Ant Slavers

For non-slave-making species of ants, new queen survival rate is virtually 0%. Over the course of a colony's ~20 year lifespan, it may produce millions of viable reproductive queens. However, only one or two will go on to find a mate, survive until her first brood of workers take over nest duties, and then successfully establish a colony.

Queens of species that take over host nests circumvent the difficulty of forming an entire colony on their own by usurping the queen of another colony. Also, species that steal larvae from neighboring colonies, get more workers in a shorter amount of time than their queen could produce. Some slavemaking colonies can consist of up to 90% slaves (Deslippe, R. 2010).

Leptothorax minutissimus, a miniscule gold-colored ant measuring in at three millimeters, has taken it a step further. They have lost all vestiges of self-reliability, and exist only as parasites of their host colonies (usually very small spaces, on the inside of acorns or hollow grass). L. minutissimus queens will climb on top of their host queen and ride around, being fed by host workers and laying eggs of their own. If there is more than one L. minutissimus parasitic queen in a hive, the dominant (usually the largest) L. minutissimus is the one who gets to ride the host queen.