• Question: how long do ants live for?

    Asked by cheese2000 to Kate, Mark U, Tess, Yue on 15 May 2012.
    • Photo: Tess Newman

      Tess Newman answered on 15 May 2012:

      This depends on whether you are taking about the queen, or the average worker ant you usually see outside the hive

      The queen, who is usually much larger, can live up to 30 years, and her female workers up to 3 years. The poor male ants however usually live for only a few weeks

      An interesting questions is whether we consider the individual ant, or the whole colony as the organism? Intelligence is shown by the colony, but not really by the individual ants.

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