Male Ants vs. Female Ants: 5 Key Differences

When you think of the word “society,” you probably think about the world of people. Yet any species can have a society, from the largest to the smallest. Ants (or Formicidae), those tiny, hardy, industrious creatures, have one of the most fascinating societies in the animal kingdom. Every ant colony has a queen, and the roles of males and females within ant society — which comprises over 10,000 different species — are intriguing and distinct. Let’s explore five key differences between male vs. female ants.

Male vs. Female Roles in the Ant Colony

The vast majority of ants born are females. All worker ants, including the ants marching in lines, collecting food, or even digging the tunnels in your ant farm, are females, too. Whether the job is to protect the queen, find food, police other ants, or remove waste from the colony, all of these tasks are performed by female workers. These workers are sterile and will never have offspring. Male ants serve a limited purpose in the majority-female ant world, which is to attempt to reproduce, then die. Only one male ant is occasionally needed to fertilize a queen’s eggs.

One female ant sits at the top of every colony: the queen. The queen is usually the female ant larva in a given generation that consumed the most protein while developing into adulthood. This makes her the largest, strongest, and most fertile. Thus, every ant society organizes itself around feeding and protecting its queen, ensuring the success of the next generation.

Once a queen has produced a mature ant colony, mostly consisting of infertile individuals, she will give birth to a generation of ants that have the ability to reproduce. These ants will spread to new areas, creating new colonies of their own.

Males and Females by the Numbers

There are many generations when no male ants, also known as drones, are born at all. Once or twice a year, the queen produces thousands of male ants at a time. These males will compete to fertilize a queen, but only one will succeed. Soon after this happens, the male ants will die.

As a result, the average ant you encounter is far more likely to be female than male. Researchers have found that in most any colonies, there are about three females to every male. Typically, a queen’s genes can “decide” whether her next brood will be all female or all male. The necessity of a male brood is far lower: while the colony constantly needs workers, it requires new male genetic material much more rarely.

Differences in Appearance

Although male ants are more than females, we can still compare their shape and size. Females themselves range greatly in size, with the smallest ants being known as minor workers. In contrast, major workers can be double the size of a minor worker, with proportionally larger heads and, in some cases, powerful mandibles for defense. Soldier ants fall into this category as well.

The queen is the largest ant in the colony due to her large abdomen, which is important for reproduction, and the strong muscles needed to power her wings. Even so, her wings will be shed after mating. A male ant resembles a slightly smaller queen: he also has wings and is larger than both minor and major worker ants. Males have smaller heads, larger eyes, and straighter antennae compared to queens.

Male vs. Female Reproductive Roles

All male ants are capable of reproduction, although typically only one male per generation will successfully fertilize a queen’s eggs. Conversely, female ants’ fertility is determined at the larval stage. Those females that are able to consume an excess of protein will become fertile, and thus candidates to become queens and start their own colonies. However, the vast majority of female ants are born sterile, and even among those that are fertile, many will never reproduce.

Reproduction is a spectacular phenomenon: in warm, damp weather following rain, winged ants (both potential queens and males) leave their colonies and attempt to meet for mating. In places such as Europe, this occurrence even has a name: Flying Ant Day. In many ant species, the males and females meet, and mate, high in the air. When mating is complete, the impregnated queens will fall back to earth, shed their wings, and dig a nest in the sodden earth. The males simply die off.

The expectant queens do not eat for several weeks; instead, they feed their larvae using their own fat reserves and the nutrients from their now-unneeded wing muscles. They lay their eggs, sometimes in the thousands, then use the sperm collected from the males to fertilize them. Mating is a one-time act among ants: the female can store and use sperm from a male that has been dead for years.

The Lifespan of the Male vs. Female Ant

Different species of ants have different lifespans. In general, male ants typically live for only a few days to a couple of weeks after reaching maturity. They exist purely to provide sperm for the reproductive process.

A female’s role in the colony will determine her lifespan. Most workers, which are all female, live for about a year, depending on the species. For example in fire ants, workers live around 5 weeks, while queens can live for about 7 years. Amazingly, some queens can live, and continue to produce eggs, for almost 30 years.