The queens in colonies of social insects, such as ants, bees, and wasps, are considered the veritable embodiment of specialization in the animal kingdom. The common perception is that the queen's only ...

A sneaky, stealthy parasite queen can turn an ant colony against itself. Newly-mated queens of two parasitic ant species have been found to sneak into an ant colony, creep towards the resident ant ...

Scientists document a new form of host manipulation where an invading, parasitic ant queen "tricks" ant workers into killing their queen mother. The invading ant integrates herself into the nest by ...

Scientists have discovered an ant species which uses a technique so devious to start a colony that it could change our understanding of animal social systems. Beginning a colony can be perilous for a ...

When you think “bee,” you likely picture one species that lives all over the world: the honey bee. And honey bees have queens, a female who lays essentially all of the eggs for the colony. But most ...

A mother's love isn't necessarily universal across the animal kingdom, with some mothers even resorting to eating children who aren't quite up to scratch. Ant queens in colonies of black garden ants ...