Winged Queen Green Ant

Oecophylla smaragdina Fabricius, 1775, of family Formicidae, commonly called Weaver Ant, Green Ant, Green Tree Ant, and Orange Gaster.

Weaver ant colonies are founded by one or more mated females (queens). The queen ant starts the ants' nests/colonies. She flies and searches for mate/s. She can mate with one or a few males (one at a time) in the air, or on low vegetation, or on the ground. Once mated, she looks for a nest site, either on trees or open fields. Once situated, she gets rid of her wings, seals herself into a small chamber and lays a small batch of eggs. A queen lays her first clutch of eggs on a leaf and protects and feeds the larvae until they develop into mature workers. The workers then construct leaf nests and help rear new brood laid by the queen. The queen is located in one nest and her eggs are distributed to all the other nests where workers and soldier ants are found. She spends her life laying eggs. The workers are females and do the work in the nest. The larger ones are the soldiers who defend their colony. Fertilized eggs develop into females (workers and the queen) and unfertilized eggs into males. As the number of workers increases, more nests are constructed and colony productivity and growth increase significantly.