Ants are social creatures. They live in large cooperative groups called colonies.

Each
and every ant colony is divided into three casts: queen, males and workers. Every
cast performs its own particular task. Queens and males are the most important
members of a colony as they are reproductive casts. Without reproduction a colony can
easily dwindle and then disappear. In other words, a queen ant can be defined as an
adult reproducing female of a particular colony.

Queen ant has thicker body as compared to other ants that makes it easily
distinguishable. In some species, queen ant can live more than a decade as they are
the longest living cast out of all the three. If a queen ant produces a larger brood then
it leaves her with less fighting power for her defense against worker ants. They have
larger abdomen as compared to other ants and they have wing muscles as well. The
queen ant has very little control over the colony as it has no known authority or
decision making power. They can lay thousands of eggs in one single day, once mated,
a queen can stay fertilized for many years and can lay millions of egg. Fertilized eggs
produce female worker ants and unfertilized eggs produce males. If these fertilized
eggs and pupa are well nurtured then they could become queens as well. Queen ants can
fly during at least part of their adult life as they are born with wings.