Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. For most ant species, being born as a worker ant means you’ll ...

The matchmaking service is a tactic to avoid inbreeding. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Worker ants are known to take on many ...

At first glance, any burrows look just like tiny dirt mounds on the ground. But just beneath these inconspicuous little mounds are complex mazes comprised of narrow passageways that the ants use to ...

When the queen dies, Jerdon's jumping ants duel to select their next leader. Kalyanvarma via Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 4.0] Most ants will spend their lives working to support the colony and their ...

Social animals exhibit well-organized task allocation among group members. In ants, a large group of eusocial Hymenoptera, the division of labor among workers is maintained by behavioral flexibility, ...

Queen and worker ants develop from the same sets of genes, but perform completely different ecological roles. How the same genes result in two types of individuals is an ongoing mystery. In the past, ...

The unusual life cycles of ants are deeply rooted in their social nature. Ants and other social insects like termites, some bees, and certain wasps live in colonies, in which most individuals never ...

Pauline Lenancker has received funding from the Skyrail Rainforest Foundation and the Ecological Society of Australia through the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment and Student Research Award. Lori ...

Biologist E.O. Wilson once wrote that "ants are the most warlike of all animals," noting that clashes between ant colonies dwarfed the human battles at Waterloo and Gettysburg. But sometimes ant ...