How Do Ants Mate and Reproduce Offspring? A Detailed Explanation of the Methods
Ants and wasps are close relatives, having first appeared as early as the Cretaceous period, so it can be said they are a species from the same era as the dinosaurs. Through evolution up to the present, ants have spread across the entire globe, and their variety is extremely diverse; in China alone, more than 600 species of ants have been identified. So how do ants mate and reproduce offspring?
1. How Ants Mate and Reproduce Offspring
Ants reproduce offspring through the mating of male and female ants, and the reproductive process is generally divided into three parts: mating, egg-laying, and nuptial flight. Through the nuptial flight, the two sexes meet and form bonds, and after meeting they copulate during or after the flight. Male ants generally die shortly after copulation, while female ants shed their wings, choose suitable soil and a site underground to build a nest, and propagate a new ant colony.
Ants are highly social, and their colony types are generally divided into queens, reproductive ants, worker ants, and soldier ants, with each type of ant having very clear divisions of labor. For example, the main duties of worker ants are building and expanding the nest, collecting food, and feeding larvae and the queen; soldier ants serve as weapons in battle when defending the colony and also act as tools for storing food within the colony.
2. The Special Habits of Ants
Ants have very long lifespans, and a queen can live as long as fifteen years. Their strong social nature can give rise to some very interesting habits, such as herding and slave-making. Herding refers to ants “herding” aphids to obtain honeydew. Aphids suck plant sap and excrete a sticky, transparent sweet liquid, and the ants collect this honeydew for storage. Ordinarily, the ants guard these aphids from harm by ladybugs or other predators, and from time to time stimulate the aphids' abdomens with their antennae to make them continuously secrete “honeydew”; when the aphids become too crowded, they carry them to other branches, just like herders raising dairy cows.
Some ants also practice slave-making. The blood-red wood ant (Formica sanguinea) will sneak into the nest of the peace-loving black garden ant (Lasius niger) in summer, kill the latter's queen, and carry the ant pupae back to its own nest. As the pupae hatch in the new nest, they dutifully collect food and defend the entire colony, as if this were their own home.
The above is some related knowledge about ants. Friends who are curious about ants can also read some related material for further understanding.