myrmepropagandist on Nostr: Why do worker ants die in two years while a queen ant can live for three decades? I ...

Why do worker ants die in two years while a queen ant can live for three decades? I know how ants may have ended up this way. Worker ants wear their bodies out. If they are still alive when the nest is in need of fewer ants they may harm rather than help their chance of gene transmission. Whereas a queen is a long term investment with her nest.

That is the remarkable thing though: the worker and queen may have identical genes. How then is their lifespan so different?