Members of an ant colony typically fall into categories known as castes, each with a different role. The majority of colony members are female worker ants that are unable to mate. Worker ants do not have wings and perform most of the work of the colony, including searching for food, nursing young, and defending the colony against ants from other colonies. Queens are larger than worker ants and are the only females of the colony capable of mating. Queens are born with wings, which they break off after mating. They mate with winged male ants, later using the sperm from the mating to produce fertilized eggs, which hatch to produce more worker ants and a new generation of queens.
- caste [kɑ:st] n.有社会组织的昆虫的阶级
- mate [meit] v.交配
- perform [pəˈfɔ:m] v.执行
- nurse [nə:s] v.护理
- capable of [ˈkeipəbl - əf] adj. 有能力的
- sperm [spə:m] n.精子
- fertilized egg [ˈfə:tilaizd - eg] n.受精卵
- hatch [hætʃ] v.孵化
