ants will not be able to survive.They still leave many descendants to serve the community.The

But of course, it is possible for everyone to pass through this stage peacefully, or it is also possible that we may fight until we are completely destroyed.

Part of the Transportation Family
Part of the Transportation Family

Workers' Choice

After the first batch of worker ants have fledged, the young ones begin their post-selection stage, or the so-called "post-selection stage"."Execution"The

The worker ants have a way of "smelling" the information carried by the queen through their antennae. By doing so, the worker ants will compare the queen from a group of founding queen one by one, and those who are not selected will be executed until the only queen with the best physique, the healthiest, and the strongest is left behind.


In extreme cases, the over-excited worker ants will kill all the queen ants.

But it's basically evolutionary suicide.


It's often done from the neck and waist.
It's often done from the neck and waist.

Counter...counterattack...?

Worker ants are much smaller than queen ants.Therefore, the process of dealing with the queen may take several days and the worker ants will keep attacking with weapons such as jaws and ant acid.

Interestingly, from the attacking queen ant, her fighting strength is obviously several levels higher than that of the young worker ants. She can easily break the defense of the worker ants by biting down with her jaws, and her body's geodesic shell can easily withstand the attacks of the young worker ants.

However, even with such a disparity in force, the executed queen ants usually only dodge these attacks instead of fighting back, and some of them even accept their fate by letting themselves be manipulated.This is probably because if the first batch of worker ants is killed, it is almost impossible for the whole colony to survive.The

diversa07
Difference in body size between queen ants and worker ants (Diversified family ants)

So is it a good idea to team up?

From Queen Anne's point of view, even though she may be executed eventually, she hasA better chance to survive and reproduce.The risk of being defeated in one's own nest is necessarily lower than the risk of extinction due to other groups of insects.

In areas with high ant density and limited resources, the colony produces more worker ants faster, which helps toMonopolize and control the resources of ant colonies in the surrounding area at an early stage.The ants can compete effectively with other ant colonies and win.

From an evolutionary point of view, the act of queen selection also helps eliminate undesirable queen ants. Even if the weak queen ants are lucky enough to survive, they will not be able to withstand the worker ants, so that the whole race can continue to have genes with good physique and superior genetic factors as far as possible.Queen Choice's behavior is a beneficial mechanism for queen ants, worker ants, and the entire species.The


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參考資料

  • Selfish strategies and honest signalling: reproductive conflicts in ant queen associations ( Luke Holman , 2009 )
  • Cooperation among unrelated individuals: The ant foundress case ( Giorgina Bernasconi , 2000 )
  • The killing of nestmate queens in ant colonies ( RJ Deslippe , 2002 )

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