If i have enough ants in captivity without a queen will they select one?
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If i have enough ants in captivity without a queen will they select one?
ok so say i dug up a huge ant nest, and the queen is killed in the process (i tried digging one up and searching the whole thing for the queen and she was nowhere to be found.) without the queens perfume wont the other ants become fertile? and that brings up another problem who would fertilize them? or are there emergency male eggs in every nest?
What do you think? Answer below!
One Response to If i have enough ants in captivity without a queen will they select one?
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Like their cousins, the bees, they will raise a new one or the hive dies out. They have 72 hours to save larva from turning into infertile workers. They have to have eggs or larva to make a new queen.
If this fails they have only a single option that is only now becoming appreciated amongst entomologist. Some of the infertile ants can become pseudo queens. They even put out queen pheromones to keep the hive running smoothly for a while. They lay unfertilized eggs and produce males These are sent out at maturation to breed with other queens. Then the hive dies out. Their hopes at immortality lie with last ditch effort males. If he finds a mate the hive lives on in another queen If he isn’t successful the linage of that hive is terminated forever.
Vincent
April 20, 2014 at 5:14 pm