Ants are social insects known for their complex colony structures. The question of whether ants have wings is often misunderstood because most ants seen foraging are wingless. The appearance of flying ants is a specific, temporary event in the ant life cycle, meaning the answer depends on the individual ant’s role. Only certain reproductive members, known as alates, develop wings, while the vast majority of ants never do.
The Ant Castes That Develop Wings
Wings are reserved exclusively for the reproductive castes: the males and the virgin queens. These winged individuals are collectively referred to as alates or swarmers, and their purpose is dispersal and reproduction outside the parent nest. The sterile female worker ants, which make up the bulk of the colony, are permanently wingless. The winged males, sometimes called drones, are generally smaller than the females and have large eyes. Males hatch from unfertilized eggs, a reproductive mechanism known as haplodiploidy, meaning they possess only one set of chromosomes. Virgin queens are significantly larger and more robust than the males and workers, possessing a well-developed thorax to house the powerful flight muscles.
The Purpose of the Mating Flight
The development of wings in alates is preparation for the single, synchronized reproductive event known as the nuptial flight or mating flight. This event serves as a mass dispersal mechanism, allowing individuals from different colonies to interbreed and ensuring genetic diversity. Colonies often coordinate their flights, triggered by shared environmental cues like warm temperatures, high humidity, and low wind, frequently occurring after a rain shower. During this aerial event, virgin queens mate with one or more males, often while in flight or immediately upon landing. The synchronized emergence of millions of alates simultaneously helps to overwhelm predators, ensuring enough individuals survive to establish new colonies. This flight is the only time the future queen will ever fly.
Wing Loss and Life After Swarming
Immediately following the mating flight, the male ants typically die shortly after copulating. Their short lives are dedicated to the fertilization of the new queen. The newly mated queen then lands and begins the process of “dealation,” or shedding her wings. She accomplishes this by actively tearing them off at a pre-weakened joint near the base of the thorax, sometimes using her legs or mandibles. The now-wingless queen uses her former flight muscles as an energy source to sustain her during the initial stages of founding a new colony. She then seeks a protected location to lay her first brood of eggs, using the stored sperm to produce offspring for the rest of her life.
Differentiating Flying Ants from Termites
The sudden appearance of flying ants, or alates, often causes alarm as they are frequently mistaken for swarming termites. Differentiating the two insects is straightforward by observing three physical characteristics.
Waist Shape
Flying ants have a distinctly pinched or narrow waist that separates the thorax and abdomen, giving them a segmented appearance. In contrast, flying termites have a thick, uniform waist, making their body appear more tubular.
Antennae
Ants possess antennae that are sharply bent or “elbowed” near the midpoint. Termites, conversely, have straight antennae that appear beaded.
Wing Size
Flying ants have two pairs of wings, but the front pair is noticeably longer than the rear pair. Termites also have two pairs of wings, but all four wings are equal in size and length.