Workers can reach 5-6 years of age. A queen can attain an age of 15. And a single nest can last for 10-30 years or more. The queen is a fertile female. Her role is to establish new nests and produce eggs.
Males serve only one function, to fertilize the queen during swarming.
As many as 8 males may fertilize a queen, providing her with enough stored sperm to last a lifetime. The workers are females with undeveloped ovaries. They can vary in size and function. The sense of smell is highly developed in ants. They have 200 olfactory cones at the tip of their antennae for this purpose.