Spurgeon Moss, age 12, of Ackerman, Miss for his question:

How do ants multiply?

The busy, wingless ants we see scurrying around are worker ants. And every one of these little insects is a princess, for her mother is a queen ant. As a rule there is only one queen ant in the nest and she lays all the eggs for the whole colony. Most of them will hatch into workers. A few of them will become drones and there also will be a few young queen ants. In some ant nests, great armies of eggs will hatch into fierce soldier ants,

There are at least 15.,000 different types of ants in the world and they outnumber all the insects put together. All ants are rated as social insects because they live in well run family colonies or societies. The colony or nest begins with a young, newly married queen. In some cases, the queen is very large and she brings with her a few workers.

The young queen is born and raised in the nest of a queen who is maybe ten to 17 years old. She is a winged insect and when she is fully grown she leaves the nest and takes to the air. With her go a number of winged drone ants. On the very same day, other young queens and drones leave nearby nests and take to the air. This is the marriage flight of the young queens.

Each queen then drops to the ground and either bites off or rubs off her gauzy wings. The winged drones may try to return to the old nest but the workers refuse to let them in, They are helpless creatures and soon perish for want of food and shelter. The young queen, however, finds a safe hiding place and rests for about a month. Then she begins to lay her eggs.

At first, the queen has no help in the new nest. The first eggs hatch into larvae. The queen feeds these pale little grubs with her own saliva, which is all she has to give them. Soon the larvae spin themselves silken cocoons and become pupae. Inside, the grubs are changing into grown ants. The first batch of ants are small and poorly fed workers. But these busy little princesses are all ready and eager to help their weary queen mother, They start at once to enlarge the nest and prepare proper nurseries for eggs and more eggs.

The 1ater batches of eggs are tended and well fed by the worker ants. These workers are females. They cannot lay eggs or produce baby ants. Only the queen ant din do this, Some ants produce sturdy, strong jawed soldiers to guard the nest. These females are like the worker ants. Later in the season, a number of winged drones will be born into the nest and early in the summer, the queen will lay a few eggs that are destined t0 become young queens.