Theories on Ant Colony Systems

Communication

• Ants are not able to assess situations on their own and become helpless without the help of other ants. Ants can create global results based off one on one interactions with other ants and between ants and their environment, according to Bryn Mawr College. Ants use simple language symbols to interact with each other. Ants are social animals, meaning they have cooperation when caring for the young, a division of labor and at least two generations of life stages living together, according to Justin Merry, assistant professor of biology at Ohio State University.

Sacrifice

• The largest worker ants serve as soldiers and are responsible for protecting other ants. Ants often sacrifice themselves for the survival of the ant colony. This seems to run in contrast with evolutionary theory, since dead ants can't reproduce. However, W.D. Hamilton points out that organisms will not only protect itself and its offspring, but will also protect relatives who hold some of the same genes. The worker ants are sterile, making them incapable of reproducing. But their only chance at maximizing the transmission of their genes is by protecting the queen.

Queen Murder

• Young queens often live together in the same colony. Eventually, the ants kill off all but one of the queens. The survivor queen is either the most prolific egg layer or has a good body size and a healthy physical condition, according to Merry.

Brood Raids

• Some ants engage in brood raids, which is where young colonies of ants invade another colony and steal larva with the goal of increasing the number of worker ants. Francis L. W. Ratneiks and H. Kern Reeve theorize that the larva do not know that they are not genetically related to this new colony.

Larva Care

• Leading evolutionary biologist David C. Queller theorized that worker ants allow for the ant offspring to be produced at a very high efficiency rate, with the worker ants tending to the larva to ensure that they survive.

Sterilization

• Robert R. Alexander, professor of environmental studies, theorized that queen ants suppress the fertility of some of the worker ants so that these ants can aid in the larva raising. Alexander also theorized that some worker ants naturally lacked the ability to reproduce due to disease or defect, but these ants still found it advantageous to protect the hive, even if they could not reproduce themselves.