Ants are small and vulnerable, and it’s a bug-eat-bug world out there; nevertheless, life expectancy is not necessarily low.
Mostly hidden safe in the subterranean nest, a black garden ant worker (sterile female) can expect to live 310-430 days, with up to 1,129 recorded, though every foraging mission increases the chance of falling victim to an enemy, getting lost, or falling foul of inclement weather – even being washed away.
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Winged males leaving the nest on ‘flying ant day’ will be lucky to survive the night and most are dead by the following day.
Their biological job, mating with a queen, is done and there is no evolutionary point in living longer. The queen, however, must support her colony by laying hundreds of eggs a day. She never leaves the safety of the nest.
In the wild, she will probably survive 5-7 years, but in a captive laboratory colony one queen lasted 29 years – the longest recorded life of any insect
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