The Role of the Queen Ant

Reproduction

• The main role of the queen ant, no matter what her species, is to lay eggs. Ants are not long-lived and so the queen needs to lay a certain amount of eggs per day in order to replace the workers or soldiers that die. With many species, the queen only needs to produce eggs, which worker ants then take directly from her and tend. What they feed the larvae and how they tend it determines whether that egg will grow into a worker, soldier, drone or another queen.

Construction

• After mating, queen ants of some species such as Australia's meat eater ant (Iridomyrmex purpureus) leave the colony and then begin a new colony by digging a hole underground. This initial chamber is then worked into the labyrinthine structures of the ant colony once the first generation of worker ants mature. In species like the meat eater ants, colonies can be connected. With other species like an Old World army ant (Eciton burchelli), she is assisted by some workers that follow her because of the smell she puts off, according to University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.

Smells

• Ants communicate by smell, usually through pheromones. It is unknown if pheromones in ants can be put off intentionally. It is also unknown just how many types of pheromones queen ants of each species emit and just what roles they play in the colonies. Queen ants can release pheromones to keep other ants in the colony from attacking her. But if she runs out of eggs, then her scent changes and she is killed in order to make way for a new fertile queen.

Significance

• Since the main role of a queen ant is to lay eggs, she has to spend most of her time and energies for this purpose. She is brought food by workers, cleaned by workers and in some species, has her mates brought to her. In species without a permanent home, like the New World army ant (Neivamyrmex opacithorax), the queen cannot even see, so she needs to be lead about by workers.

Misconception

• Queen ants do not make any decisions about the colony, according to Stanford University. It seems that no one ant makes any decision, but that decisions are carried out by the entire colony, similar in the way that a brain can only make decisions because of the workings of many cells and neurons.