The life cycle of ants from egg, to larvae, pupae and adults

Ants' life cycle beginn with an egg that determines the ant's sex: fertilized eggs become female diploid ants, while unfertilized ones become male haploid ants. The development of ants involves complete metamorphosis, progressing through larval stages and a pupal stage before emerging as adults.

During the larval stage, ants are relatively immobile in most species and receive care and food from worker ants. Trophallaxis, a process where ants regurgitate liquid food, is the primary means of feeding larvae. This process is also how adult ants share food stored in their "social stomach." Solid foods, such as trophic eggs, prey pieces, and seeds, may also be provided to larvae, especially in later stages and in ants with more ancestral traits like Amblyopone ants.

Larvae experience several moults before entering the pupal stage, during which appendages remain free and unfused to the body, unlike butterfly pupae. The differentiation into queens and workers, including various worker castes, is influenced by nutrition. Genetic factors and environmental conditions sometimes also contribute to caste determination.

Winged male ants, or drones, emerge from pupae alongside usually winged breeding females. Some species, like army ants, have wingless 'apterous' queens. Larvae and pupae require consistently warm temperatures for proper development, prompting their movement among brood chambers within the colony.

Upon adulthood, a newly emerged ant or 'ergate' initially cares for the queen and young before transitioning to tasks like digging, nest work, defense, and foraging. These shifts, known as temporal castes, are often sudden. Age-based task-specialization or polyethism is thought to have evolved due to high casualties in foraging and defense, lowering the costs for the colony of loosing older ants when they undertake these more risky tasks.

Ant queens live up to 30 years and males have a short-lived existence of only a few weeks. Ant queens, remarkably, can live 100 times longer than solitary insects of similar size.

While ants in tropical regions remain active year-round, those in cooler climates survive winter through dormancy, known as hibernation. In temperate species, various forms of inactivity occur, including larvae entering diapause and adults experiencing reduced activity during winter.