1. External appearance
Pay attention to the size of the ants. In many species of ants, the queen is much larger than the worker. However, in some ants, such as fire ants or Myrmica, worker ants are not much different from the queen. This makes it difficult to identify.
2. Having wings
In many ant colonies, the queen is born with wings. The queen needs wings to fly and search for a male to create a new colony. Some ants also have wings, but they are less noticeable – they are male. As a rule, males are smaller.
3. Shedding wings
At certain times in her life, the ant queen sheds her wings. When looking at the central part of the insect’s body, you can see small lumps on the sides. They indicate that this ant had wings which it later shed.
4. Chest
This part of the body is located between the ant’s neck and stomach. As a rule, the chest of queens is larger than that of workers.
The queen’s chest makes up more than half of her body. This is much more than that of worker ants.
