Starting Out. The Queen, Oecophylla smaragdina, Weaver Ant, on Beach Lettuce, Scaevola taccada, Kerandangan Beach, Senggigi, Lombok, Indonesia
You've seen or heard of those huge Weaver Ant nests that can in a colony have over half a million denizens... Well, it's all got to start somewhere.
Here's the Once and Future Queen. She's bitten off the wings used for her Nuptial Flight, and has laid her first batch of eggs on the underside of a Beach Lettuce leaf. She'll take care of those eggs as they hatch into larvae which she'll feed into adulthood like a proper Mother of her People. Soon a Leaf House will be pasted together, and the young colony will be on its way.
Isn't She fascinating!
Starting Out. The Queen, Oecophylla smaragdina, Weaver Ant, on Beach Lettuce, Scaevola taccada, Kerandangan Beach, Senggigi, Lombok, Indonesia
You've seen or heard of those huge Weaver Ant nests that can in a colony have over half a million denizens... Well, it's all got to start somewhere.
Here's the Once and Future Queen. She's bitten off the wings used for her Nuptial Flight, and has laid her first batch of eggs on the underside of a Beach Lettuce leaf. She'll take care of those eggs as they hatch into larvae which she'll feed into adulthood like a proper Mother of her People. Soon a Leaf House will be pasted together, and the young colony will be on its way.
Isn't She fascinating!