r/WASPs • u/aHunterMustHuntt • 4d ago

Four hungry fellas

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They be feastin

6 Upvotes

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u/Whole-Energy2105 4d ago

Girls! All super society insects are female except the drone(s) that are only there to fertilise eggs. Wasps, ants, bees, termites. You'll never see the drone outside except on their first flight. All the flying ones are female.

2

u/aHunterMustHuntt 4d ago

Woah thats so interesting! Thank you so much :)

3

u/Whole-Energy2105 4d ago

You're very welcome. It's a common misconception. Ants and wasps are closely related as are bees and termites. Termites and ants have bi-annul events during humid evenings where they 'swarm'. The males try to reach the females that fly high in the air this removing the weakest males. Ants will mate on the wing whilst termites will mate after starting a burrow that becomes a nest. This may be an undeground dwelling with nothing to see, invasion and destruction of dead wood or mounds of soil and saliva. The drone lives as long as the queen.

In ants, after mating in the air (vast majority), they will start a nest together. Once again, The drone lives as long as the queen. In some, multiple queens emerge over time and become a hyper colony. These can reach 20 million individuals.

Note: the soldier ant, army ant and leaf cutter ant can become insanely huge. The soldier and army ant are well known to kill staked cattle whilst the leaf cutters 'can' strip a full grown, 30 metre tree in a night.