This is the behaviour seen on “ flying ant day”. When the conditions are warm and humid, the winged virgin queens and males leave their nests in search of mates. The vast majority of eggs develop as workers, but once the colony is ready the queen produces the next generation of reproductives which will go on to start own colonies. Workers will most likely never have their own offspring. Their tasks range from caring for the queen and the young, foraging, policing conflicts in the colony, and waste disposal.
Worker ants are all female, and this sisterhood is responsible for the harmonious operation of the colony. The queen is the founder of the colony, and her role is to lay eggs. Most ants you see are femaleĪnts have a caste system, where responsibilities are divided. And the flying ants that occasionally appear on a warm summer’s evening are actually the reproductive siblings of these non-winged workers. The small, black, wingless workers run around the pavements, crawl up your plants tending aphids or collect tasty morsels from your kitchen. One of somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 species, they are the scourge of gardeners – but also fascinating. Have you have seen ants this year? In Britain, they were probably black garden ants, known as Lasius niger – Europe’s most common ant.
