Well, today was a good day for ants.  At long last the nuptial flights took place.  Off I went into the garden armed with my container of choice, and captured myself a Lasius Niger (Black Ant) queen.  She is now settling into her new home.

Now, for those of you that don't know what a nuptial flight is, and have no idea what I'm talking about, let me explain.  A nuptial flight is an annual occurance in the world of ants.  Once or twice a year, new queens, and new males leave their nests to mate, and then begin a new colony of their own.

Once a year, when a colony reaches a certain stage in their maturity, the current queen lays special kinds of eggs.  These eggs resemble rice crispies, or grains of rice.  Once hatched, these become the new queens and males.  Over the weeks of may/june, they will remain in the nest eating and storing nutritional deposits within themselves.  Then, in June/July on a hot sunny day with little or no wind, the new queens and males leave the nest.  Making their way to the highest points possible, they take off into the air.  Their sole purpose is to mate.  They don't mate with members of the same nest, but find companions from other nests.  This is why the sky seems to be full of flying ants on these days, because the ants are flying out from every nest, not just one.  It also helps to keep the gene pool varied.  Once the mating has occured, the queens and males go to the ground.  This is where the males life ends.  Their sole purpose was to mate with a queen.  The queens, assuming they survive predation, will shed their wings, and begin looking for somewhere to begin a new colony.  The new queen will dig herself a burrow, and then lay some eggs.  These eggs she will feed using the deposits mentioned earlier.  These will eventually hatch, and the new colony has begun.

Today, I purchased a new ant farm, and a new colony of Messor barbarus.  Can't wait for these to arrive, they look very exciting, especially some of the youtube videos I have seen of them.  Cool.  Ill keep you posted!