Chapter 3 The Colony Life Cycle Summary

Ant colonies are described in general terms as nearly exclusively female social structures dominated by caste (a set of individuals of a particular morphological type or age group that performs specialized labor in a colony - refer to Chapter 8) and communication systems shared by 50 to over one million individual organisms. The stages of colony growth are briefly enumerated and discussed. The Founding Stage begins when the virgin queen leaves the colony where she was raised, and includes mating, location of a suitable nest, construction of a first nest, and the rearing of a first brood of worker-caste offspring. The Ergonomic Stage begins when the first worker-caste ants begin to forage, enlarge and maintain the nest, and perform brood care. The focus of this stage is colony growth, and it persists for one season to several...