How does a new ant colony form?

Answer

The method of colonization and expansion depends on the species. Normally (as with bees) there is first a nuptial flight of new queens and males with mating usually taking place in the air. Then the fertilized queen loses her wings (they fall off or she bites them off herself), the males die soon after. The new queen then looks for a suitable nest site where she quickly lays a small number of eggs. Once these first workers hatch, the colony can grow rapidly. Usually this all happens in late summer and there is already a small nest just before winter. In other species, the new queen overwinters first and the outgrowth of the colony follows later. One third of our Belgian species are parasitic (temporary or permanent) in other ant species. The new queen enters an existing nest and takes over there. She usually kills the already present queen. The guest workers then take care of the brood of the new queen and the colony is gradually taken over. In other species, several queens of the same species start a nest together. After a while, the strongest or most dominant queen will kill the others and she will have a nest of workers for herself. These strategies are common in species where there is only one queen per nest. A number of our species have several to many queens per nest, the strategy there is often a combination of the strategies described above.

Best regards,
Wouter Dekoninck

PS: see also www.formicidae.be for more information about our Flemish ants.