Spring is here and the ants have become
active. The life of an ant starts from an egg. If the egg is
fertilized, the progeny will be female; if not, it will be male.
All females, except the queen are workers who feed the babies,
take out the trash, and forage for food and supplies, and defend
the nest. Males have one job, to mate with the queen.
Males can deliver 5 to 6 million sperm, which the queen can store
and use for the rest of her life. The queen can produce a few
thousand eggs a day and up to a million or more during her
lifetime. She also decides which eggs to fertilize.
Queen ants can live for up to 30 years, and workers live from 1 to
3 years. Males, however may survive for just a few weeks.
Incidentally, there are an estimated 22,000 species of ants.
Also, all male ants have a grandfather, but no father, and their
grandfather had only a grandfather, but no father.
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