ABSTRACT
Study of ant reproduction depends on the availability of biological material. Thus, major advances were made in the fifties from observations on the european red wood ant by Gösswald and Bier and others (see Schmidt, 1974); in the sixties and seventies from experiments on Myrmica rubra by Brian (Brian, 1979, 1989). Because of their abundance, easy rearing in standard units, economic importance and availability of funding, pest-ants are becoming good candidates for investigations concerning reproduction. As a consequence, current research focuses on pest ants, e.g. fire ants, leaf cutting ants, Argentine ants or Pharaoh’s ants. All these studies involve the major topics of colony founding, egg laying and social control.
