| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Is there a way to tell an unfertilized queen ant (princess) and a male ant (prince or drone) apart

Page history last edited by Ant 13 years, 6 months ago

2010.08.11 Is there a way to tell an unfertilized queen ant (princess) and a male ant (prince or drone) apart?

 

Within each species, the male is usually smaller, and differs consistently in proportions, namely:

 

  • Antennas long, but with a short first segment
  • Head relatively small, but with huge eyes
  • Thorax the thickest body part (big wing muscles)
  • Gaster slender and with paired plier- or mitten-like clapsers (used for holding on during mating) at the tip

 

Rarely, males are workerlike (ergatoid) in appearance, most readily distinguishable from conspecific workers by their visible genital claspers. Examples: certain undescribed Paratrechina, and some species of Cardiocondyla, Hypoponera.

 

Photographs/Photos. of several species of ant males from Myrmecos.net --Dr. Ant

 

 

"Almost every ant you ever encounter is female! In ants, all individuals that perform work for the colony are females. We usually refer to these ants as 'workers', but in some ant colonies that have different roles, specific workers are sometimes referred to as 'soldiers' or 'nurses'. Regardless of the name and task of these ants, they are all female. The sexuals or reproductives in ants are called 'alates'. Females are called queens or gynes, while males are usually just called males. In the case of male alates, their only function is to reproduce. They usually stay in their home colony until they are fully developed and then they fly away to mate. Almost all male and female alates have wings and often they mate in the air on nuptial flights. Males usually only mate once and then they die--having fulfilled their purpose in life. The female queens, on contrary, try to found a new colony after mating with one or several males. They then usually (sometimes left intact) shed their wings and find a suitable place to start a new nest.

 

When you see a winged individual, you can recognize males based on their small head and their long antennae. Males usually have more antennal segments than the females. When you see a wingless individual, queens have already removed their wings are larger in size than the workers, have a wider thorax due to the wing mussels and they show wing scars. Ant colonies or nests are almost entirely made up of females. So the next time you see an ant without wings, you will know it is female..." --Steffi Kautz & the AntAsk Team from AntWeb's Ant Blog (click to see more information and an image) and Ant.

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.