I've only just started reading Empire of Ants by Susanne Foitzik and Olaf Fritsche and I'm already awash with fascination.
Things I've learned:
- An ant queen can live up to 30 years!
- Worker ants of some species can live up to eight years (in laboratory conditions)
- The queen mates once (or several times) on her "nuptial flight" and collects all the sperm she will require to fertilise eggs for the rest of her life
- A queen may produce up to 150 million offspring in her lifetime!
- Ants do not see daylight until the latter stage of their life; they progress through roles starting in the nursery and ending with foraging / hunting
- It's estimated that only one out of every 10,000 young queens is successful in founding a new nest