After the pupal stage, during which no food is taken, the adults appear. During development the immature ants are fed, cleaned, and attended by the adult workers. As in all insects with a complete metamorphosis, the ant has attained its full size when it leaves the pupa stage. Left to themselves, males generally die after fertilizing the queens in the nuptial flight. Queens and workers of some species are known to live longer than 15 years.
Most ants build some sort of nest and store food there.
A few species have developed highly specialized agricultural or pastoral habits. The red harvester ant of the central United States and Mexico frequents fields of grass, harvesting and storing the grass seeds. Some species of the widely distributed harvester ants, which gather grain for food, have developed specialized workers, sometimes called soldiers, with enlarged jaws, and these soldiers do virtually nothing but crack the seeds for the other ants to eat. A genus of ants of the southeastern United States and tropical America cultivate inside their nests a species of fungus that is used as food by the colony. The tropical American species are called leaf-cutting ants because the workers cut off pieces of leaves, which are carried back to the nest and used to fertilize the fungus gardens.