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The colony was estimated to contain 306 million worker ants and one million queen ants living in 45,000 nests interconnected by underground passages over an area of 2.7 km 2 (670 acres). [14] In 2000, an enormous supercolony of Argentine ants was found in Southern Europe (report published in 2002). [ 15 ]
Drawing from his research on ant colonies, Tschinkel who is known as the creator of the field of underground ant nest architecture research, [1] provides an in-depth look at the architectural and biological complexity of ant nests and the innovative methods used to study them.
Nests are constructed during the night, with major workers weaving towards the exterior and minor workers completing the interior structure. [3] The ant colony may have several nests in one tree, or the nests may be spread over several adjacent trees; colonies can reach up to half a million individuals. [2]
Most ant species will send individual scouts to find food sources and later recruit others from the colony to help; however, army ants dispatch a cooperative, leaderless group of foragers to detect and overwhelm the prey at once. [3] [5] Army ants do not have a permanent nest but instead form many bivouacs as they travel.
An ant supercolony is an exceptionally large ant colony, consisting of a high number of spatially separated but socially connected nests of a single ant species (meaning that the colony is polydomous), spread over a large area without territorial borders.
Major workers forage, defend, maintain, and expand the colony whereas minor workers tend to stay within the nests where they care for the brood and 'milk' scale insects in or close to the nests. Dead weaver ant queen carried by a worker ant. Weaver ants vary in color from reddish to yellowish brown dependent on the species.