But, we should not forget that ants are beneficial in their natural habitat because they help clean up the environment. They have elbowed antennae, and the gaster is attached to the thorax by a waist that consists of one or two small separated segments. There are three distinct castes of ants-queen, male and worker. There may also be different forms of each caste. Ants always live in societies known as colonies.
Workers are wingless, but at mating time swarms of males and females are produced, usually winged.
Adult winged males and females emerge from their cocoons and eventually leave the nests. She removes her wings, forms a small cell and starts a new colony by laying several eggs. The young queen tends the eggs and the larvae that hatch from them feeding them by trophallaxis. Some of the food comes from the breakdown of the wing muscles, but if there is a shortage of food, a few of the larvae may be eaten also. The queen does not leave the cell to forage for food, except in some primitive hunting ants.