Douglas Cosom, age 11,of Darlington, South Carolina, for his question: 

How large are newborn ants?     

A small fly is not necessarily a member of the youth generation. A scurrying and who seems smaller than she should be is not necessarily a junior miss. These insects maybe merely smaller than the usual species in their family groups. They appeared in their fully grown adult forms and their sizes will remain unchanged through the rest of their lives. Insects of this sort develop through four phases and their first three forms do not resemble the adult stage at all.

A busy ant begins her life as a pale egg, about the size of a pinprick. It is not one of the so called ant eggs they sell for fish and turtle food. After a period of pampering by diligent nursemaids, it hatches into the grubby larva, about the size of a pinhead. It now resembles a miniature bowling pin, with a black string under the head at the narrow end. The pampered larva eats and grows to the size of a grain of wheat.     

Then comes time for the sleeping pupa stage. In some species, the pupae are naked. In others they are wrapped in pale silken cocoons. These are the socalled ant eggs sold to feed certain pets. As a rule, they are almost as big as the adult ants who tend them with such dutiful care. Though a pupa appears to be inactive, biological processes are remodeling the grubby body inside the cocoon. This miraculous process of metamorphosis completely changes the helpless, legless larva into a very capable, six legged adult ant. When she hatches, she is as big as she will ever be.

The batches of ant eggs are laid by the queen mother. But they need the family colony of diligent workers to help them through the first three helpless stages of life. Busy nursemaids wash them and continuously carry them to places where warmth and moisture are just right. During the day, they are toted to chambers near the top of the nest. At night they are moved to less chilly chambers below. Sometimes the bulky cocoons are taken outdoors for an airing in the sun.     

The nursemaid duties are well organized from start to finish. The batches of eggs are treated in units of 20 or so. They cling together in their own little  nursery of crumbly soil. The sticky larvae also cling together. Their .. first meals are partly digested by their nursemaids and later they eat solid food. The smaller ones that hatch later are fed larger helpings and the brood reaches the wheat grain size at the same time. The sleeping cocoons are shifted to larger nurseries.

Somehow the nursemaids know when each pupa is ready to hatch. They bite a hole in the casing, pull and tug to help the fully developed ant to emerge. However, the newly arrived sister is pale and very shaky. The nursemaids wash hex, straighten her cramped legs and unkink her antennas. Their they drag her outside by the neck or legs. In a short while, the new arrival is ready to assume her adult duties. She may live ten busy years    but she will never grow any bigger.