ant colonies
Underground insect civilizations
Ant colonies are the organized social communities formed by ants, functioning as a single superorganism.
A colony typically includes a queen (the reproductive female), workers (sterile females), and sometimes soldiers and males.
The term extends to the physical nest structure itself: The ant colony stretched deep underground.
Colonies range from a few dozen individuals to millions.
- ant hillInsect colony's earthen dwelling
- division of laborSplitting tasks among workers
- queenMost powerful chess piece
- worker antsColony's laboring caste
- nestAnimal-built shelter for young
foraging · pheromones · chemical signals · brood · communication · workers · biomimicry · altruism · superorganism · ants · tunnels · swarm intelligence · food storage · defense mechanisms · larvae · recruitment · crawling · predation
- antsfire ant, carpenter ant, harvester ant, army ant, leafcutter ant
- Hidden Systemsunderground pipes, sewers, plumbing, wiring, roots
- Soil Lifeearthworm, earthworms, nightcrawler, nematodes, soil bacteria
- colony behaviorswarming, foraging, division of labor, caste system, food storage
- leaf-cutter antsleaf-cutting ants, queen, workers, worker ants, soldiers
- superorganismsbee colonies, Portuguese man-of-war, army ants, leafcutter ants, honeybees
ant colonieslone wolves
Solitary, self-reliant individuals
hermit crabs · solitary bees · solitary animals · loners · hermits
ant coloniesanarchy
Disorder from absent authority
chaos · disorganization · rugged individualism · free agents