An ant hill is a home for ants where a colony of ants work, feed and live together.
Though the ant home may look like a pile of earth, sand, pine needles or clay on the outside, most ant hills are made of well-sculpted chambers partitioned into food storage rooms, nurseries and resting places for worker ants. There are different kinds of species of ants all over the world with different sizes of colonies.
My name is Zoro and I come from the Black Garden Ant species and from a small-size colony of just about eight thousand workers.
We are a Monogyny colony. This simply means that we have only one egg-laying queen.
Other members of our colony are the Big-head workers also known as Soldiers and the Minor workers. Workers are all females. The Big-head workers are larger and stronger and so do the harder jobs of colony defence and using their large mandible to cut and carry large foods or objects.
We also have a couple of Princesses. Princess ants are un-fertilized virgin queen ants. During summer, they take to the skies with the winged drones for what is known as nuptial flight.
And finally we have drones, winged drones. I am a drone. Drones are the only male ants in the colony. We are born with un-fertilized eggs, which we transfer to the Princesses on our nuptial flight.
As a winged drone, you don’t do anything—no work. Just hang around until the nuptial flight; then you fly out with a Princess, mate her and die soon afterwards.
What a life, right?
As a drone, I know I’ve got only months to live. And that lifespan is already cut short as the mating season is in the atmosphere.
This is primarily why I’m telling my life… and yeah, love story.
They think drones are not typical ants? That we are different from other ants because we are born for the sole purpose of reproduction? Well they are wrong!
I am a winged drone black garden ant and this is the story of my pursuit of life and love as I experienced my last days in the colony and as recounted to me by the one I love.
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10 Comments
No one has got an easy life
Even black ant, abi?
Better don’t mate so you die….I believe in survival. Die, shoo!!!
I remember alifediary. Started reading your blog during that story of a widower that fell in love with his child’s teacher. Can’t remember the title.
You’ve really come a long way.
Chop knuckle!!
*taps knuckle*. Indeed we have come a long, long way and we are still on the move. Greater stuffs ahead
hmm, ants in love, no be small something
Weldone ma’am
Am so gonna enjoy dis.. .
Cartoon in writing
Brava!
I remember this clear. certain information about ants from it never left my brain. it was educative and interesting. thumps up TM.
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