The large, rounded rear section of an ant’s body.
She has just mated in mid-air and is dropping to the ground. A queen mates only during this single flight — she will never mate again, yet may lay fertilised eggs for years from it.
Safely down, she tears off her four wings — she will never need them again. The big muscles that powered them are now dead weight, so her body dissolves them into energy and protein for her first brood.
Walled in with no way out, she will neither eat nor forage. Everything her first brood needs comes from her own body — stored fat and her dissolved wing muscles. This is “claustral” founding.
A full-strength colony. The queen may keep laying for many years, with hundreds or thousands of workers depending on the species.
As the queen ages, she lays fewer and fewer eggs. Without a successor, the colony slowly dwindles.
claustraldealationnaniticcallowtrophallaxisalatenuptial flighteclosion