A Day in the Life of a Black Garden Ant | Lasius niger Story

By Beth Clayton

Who Am I? Meet the Black Garden Ant

Today’s mission, as it always is, is to keep the colony alive. I am one of the 10,000 workers (1) in my colony, and we all work to serve our queen.  Our colony has been doing this for 9 years now. There are rumours that she’s 23 years old, crazy, right?! I am currently one and a half years old, and I will be lucky to make it to my second birthday. Nice to meet you, by the way.  I’m Louise, and I’m a black garden ant (Lasius niger).

Image 1 - Close-up photograph of a Black Garden Ant (Lasius Niger) by AfroBrazillian

Our Role in the Ecosystem

We are what scientists call r-strategists. In case you haven’t heard of this term before, it means we reproduce in high numbers without the expectation that most will surpass childhood. Sadly, we are also what humans call pests. Hedgehogs are saved, wasps and spiders are feared, but us? We are caretakers of the soil, carrying and burying dead insects to help break down organic matter to increase soil fertility (2). We purify the ground beneath your feet, enriching the earth so plants can thrive. We feed on seeds, which in turn disperse them so flowers can bloom where they otherwise wouldn’t. We are essential parts of the ecosystem. 

How Ant Colonies Work

This might surprise you, but almost every single one of us in the colony of black garden ants is sterile and female (3). My sisters and I are kept busy with tasks like cleaning and foraging, defending the nest, raising the larvae, and building or repairing tunnels. The males? They exist for one purpose in our world - to mate with a young queen. After that, most die within a couple of days. Brutal, I know. 

Nuptial Flights & Reproduction

You might have seen the frenzy yourself. What we call nuptial flights, I believe you call ‘flying ant day’. That’s when the males take to the sky to find and mate with virgin queens. Once mated, the queen will bite off her now unnecessary wings for nutrition and will begin her search for a place to start her colony. She will never need to mate again. With the sperm that she can store from that one flight (4), she can fertilise eggs for the rest of her life. 

Image 2 - Lasius Niger ant nest structure on the ground by Marcus33

Our strength as an almost entirely female colony doesn’t come from dominance or hierarchy; it comes from coordination (5). Although we all work to serve our queen, there is no one barking orders at us. One day, I could be babysitting larvae in the nest, the next day I could be out foraging with the group. We adapt as needed, with efficiency always in mind, and it’s only once the colony is mature that males are produced.

Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) and Humans

On the subject of foraging, have you ever heard of ant colony optimisation, or ACO, before? It is an evolutionary search procedure that is based on the way we cooperate in locating the shortest route to food sources. And crazy enough, it has been applied to a number of human optimisation problems globally.  From getting your parcels to you in the most efficient way, resource allocation, and even staff scheduling (6).  It seems humans have a lot to learn from us!   

Food, Foraging, and Pheromone Trails

Gosh, all this talk about foraging has got me thinking about food.  I love rotting fruit and nectar. The sugary food provides me with the energy I need to work in my colony. When we find a scrumptious source of food, we leave a chemical trail called a pheromone behind so our fellow workers can grab some of the sweet stuff too. So next time you see us marching as though we have a very important mission to fulfil, it’s because we do! 

Health, Hygiene, and Survival

You may think that because we love rotting fruit and moving dead insects, we aren’t hygienic. Well, just the other day, when Annie was sick, she went off to isolate herself to prevent the illness from spreading to the rest of the colony. No point in us all getting sick. Although, sadly for Bertha, she left the colony completely and died alone when she got ill.  Sounds harsh when I say it out loud, but it protects the colony, and that is, after all, our number one mission. 

I guess that is how we’ve been on earth for so long - over 100 million years ago now (5). That’s right, we were amongst the dinosaurs! We’ve been through ice ages, climate change, and an increase in concrete jungles. You might not notice us until we become inconvenient, but we are small, mighty, super resilient, and we do what we can to survive and to keep the colony alive. 

Goodbye, for now

Right, got to go. Connie has just found a rotten peach that’s fallen from our favourite tree, and I’m getting pretty hungry. It’s been really nice to speak with you. Next time you see us marching with purpose, please remember we’re not just ants (aka Lasius niger); we are out there doing what we can to survive, just like you. See you out in the wild! 

References

[1] Psalti, M.N., Gohlke, D. & Libbrecht, R. Experimental increase of worker diversity benefits brood production in ants. BMC Ecol Evo 21, 163 (2021). 

• Article - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-021-01890-x 

• License - https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/about/the-fundamentals-of-open-access-and-open-research 

  
  

[2] Dong H, Huang X, Gao Q, Li S, Yang S, Chen F. Research Progress on the Species and Diversity of Ants and Their Three Tropisms. Insects. 2023 Nov 18;14(11):892. doi: 10.3390/insects14110892. PMID: 37999091; PMCID: PMC10672356. 

• Article -  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10672356/ 

• License - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

  
  

[3] Caste Terminology by AntWiki. Available at: 

• Article - https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Caste_Terminology,

• License -  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ 

  
  

[4] Gotoh, A., Takeshima, M. & Mizutani, Ki. Near-anoxia induces immobilization and sustains viability of sperm stored in ant queens. Sci Rep 13, 3029 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29705-7

• Article -  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-29705-7,

• License - https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/about/the-fundamentals-of-open-access-and-open-research 

[5] Universality in ant behaviour (2015) Christensen, K., Papavassiliou, D., Figueiredo, A. Franks, N., and Sendova-Franks, A.B. Royal Society of Publishing.

• Article -  https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2014.0985 

• Licence - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

[6] Xiong, Haiou, Research on Cold Chain Logistics Distribution Route Based on Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm, Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, 2021, 6623563, 10 pages, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6623563

• Article - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/2021/6623563 

• License - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

Images

[1] Close-up photograph of a Black Garden Ant (Lasius niger) by AfroBrazillian - Wikimedia Commons, 26th July 2017

Image + License Link - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lasius_niger_03.JPG 

[2] Lasius niger ant nest structure on the ground by Marcus33 - Wikimedia Commons, 29th October 2008

Image + License Link - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lasius_niger.jpg