eli5 How does Queen Ants get so big? Do they just live longer? Is it that royalty bloodline? She just eat a lot more?
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We’re not sure.
This is not the same as bees, where the worker bees feed a prospective queen with a “Royal Jelly” that triggers the genetic maturation into a reproducing female, or queen. For ants, the process is much less well-understood.
But what definitely happens is that ant demographics and resources determine what the larvae develop into. If they are low on resources and have a queen already, all the new ants will be female workers. As the colony stockpiles more resources and has a healthy number of workers, some of the larvae will develop into reproducing females. What we do not know is how they are selected or how the process is triggered. It might be a special diet or a nutritional threshold, or perhaps a critical mass of pheromones.
What is important is that the queen is not genetically different from a worker. She is an ordinary larva until something triggers her development into a princess/new queen. This is the same for all female ants, by the way – all female ants start as the same larvae and what they grow up into is determined by external factors (diet/pheromones). Male ants (used only for reproduction) are an important exception – they are born from unfertilized eggs.
Once a queen has mated, found a nice place for a new colony and started laying, she’s tremendously vulnerable until the first workers hatch and begin working. In the meantime she is basically ~~starving~~ not eating, living off the fat from her wing muscles (Thanks u/4991123). ~~Some ant species~~ Most queens tear off their own wings and atrophy their flight muscles to reduce their caloric needs as well. Hatched workers gather food for the new colony and feed the queen.
She eats a lot, because she needs the nutrients to lay eggs. An ant queen eats significantly more protein than workers (and in fact some researchers theorize that protein intake can trigger the development of a larva to reproductive female). This is what causes her to grow so large… but she also grows so large because of her genetic triggers. Depending on the ant species, a queen may not look significantly different from most ants, but there’s a pretty universal way to tell: queen ants usually have enlarged thoraxes, the middle “chest” part of the ant. Some species also have enlarged abdomens, the back “butt” part of the ant. Basically, queen be swole. And often also thicc.
Not every ant species follows this exact pattern. Many colonies have more than one queen. Some ant species do not even need to mate, producing workers that are all genetic clones through parthenogenesis. Colonies with multiple queens can split and even migrate. But the principle is the same – the queen lays eggs, the colony feeds her, protects her, and cleans her with the highest priority, so she gets big.
EDIT: u/Gochaocha has posted an article with more recent information that indicates a queen develops from a combination of genetic expression (that is, how/how much a particular gene is used by an organism), and protein diet.
EDIT: Ok way too many people are asking me how male ants hatch from unfertilized eggs, so I’m sticking my reply into my original post:
>Okay first of all, ants do not have an XY and XX chromosome system. Instead, they have a haploid and diploid chromosome system for the sexes.
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>Diploids, with chromosomes from both parents (i.e. queen lays an egg fertilized with sperm from the male), are born female. The vast majority of ants – every single worker and majors (“soldiers”) are sterile females. The queen(s) are the only reproductive females, though some species have workers capable of laying unfertilized male eggs if the queen dies (the males fly off and the colony is still doomed).
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>Haploids, with only half the chromosomes, all of which are from one parent, the queen (i.e. they are not fertilized eggs) are born male. The male only needs half the chromosomes because his sole function is to fly away and deliver his genetic material to princesses (new queens) from other colonies. After mating he dies.
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