Biology/Ecology

They say great leaders build empires alone. Ant queens would disagree. We found that when queens start their colony with a few workers, everything goes smoother: the kids survive, the nest grows, and the queen doesn’t burn out. Founding solo? High risk, low reward. Founding with help? Instant success. Moral of the story: behind every successful queen is someone else doing the heavy lifting.

TL;DR

by Dr. Basile Finand, Technical University of Munich

10/21/20261 min read

brown ant on white surface
brown ant on white surface

They say great leaders build empires alone. Ant queens would disagree. We found that when queens start their colony with a few workers, everything goes smoother: the kids survive, the nest grows, and the queen doesn’t burn out. Founding solo? High risk, low reward. Founding with help? Instant success. Moral of the story: behind every successful queen is someone else doing the heavy lifting.

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