Most mayflies, for example, live just one day as adults. The life cycle of the 17-year locust is one of the longest, but most of that time is spent hanging out underground in an immature stage, feeding on the root sap of trees and other plants. During their lives, insects can endure hard times. They do all their eating as larvae, and they don't even have developed mouthparts as adults. But they do communicate in other ways.
Insects also communicate through the release of pheromones.
Odors and aromas given off by a queen ant tell workers to take care of her, groom her and position her abdomen so she can deposit her eggs safely and efficiently. While some aspects of insects' lives get a little mixed up in the movies, the writers must have been doing some reading in the ant literature, Richman says. In A Bug's Life, the princess ant is named Atta, which is a genus of New World fungus-growing ants. In Antz, the princess is Bala, a South American name for the bullet ant. Richman also was happy to see some less popular insects in A Bug's Life.