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" A colony of Leafcutting Ants is comprised of several castes. Most of these are female. Males, who hatch from unfertilized eggs are drones, and die shortly after mating with the queen. Drones are considered lazy and inferior members of the colony, since all they do is eat and lie around until they are mature enough to mate. Only queens and drones can mate. Most colonies have only one queen, but sometimes there is two or three, especially in large colonies. Other castes include minors ('nursers'), medians ('workers'), and majors ('soldiers'). These are all essentially workers, besides the fact that they have specialized jobs and different sizes. Queens and drones are the only ants in the colony that can fly. Ants with wings look much like stingless wasps. The queen loses her wings after she mates .
The queen's job is to lay eggs and found new colonies. When a newly forming queen wants to found a new colony, she takes a chunk of fungal hyphae from a garden and tucks it into a special pocket in her head. Then, she flies away in search of a drone. When she finds one, she mates with it. After she mates, she looks for a suitable spot for a colony and digs her nest. Soon, she starts laying her eggs. A queen may lay thousands of eggs every day! The first hatched ants immediately begin their work. The workers, which form the largest caste in the colony, strip leaves off trees and take them back to the nest. Trees immediately in the vicinity of a Leafcutting Ant nest are usually stripped bare of leaves. Once the workers deposit their leaves, the tiny nurser workers chew them up and lay them down. They also tend for the larvae and eggs in the colony. The gargantuan soldiers defend the colony and provide escort to the workers from enemy ants and predators. "
ant - fungi-queen.....
[此贴子已经被作者于2005-3-25 2:15:40编辑过] | 
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发表于 2005-3-24 15:08:00
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