Page 116 - The Miracle in the Ant

large portion of an ant colony is made up of female ants. Male ants have
a rather shorter life span. Their only task is to mate when they mature
with a young queen. Male ants die a short while after they mate. All
worker ants are female. In short, all ant communities are, in fact, a world
of mothers and daughters.
Ants are a harmonious society regardless of their number. In ant
colonies, it is possible to see every stage in the life of a society. The pur-
pose in life for ants, who are bound to their colonies with great sacrifice
is not individual. They are, all together, like a single body and their pur-
pose is to keep that body alive. They do not think twice before electing
death, if it is for the survival of the colony. The best example of this is
what happens to the male ants after the nuptial flight.

Dying for Survival of the Race
The mating of ants looks almost like a ceremony. Most ants mate in
the air. The males come earlier and wait for the young queen. When a
female lands on the ground (the female also has wings before mating),
5-6 male ants start racing around the queen. When the female has ob-
tained enough sperms, it sends out a certain vibration. The male under-
stands this signal as meaning that the female is ready to detach. A short
while after mating, the male ant dies. 78
This type of sacrifice is in fact very hard to explain. The male ant tak-
ing the nuptial flight which will end in its death for the survival of its
race is a type of behaviour that cannot be explained by the theory of
evolution because, according to the fundamental logic of evolution, each
living being only worries about the continuation of its own life. Yet,

Kar›nca Mucizesi
116 THE MIRACLE IN THE ANT