In the clonal raider ant (Ooceraea biroi), workers in a colony alternate between caring for larvae and laying eggs in a coordinated cycle. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology ...

Iberian harvester ant queens have a unique superpower: They can lay eggs that hatch into an entirely different species. This discovery, described in a new paper published September 3 in the journal ...

The queens in colonies of social insects, such as ants, bees, and wasps, are considered the veritable embodiment of specialization in the animal kingdom. The common perception is that the queen's only ...

For many ant species, caste determines destiny. Queens grow large, sprout wings, and lay eggs; workers stay small, wingless, and industrious. But how these castes develop—and how a young ant's future ...

There are 20 quadrillion ants on Earth —that’s 2.5 million ants for every human. Known ant species (members of the family Formicidae) number over 12,000, and some experts estimate upwards of 20,000 ...

Researchers have discovered a brood pheromone released by larvae of clonal raider ants that temporarily suppresses egg-laying in adult ants. Previous studies have shown that the presence of larvae is ...