myrmepropagandistWho is 4.5 years old, has 600 daughters and 500 eggs ready to go for spring?
This queen carpenter ant. I’ve known this bug longer than some people— and I like her better.
Michael Gemar@futurebird Lovely girl!
Do queens ever run out of sperm?
Yes! That happened to my Pogonomyrmex queen a year back and she started laying eggs that grew up to be sons. It was kind of sad since it meant the colony was over.
She must not have mated enough? Or maybe she got sick.
She was only two years old. Normally it takes much longer for that to happen.
Leonardo FontenelleI had never thought of it! In my head, queens stored eggs for a new days, to kickstart the colony, but obviously they need to store the sperm as long as they produce new eggs! 🤯
Ant queens can already sort of do what people in Iain M. Banks culture do with their mental menus.