Where am I? I thought as I could feel my being enveloped in mulky and wet substance.
It was discomforting and disturbing to say the least. Yet slowly I could feel myself becoming free from the restraint of the mulkiness.
GENERAL VIEW:
Long long ago, a tiny figure was running about on the ground.
This is a honey ant queen ant, Let's call her royal queen arta 1.
She barely half an inch long and had just mated and is ready to lay her first eggs. She must dig a nest in damp earth before it's baked hard by the sun.
But she can't do it alone.
She's found by another mated queen,just as desperate to start a colony.
And after a few simple anty exchange, both started helping to dig. While both were digging, other queen's joined decreasing the amount of effort.
By cooperating they give themselves a headstart,since for ant's survival is a Numbers game.
After a long and tirefull work, the nest for birthing was completed, and this queens will never see daylight again.
For now an uneasy royal alliance is assembled between the Queen's, as it is essential to kickstart the COLONY but ultimately it's every monarch for herself.
Each queen lays her egg's quickly and gently as possible, as the first generation were essential for the upcoming storm.
Within weeks the colonies first generation emerges,they'll female but will never reproduce. Their sole function is to serve the queens, Living and dying for their queens. their destiny, their fate.
Gathering food was the next faze.
Below ground, as the colony expends battle for power begins.
Ant queens communicate and send commands via chemical pheromones.
Each queen sends out pheromones to issue their command's. The one with the strongest messages rally the workers to to her campaign and her faction.
With her cause as their sole purpose. the rivals queens are neglected and finally attacked in a vicious purge.
They are stretched and dismembered in brutal assassinations, even by their own daughters.
THE RIVAL QUEENS ARE DEAD.
Long live the QUEEN.
hailed and exalted she becomes.
But the royal corpses don't go to waste, they are feed to the next generation.
Having seized the crown, the now supreme Queen is ready to build her empire. above ground her loyal servants her on a mission to collect nectar to feed the colony and the about to be born generation.
They run the gauntlet of many danger and dangerous grounds. Hidden predators, from the sandy planes of the antlions, the vast mountains ranges of hungry giants and violent weather's of sandstorm and burning sun.
Amongst the first generation of workers, half would disappear at this stage.
The foragers that make it home,force feed necter's to special workers whom swell into bulging living honey and in turn feed her growing army.
But she's not done yet, It's sheer numbers that give her her power.
The colony needs to conquer more territories in other to survive and that means war.
The queen is safe in her bunker, as she send out her scouts to scout and her army to be prepared for war.
After some time of scouting, her scouts encounter strangers (other honey ants) and call for backup. Her raiding party makes a fast coordinated attack.
They swarm their way down into the enemies nest and overwhelm the smaller colony. And in Victory, nothing is left behind.
Larvae and pupae are stolen, and are either eaten or become slaves. As for the honeypots? They are dragged back to be drained at leisure and so her empire expands towards her ultimate goal. To found new colonies.
And though a queen only mates once, she can store the sperm for life And living up to twenty years.
(She's a real keeper)
She controls whether her offspring are fertile and the sex they would be.
Of all the animals, only ant Queen's have such an extreme set of control, authority and power over her kins.
And finally, now that she has rules over a supercolony. She can choose to raise a special brood of sexual offsprings, that will secure her legacy.
But we are not truly here for an ant queen creating her empire are we? Now back to what's important.
At a certain corner one, a strange ant was shaking badly. this is fifteen generation drone ant. (Meaning the fiftheen batch of drones/male)
His wing are still on his back meaning he's not yet mated.
Suddenly the male ant stopped moving all together.
What's happening?—He thought