Life Cycle

• There are 11 ant species in NZ
• Ants are different from other insects.
• They have antennae and glands
• Ants have an exoskeleton i.e. body armour.
• Ants don’t have lungs
• Ants have compound eyes which detect movement but poor vision
• The 2 antennae or feelers detect airflow vibrations and transmit and receive signals through touch.
• 2 strong jaws called mandibles which they use to carry food, move objects, construct nests and for defence
• Ants can carry loads many times heavier than themselves
• There are four stages:  egg, larva, pupa and adult.
• Only the queen ants lay eggs. 
• Fertilised eggs produce female ants.
• Unfertilised eggs produce males.
• The larvae (stage 2) is most does not move and is cared for by the workers who regurgitate liquid food which is shared
• The larvae has a series of 5 moults (shedding the body armour) before entering the pupa stage
• Winged male ants called drones hatch alongside winged females
• The worker spends the first few days of its adult life serving the queen and the young ants in the colony
• Ants form nests or colonies.
• Some colonies have about 100 ants while others have hundreds of thousands. 
• Colonies consist of males, queen ants and workers. 
• They all have different jobs to keep the colony growing.
• The males and queens have wings, and fly in swarms. 
• After mating, the queens drop to the ground and chew off their wings. 
• Then they dig a hole where they lay their eggs and start a new colony.
• The workers are females, without wings.
• Worker ants feed the larvae 
• Food consists of dead bugs and other solid food. 
• But adult ants feed only on nectar or the juice of fruit. 
• They also squeeze liquid from their prey (including live and dead bugs).
• Ant colonies can survive for up to 30 years as can the queen
• Worker ants can live up to 3 years
• Males are short lived maybe 3 weeks only