Social Insects
Social insects live
together, with each individual working to help the whole group survive.
Workers have strong bonds with each other and toil for a common ruler,
the queen.
Ants smelling each
other by touching antennae. © Peter G. Aitken - Researchers,
Inc.
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Wasp
Ways
Most wasps live on their own, but some live in groups. A Yellow
Jacket queen starts a colony by laying eggs that hatch into
workers. The Yellow Jacket visiting your picnic is a female
worker, looking for food to bring back to larvae. Workers also
make the nest bigger by chewing wood into a mushy paste and
using it to build more egg chambers.
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Carpenter Ant worker.
© Joe Warfel
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Lots
of Ants, Few Uncles
An ant colony consists of hundreds or thousands of female
workers and one queen. Males die after mating. Workers care for
the queen, tend her eggs, feed larvae, collect food, dig
tunnels, and defend the nest. At times the workers feed a few
ant larvae extra food; these become new queens that leave the
nest to mate and form new colonies.
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There’s No Place Like Comb
Honeybees live in colonies made up of a queen, some males, and
many female workers. A colony may contain 80,000 workers, who
raise the young, build combs out of beeswax to hold the larvae
and honey, gather nectar and pollen, make the honey, and guard
the nest. Worker bees live about six weeks, while a queen may
last five years. Workers that hatch in the fall, however,
survive the winter. They huddle inside the nest for warmth,
dining on stored honey.
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Honey Bees
on a comb. © Scott Camazine - Researchers, Inc.
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