Black carpenter ant (winged)

Description:

A mature ant colony seasonally produces winged virgin queens and males. Unfertilized eggs will develop into males. Fertilized eggs usually develop into wingless, sterile workers, but may develop into virgin queens if the larvae receive special attention. Within a few days after they have emerged (eclosed) from the pupa case, males are "quickly converted into single-purpose sexual missiles." Young queens and males stay in their parent colony until conditions are right for the nuptial flight. The flight requires clear weather since rain is disruptive for flying insects. Different colonies of the same species often use environmental cues to synchronize the release of males and queens so that they can mate with individuals from other nests, thus avoiding inbreeding. The actual "take off" from the parent colony is also often synchronized so that predators cannot eat the ants one by one. Typically the virgin queens and males first scatter to ensure outcrossing. The queens then release pheromones to attract males. However, the queens often try to escape the males, allowing only the fastest and the fittest males to mate. Mating takes place during flight. One queen will usually mate with several males. The sperm is stored in a special organ, known as a spermatheca, in the queen's abdomen and will last throughout her lifetime. This can be as long as 20 years, during which time the sperm can be used to fertilize tens of millions of eggs. The males are built for the only purpose of inseminating the queen, and can't even feed themselves for the few days of their lives. During "the quick and violent mating, the male literally explodes his internal genitalia into the genital chamber of the queen and quickly dies." The young mated queens land and, in the case of ants, remove their wings. They then attempt to found a new colony. The details of this vary from species to species, but typically involve the excavation of the colony's first chamber and the subsequent laying of eggs. From this point the queen continuously lays eggs which hatch into larvae, exclusively destined to develop into worker ants. The queen usually nurses the first brood alone. After the first workers appear, the queen becomes strictly an egg-laying machine. The young queens have an extremely high failure rate. During its lifetime a very large ant colony can send out millions of virgin queens. Assuming that the total number of ant colonies in the area remains constant, on average only one of these queens will succeed. The rest are destroyed by predators (most notably other ants), environmental hazards or failures in raising the first brood at various stages of the process. This strict selection ensures that the queen has to be both extremely fit and extremely lucky to pass on her genes to the next generation.

Habitat:

Cumberland trail, Ashland City, Tennessee.