There are considerable advantage to such specialization. By narrowing the focus in this manner, it is possible to cut deeply into the biology of the organisms, amass huge amounts of details, and thereby make unexpected discoveries. The purpose of this exhibition is to illustrate the evolutionary biology approach, using details from the fascinating lives of ants drawn from the research of Wilson and his students and postdoctoral associates at Harvard University. Ants vary enormously in the size of their colonies and the details of their social organization, but some fundamental properties are shared by almost every ant society. Let's illustrate these properties by using colonies of Camponotus socius a beautiful sand-nesting species that occurs in Florida and the southern parts of gulfcoast states.
Eggs are small, elongate, and usually kept in clusters.
The whitish, grub-like larvae are fed by the workers. Pupae are resting stages during which time the larvae transform into adults, the ants we commonly see. All ants colonies are female societies. Males are present for only a brief time each year. All of the ants you see in those colonies are female.