ant queen¶

The term "ant queen" is actually a bit of silly anthropomorphism, considering that the queen of an ant colony is not actually the leader in any respect. All she does is lay eggs -- which is a vital function -- but she serves at the whim of the colony, and is quite replaceable. https://t.co/VEaiIms2jo Once new colonies get past a critical point of population sustainability, the priority becomes making the queen redundant with several spare "princesses" that can be "promoted" later. Many species of ants have colonies with multiple "queens" to maintain their massive populations. Queens were only named that by humans with cultural biases that couldn't comprehend the level of eusociality exhibited by these insects. No single individual is "in charge," and the entire population acts almost like a single superorganism, with queens as the reproductive organs.