This story appears in the June 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine. It’s good to be the queen—the ant queen, that is—because mating does wonders for her immune system. When exposure ...

Most of the eggs develop into workers, but when the colony is ready, the queen begins to produce virgin queens and males. When the winged males (drones) and virgin queens (princesses) emerge from the ...

Distinguished by her large size and long lifespan—up to 15 years—the queen is a fascinating figure in the ant world. After a single mating flight, where she stores sperm for life, the queen ...