An ant colony starts in general with a queen that has just landed from the nuptial flight in which she has been inseminated by one or more males, or has excavated a chamber. The protected place the queen starts to lay eggs, from which after a certain period, emerge the larvae. The larva is free-living and the adult is an attached or nonmobile form. The
queen searches for a mate, distinctive objects such as especially tall trees, hill tops. The larval phase is when the ants grow, so they have to be constantly fed. In this initial period the queen is responsible for all colony tasks, not only feeding the larvae and herself, but also for the maintenance of the nest and for colony defense. The queen may search for food outside the nest or regurgitate her liquefied musculature related to the wings, as she will never fly again.

After the eclosion of the first workers the queen does not perform most behaviors necessary to nest maintenance and colony development any longer, and restricts herself only to egg laying and auto grooming.The colony passes through a growing phase, not only in population but also in nest size and the area over which the workers forage for food. After the colony growing period in general some years, the colony produces its first generation of sexuals. In general the sexuals produced by colonies of a given region will
fly on the same day and at the same time, enhancing their chance to meet in the nuptial flight and to close the cycle.With the death of the colony queen, in general the colony is able to survive just a few months, as queens are seldom replaced in ants and the workers are not able to reproduce. Either during her search or once a suitable site is found she
bites off her wings as they are no longer needed. The queen then mates with one or a few males while still in the air or on low vegetation or the ground. These sites act as meeting places for queens and males from many nests, ensuring that they can find each other.

The colony grows as more workers mature, these new workers taking over the care of brood as well as bringing in additional food. These first workers called nanitics are often much smaller than subsequent workers as the queen can only provide a limited amount of food compared to that which foraging workers can provide. The queen searches and vary with the species and can range from the tops of trees to open soil. The life cycle of the ant
consists of four stages the egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Fertilized eggs produce female ants include queens, workers, or soldiers. unfertilized eggs produce male ants.

The Eggs

The eggs are oval shaped and tiny they are on the order of 1 mm long, but the queen’s egg is many times larger. The larva a worm-like larvae have no eyes and no legs they eat food regurgitated by adult ants. The larvae molt shed their skin many times as they increase in size.

The Pupa

After reaching a certain size, the larva spins a silk-like cocoon around itself against a solid object, like the wall of the chamber and pupates. During this time the body metamorphoses changes into its adult form.

The Adult

The pupa emerges as an adult. The entire life cycle usually lasts from 6 to 10 weeks. Some queens can live over 15 years, and some workers can live for up to 7 years.