If the ants stand out for something, it is because they are tirelessly hard-working, forming a team to take care of their large colony. However, according to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Queen ants are sometimes forced to take care of themselves rather than their colonies. In fact, they may sacrifice an entire colony to retain the throne and survive.
Ant colonies function as a superorganism. That is, with the queen ant producing small workers that satisfy its needs and those of its companions. However, within this organism, individual survival sometimes outweighs the good of the group, as the research shows. Sometimes an ant colony has more than one queen. Multiple queens can produce more worker ant hatchlings, which translates to more labor and consequently a greater chance of survival.
However, queen ants don’t always get along with each other. Shortly after the worker ants hatch, the little ones begin sacrificing leftover queens until only one is left in the colony. In fact, sometimes all queens die. Additionally, worker ants are smaller and cause minimal damage on their own, so they must fight together.
Worker ants usually stop when there is only one queen left, but sometimes they are so fast-paced that they kill all of them. This is actually collective suicide, as worker ants are usually sterile and need a queen ant to pass on their genes.
However, according to scientists, queen ants have discovered a way to stay on top: by producing fewer workers when there are other queens. Still, worker ants are able to sniff out the more fertile queens (which have stronger scents) making them less likely to be executed.
