Atta (genus) - Reproductives

Reproductives

Once a year, a colony, consisting of one queen and many thousands of workers, produces reproductive individuals called alates which have a different morphology, including wings for flight. After these individuals leave the nest of the parent colony, mating occurs high in the air with each female mating with between three and eight males (Wirth, et al., 2003). Colonies in close proximity conduct nuptial flights at close to the same time, increasing outbreeding. Males die after the mating flight. The queens then store the sperm acquired from the males in spermathecae, which they will use to found a new colony. Mortality for queens during mating is estimated to be as high as 52% (Wirth, et al., 2003). Queens begin a new colony starting by excavation of a nest chamber 20–30 cm below the surface; the cavity is about 6 cm long. After excavating the cavity, the queen begins a new fungus garden by spitting out a mycelial wad harvested from the fungus of her parent colony. By the third day, the mycelia has started to grow new fungus and the queen has begun to lay eggs, usually between three and six. The queen and the first larvae do not feed from the garden; rather, they eat 90% of the eggs laid by queen. During this initial stage of nest development, the queen is the sole cultivator of the new fungus garden. If she does not maintain the garden well, the colony will not survive (Wirth, et al., 2003). ·