13) If a colony with only one queen ant were to die, would she be replaced with another? Or does the colony die out. If she gets replaced, then are there always alates available to replace her at any time? Or are they only produced prior for the mating season, nuptial flight, and etc.? Is there any way of the colony knowing that the queen is about to expire, like some kind of special pheromone?
Mike, you’ve taken us on quite an adventure with your questions. It’s been a fun learning experience for me to dig up the answers for the ones I didn’t know about. If you have any more questions, or you’d like clarification about anything, feel free to ask.
As for the ability of ant colonies to replace their queens, this is a topic that comes up often.
For many temperate ant species with a single queen, the answer is that once the queen dies, the colony is a goner. The worker ants will not accept one of their sisters as a new queen, workers can not become a new queen themselves, nor can they raise a new queen like honey bees do. Some worker ants can produce eggs once the queen has died, but those eggs are unfertilized and will become males.
That said, there are a number of ant species that don’t fit the norm. In species like the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, colonies have many queens, and the males and queens mate right inside the nest. Having many queens allows the colonies to become large quickly. In fact, one problem with Argentine ants is that when they are introduced to places they have never been before, they form such large colonies that they can quickly overwhelm or drive out many native ants, even ants much bigger than themselves. Argentine ants proved to be hugely successful at spreading and are now found almost worldwide.
Another strategy is found in the ponerines that don’t have a distinct, physically different queen. In those species, the egg-laying individual is called a gamergate. When one gamergate dies, the next high-ranking worker takes over laying eggs. Hoelldobler and Wilson discuss this in detail in their book, Superorganism.
Most ants colonies have distinct periods or seasons when the reproductives are produced, but that will vary from species to species and even somewhat from year to year, due to differences in environmental triggers, amount of food, age of the queen, etc.
Finally, the queen probably won’t give off a specific signal that she is weak (it wouldn’t be to her benefit), but there might be a decrease in the pheromone(s) she produces to attract the workers and keep them from producing eggs.
By the way, you might be interested to know that researchers recently synthesized the pheromone of the queen black garden ant and were able to show that it does suppress the ovaries and egg-laying ability of worker ants. See: University of Copenhagen (2010, July 14). Elusive ant queen pheromone tracked down. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 24, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2010/06/100630101016.htm
For more information on ant queens, see a previous post answering questions about ant queen development.
If anyone has more information about this they’d like to share, please let us know.
Hi,
In Cataglyphis cursor, once the queen die, the workers are able to produce diploid brood with thelytokous reproduction. Then they raise some larvae into gynes, which will mate at the nest entrance then become the new queen.
A recent study showed that more than 60% of the colonies in one population can be headed by queens produced by workers. (Pearcy, M., Hardy, O. and Aron, S. 2006. Thelytokous parthenogenesis and its consequences on inbreeding in an ant. Heredity 96: 377-382)
hugo
Thank you so much for the information. That’s amazing.
Can A Queen Mate With A Worker Ant If There Was No Male? Trying To Build An Ant Community Coz My Old One Died Off And Termites Are Taking Over. Thanks!
No, not by the usual definition of worker. The queens mate with males only.
Will ants from other colonies help a queen ant?
Usually ants from different colonies will fight and try to kill each other. One way to give a queen some support is to give her pupae from another colny. When they emerge as workers, they will accept her as their mother.
If you had a small colony of just workers, say, 20 or so, just the normal black garden anys. Could you put a mated queen in with them? Would they kill her as she’s not their colony or would they accept her as their queen because they don’t have one?
Black garden ants can have founding associations (more than one queen) when just starting out, but after that they only have one queen. That means you are better off keeping the mated queen by herself and letting her produce her own offspring. The workers aren’t likely to tolerate a different queen.
I have a relatively similar question…
The ponerine Ants you mention, such as Harpognathos Venator, while are considered ponerine, seem to me to have a close evolutionary link to Myrmecia Bull Ants of Australia!
There’s a whole list of similarities
– Myrmecia are large stinging ants with a sort of “constricted” Gaster like Harpognathos
– They’re both monomorphic
– both are semi claustral during founding
– both use gamergates when no queen is present and workers are able to mate
– both are solitary hunters
– both have dominance hierarchys
– both have exceptional vision
– both use sight rather than pheromones to navigate but both csn still raise alarm pheromones
– both have relatively small colonies, but large ants
– long mandibles
– multiple nodes between abdomen and thorax
– have jumping ants
– i believe that bullants are slighy more primitive, which makes perfect sense, as I believe that Harpognathos is the link between other ponerines and Myrmecia ants…
I believe that Harpognathos type ants evolved out of Myrmecia, followed by india splitting off from Australia, and then crashing into Asia, forming the Himalayas!
After the split, Harpognathos remaned relatively unchanged, while ponerines on Australian land, continued evolving into species like R.Metallica.
I think Harpognathos has more in common with Myrmecia that its own group!
So anyway, my question is.
Can you introduce a worker into a Myrmecia Pyriformis Queen with Brood, in order to kickstart the colony?
I know you can with Harpognathos Venator! But would Myrmecia accept the foreign worker as her own and simply assert her dominance? Or would she just see the worker ant as an intruder?
Please get back to me!! Amd thank you
So, if my old lasius niger queen died I can’t collect a new queen and slowly introduce her to the colony?
Hi I have a lasius niger colony I took from a friend. About 40 pupae, 50 or so workers and a queen. After the transportation I noticed the queen was on the lid of the container and afelter releasing them into their new environment I found that they don’t seem to be accepting her. When they make contact with her they seem to panic and both queen and worker instantly run from each other in a frenzied panic. It’s a bit of a worry. Does anyone have any ideas?
I’ve been away from my desk for awhile. I hope you found the answer to your question.
You could give her the pupae, larvae and eggs (which she might eat).